How I Came to Embrace the Principles
Embraced by Henry George

Neil Gilchrist

[2001]

My father first introduced me to Henry George but it was after studying Public Finance as part of an M.B.A. that I became convinced that it was the single most necessary economic reform. I put off becoming active in the Georgist movement until after I had completed my studies.

Prior to becoming active in Georgist organisations, I had sought to promote Georgism through other means:

• In the early 1980's I prepared a 20-page paper on Land Value Taxation, which I had printed at my expense and personally delivered it to the Hawke/Keating Tax Summit.
• I transferred to the N.S.W. Department Of Finance with the intention of promoting Land Value Taxation. I left when offered a more lucrative job in the private sector.
• At one stage I joined the Australian Democrats with the intention of getting LVT on to their platform. I left when I felt that they would never be in a position to implement policy.
• I later joined the Labor Party with the same intention and moved motions concerning tax and electoral reform. I left when the Party suppressed allegations of corruption in the Party and selected persons guilty of electoral fraud as candidates.

When I first became active in the Association For Good Government in 1993 I recognised that for the Association to be effective it needed a proper foundation and framework. I sought the adoption of written rules, the incorporation of the Association to protect members against being sued for potential errors by committee members, and the adoption of a Management Plan so that the Association's efforts were structured towards getting a result. To my surprise there were some who aggressively opposed these reforms. Such simple steps should not have brought the division that it did and I should not be held responsible for that division. In the end the rules proposed to members were not as I would have wished but I was happy that the Association at least had rules.

In 1994 I perceived an opportunity to promote LVT as part of the NSW State Election. I felt that it was a means to making a 100-year-old idea topical and therefore attracting media attention. I saw the possibility of recouping the investment through electoral funding and the remote possibility of getting a Georgist into parliament, which would have been the ideal location from which to lobby. I put a proposal to both Foundations. I informed the New South Wales Henry George Foundation that it could not fund it as it was contrary to its rules and moved that a change to the rules be put to members provided that it did not jeopardise the charitable status of the Company. The proposal ended at that point due to a general lack of support, a lack of time and the likelihood that it would affect the charitable status of the Company. Since that time the electoral rules in NSW have changed making such a strategy less promising and I have not pursued and do not intend to pursue this line again.

I have served as Treasurer and as Chairman of the Association For Good Government and as Secretary, Treasurer and Chairman of the New South Wales Henry George Foundation Limited. In the past seven years we have funded many worthwhile activities around Australia and around the world but I am disappointed at how little we have achieved.

The paper I wrote for the Tax Summit was refined and published by the Foundation. A further revision is to be published here and in Britain. In addition, I have written a paper 'Can Land Tax remove Land Values' which was cited in Directions For State Taxation published by the Productivity Commission and a paper 'Site Rent versus Land Value Taxation'.

In 1997 I stood as a candidate for the Constitutional Convention and invested $600 to this end as I had a view of how the Australian Constitution should be amended. I am in favour of a Republic but not in a President.

In 1998 I was a founding member of the Land Value Taxation Society of Australia. I agreed to be Chairman. This organisation has literally reached out to the person in the street and has lobbied people at all levels. I ceased to be a member of that organisation in December 2000.