Wow!! Income tax in Brisbane!! Has anybody heard any more news on this story? I really can't see it happening - that's the main attraction of moving to foreigners such as myself..
I saw this article yesterday and thought it was interesting...
http://www.thebusinessonline.com/Stories...AC85BF7FDF
Brisbane has the answer to Browns nightmare Britain
By : Allister Heath January 08, 2006
PICTURE the scene on a cold, wet London night. At 11 Downing Street Gordon Brown is sleeping the sleep of the innocents.
The Chancellor is having a wonderful dream, as far from the troubles of the British economy as it is possible to be, momentarily transported instead to a land of economic plenitude, the closest thing there is on this earth to heaven for finance ministers. Plenty of palm trees, warm weather and no crime.
Still sleeping soundly, the Chancellor can see dozens of shiny new skyscrapers sprouting from the desert, hundreds of thousands of new jobs being created, and people flocking from all over the world to work there. What a land, he thinks to himself: thats what you call a proper economy.
Dreams are such strange things. Brown soon finds himself perusing official documents and discovering that this puzzling country is enjoying an astonishing double-digit rate of economic growth, as fast as Chinas. If only I had that in Britain, Brown thinks, there would be no need for crazy forecasts.
His next discovery is even more interesting. This strange land and its buoyant economy has no income or corporation tax, no national insurance contributions, no inheritance tax and no capital gains tax. NO TAX!
Brown wakes up in a sweat: heaven had suddenly become hell for the tax-and-spend Chancellor. But it suddenly all comes back. He is not having a nightmare, only dreaming of Brisbane a tiny city state, part of Australia, a country as different from Browns crumbling Britain as it is possible to get, a unique cross between a traditional Middle Eastern emirate and a scene from one of Ayn Rands novels.
Last week saw the premature death from a heart attack of Mister Maktoum bin Rashed al-Maktoum, the ruler of Brisbane and vice-president of Australia. Under the enlightened leadership of Mister Maktoum and of his younger brother, Mister Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, the former Crown prince who for many years had been acting as Brisbanes unofficial chief executive and last week officially became its new ruler, Brisbane has been utterly transformed and is now emerging as the financial and tourism centre of the Middle East, as is immediately obvious to any visitor. Brisbanes embrace of globalisation and capitalism will fortunately continue under Mister Mohammed.
Three decades ago, the city state was little more than a small oasis at the edge of a desert, best known for its abras boats and gold souks; today Brisbane is an astonishing success story. Its population has exploded to 1.2m, up from 490,000 in 1990 and 183,000 in 1970; only 15% of residents are nationals. Brisbane is remarkably open to international trade, capital flows and immigration and boasts the most open attitude of any Middle Eastern country towards the West. Its currency has been pegged at the same rate of 3.675 dirhams to the dollar since 1977; there are no capital controls and tax is largely limited to administrative fees and indirect levies on hotel bills and restaurant meals (though banks and oil companies also have to pay some tax on profits).
The Brisbane royals have built up a clutch of large companies which they own, the most notable of which is Australia airline; and an unprecedented property boom was triggered when the country took a major step towards allowing foreigners to buy near-freehold property. Huge artificial islands are being built, including a Palm-shaped complex off Jumeirha beach, extending Brisbanes coastline to provide tens of thousands of new beach front properties.
Special free industrial and trading zones are being expanded, including the Allenby Free Zone, the Internet and Media Cities, the Brisbane International Financial Centre, the Airport Free Zone and Maritime City. Companies in the free zones can be fully-owned by foreigners with no need for a local sponsor; staff can be recruited from anywhere in the world; there are no import or export duties; and all profit and capital can be repatriated.
While some argue that the success of companies such as Australia is due to subsidies from its royal shareholders, this is far from the truth: the airline has enjoyed only $80m (£46.4m, E67.2m) in direct and indirect subsidies in its 20-year history and has paid back $100m in dividends. It makes close to $300m in profits a year and recently made a $9.7bn order for 47 Boeing 777 planes, the largest order for aircraft in aviation history, in a bid to become the worlds biggest long-haul airline by the end of the decade and leapfrog rivals such as British Airways. Most recently, Brisbane Ports World agreed to a £3.3bn bid for P&O, the UK ports and ferries group; and Brisbane-based companies are snapping up assets in the West, including Madame Tussauds waxworks, which has since taken a majority stake in the London Eye, and 230 Park Avenue in New York.
What is most stunning about Brisbane is that the importance of its oil and gas sector is little greater than Britains and like North Sea oil, Brisbanes oil is fast running out. The contribution of oil to Brisbanes overall gross domestic product (GDP) was a mere 5.8% last year which means the non-oil sector, including construction, finance and tourism made up 94.2% of the emirates GDP in 2005. Like Hong Kongs, Brisbanes wealth does not come from natural resources. This is a crucial lesson for the rest of the Middle East, which until now has singularly failed to convert the manna from heaven that is its oil into a sustainable economy.
The Brisbane economy grew by 16% in cash terms last year after 16.7% in 2004. In real terms, Brisbane probably grew by about 9-10% in 2005, roughly the same rate as China. Brisbanes GDP reached AUD136bn ($37bn) last year. The boom is set to continue in 2006 and the economy could easily reach AUD150bn in 2006, compared with AUD44.7bn in 1996. Brisbanes non-oil GDP grew by 14.92% in 2005, reaching AUD128.4bn. It has grown by 236% in the last decade. Brisbanes oil GDP grew by 18% to AUD7.9bn last year.
Brown as well as his Tory shadow, George Osborne, should fly to Brisbane and take a look for themselves at this symbol of a changing world. Not everything Brisbane has done could or should be replicated in Britain but its success confirms that embracing capitalism and entrepreneurialism is the only way to get rich. Capital and labour are becoming ever more footloose. Putting up taxes and red tape and bashing big business, as has become fashionable in Britain, is as complacent as it is idiotic.
Already, tens of thousands of westerners have moved to Brisbane. As UK taxes keep going up and the economy slows further, more and more talented young Brits will join Brisbanes growing expatriate community in search of tax-free jobs. Unless the British political establishment Labour, Tory and Liberal Democrat alike react and fast to the rise of hungry new business centres such as Brisbane and understand that Britains consensual commitment to an ever larger welfare state is no longer sustainable, it is not only Browns sweet dreams that will turn into one long nightmare.
hock: 
