On November 12, 2009 the Mercury reported that “anger brews at land tax hikes” in Tasmania. Influential businessmen gathered to protest these tax increases. Tasmania’s Labor government recently handpicked a group of people tp make a submission to the national taxation review (the Henry Review). The Business Tax and Regulation Reference Group made three major recommendations to this review; 1. “introduction of a state-based income tax surcharge;” 2. “broaden the base for land tax to include principal place of residence land;” 3. “introduction of a property-based tax, to replace current land taxes. Such a tax would not be determined solely by the property value; that is, it would include a component that does not vary with property value but may vary with the number.”[1] These are major tax reforms and would represent a large increase in state level taxes. This will not be good for Tasmanians. Effectively we would see the introduction of a universal land tax, which is heavily graduated. No longer would investment and business properties be the sole payees of land tax, all inhabitants who owned a property would start to enjoy the benefits of rampant social democrat policy.