The Single Tax League was an Australian political party that flourished throughout the 1920s and 30s.
Based upon the ideas of Henry George, who argued that all taxes should be abolished, save for a single tax on unimproved land values, the Single Tax League was founded shortly after World War I, and a newspaper, the People's Advocate was published. The League had pockets of support throughout Australia but none more than on the west coast of South Australia, whose farmers and graziers saw merit in single tax theory.
The League's sole parliamentary representative was Edward Craigie, who was elected to the South Australian House of Assembly Electoral district of Flinders (covering the League's west coast power base) in 1930. The onset of the Great Depression in 1929 had led people to seek radical solutions and the manifesto of the League seemed as likely to solve their woes as any government devised plan.
Craigie worked tirelessly to have a single tax system instituted in South Australia but faced stiff opposition from the conservative Liberal Federation (and their successors, the Liberal and Country League), which despised the idea of a single tax, and the Australian Labor Party, which was opposed to the League's free trade stance.
Craigie was re-elected at the 1933 and 1938 South Australian elections before being defeated at the 1941 election, when the ideas of the Single Tax League already seemed an anachronism to most people. The League did not field any further candidates and drifted into obscurity.
Famous quotes containing the words single, tax and/or league:
“It has been rightly said that nothing is unimportant, nothing powerless in the universe; a single atom can dissolve everything, and save everything! What terror! There lies the eternal distinction between good and evil.”
—Gérard De Nerval (1808–1855)
“To tax and to please, no more than to love and to be wise, is not given to men.”
—Edmund Burke (1729–1797)
“We’re the victims of a disease called social prejudice, my child. These dear ladies of the law and order league are scouring out the dregs of the town. C’mon be a glorified wreck like me.”
—Dudley Nichols (1895–1960)