TURNBULL FLAGS TAX CUT

Malcolm Turnbull has flagged personal tax cuts and vowed to push ahead with corporate tax cuts at a speech to the Business Council of Australia.

“In the personal income tax space, I am actively working with the Treasurer and my Cabinet colleagues to ease the burden on middle-income Australians, while also meeting our commitment to return the budget to surplus,” Turnbull said.

Chris Richardson of Deloitte Access Economics told The Australian Financial Review ($) that cutting the tax rate applied to those earning between $37,000 and $87,000 from 32.5% to 30% would cost the government over $7 billion a year.

The tax tease came as the head of the International Monetary Fund in the Asia-Pacific region Thomas Helbling visited Australia. Helbling encouraged the government to look at broader tax reforms, including on capital gains, welcoming changes so long as they did not threaten efforts to return to surplus. He said the US already had a substantially lower effective corporate tax rate but that Australia still managed to remain competitive and lure investment.

“Your 30 per cent rate is not as high as it seems, the average rate is lower,” Helbling noted.

As Turnbull struggles towards the end of the year he is copping criticism from Labor, crossbenchers, and internally over a decision to cancel a sitting of the lower house of Parliament on November 27 and push it back to December 4.

“It seems like panic,” one Coalition MP told Fairfax.

INDONESIAN CORRUPTION ARREST

The Speaker of Indonesia’s Parliament has been arrested by the country’s anti-corruption body after disappearing and then being forced to hospital by a car crash.

Setya Novanto has now been taken into custody by the Corruption Eradication Commission, which is investigating the alleged misuse of funds from a national electronic identity card program that lost $225 million.

Novanto is the head of Indonesia’s second-largest political party, Golkar, which is part of the country’s governing coalition.

GREEN WITH ENVY

Labor will target “Red Greens” in inner-city Melbourne in an effort to win back seats pinched by the Greens. Over the weekend, Greens candidate Lidia Thorpe claimed the state seat of Northcote, becoming the first Aboriginal woman to be sent to the Victorian Parliament.

A small survey of Greens voters ($) conducted by Labor has ended up in The Australian. The plan, as per the report, is to abandon the estimated 70% of Greens voters who are wealthier and more likely to vote for the Liberal party, and focus instead on winning back students and young voters crushed under the weight of Australia’s booming property prices.

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WHAT’S ON TODAY

Melbourne:  The Essential Services Commission releases its annual report on the energy market in Victoria.

Melbourne: Melbourne Zoo debuts its four new meerkat pups.

Sydney: Sentence hearing for former AFP officer Ben Hampton for dishonestly receiving $7000.

Sydney: Opposition spokesperson for defence Richard Marles speaks at the Lowy Institute about the Pacific region.

Sydney: Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Philip Lowe speaks at an Australian Business Economists’ event.

Brisbane: Anti-Adani rally to be held in the CBD.

THE COMMENTARIAT

Australian laws fall short when it comes to protecting religious liberty — George Williams (Sydney Morning Herald): “Section 116 has proved to be a frail and ineffective shield. Despite several attempts, the High Court has never been convinced to use this section to strike down a law. And in any event, the section applies only to laws passed by the Federal Parliament, and not to any law enacted by the states.”

Malcolm Turnbull’s delaying of parliament adds to the image of crisis — Jennifer Hewett (Australian Financial Review $): “No matter the reason for the pile-up of parliamentary absurdities – and the government’s scarcely hidden fury with the High Court’s decision on dual citizenship – Turnbull will still be assigned much of the blame for this. And that’s without dealing with the continuing revolt from within his own depleted Coalition ranks.”

CRIKEY QUICKIE: THE BEST OF YESTERDAY

An afternoon with the ACL lobbing fire and brimstone at ‘anonymous masturbators’ — Margo Saville: “By mid-afternoon had heard so much about self-abuse that it felt like a evening with Louis C.K. Now that it’s lost the vote on marriage equality, the ACL should give up poking its nose into people’s bedrooms and stick to the things it’s good at: complaining about billboards.”

Trouble In Paradise: Whatever happened to the Red north? — Guy Rundle: “The Labor candidate for Burdekin, wandered in for our meet about five minutes ago, but I haven’t been able to make contact with him yet, because the loving locals want to gently rip the shit our of him. The moment he came in, a couple made a beeline for him, from absolutely nowhere. Man in suit, woman in winged shades, and a coral-patterned headscarf. Had they emerged in a time rip from the 1950s? They were giving poor old Mike hell.”

Greens inner-urban insurgency claims another Labor stronghold — William Bowe: “So while the Greens vote nationally has been fairly static over the past decade — a fact that suggests Di Natale might want to rein in his expectations, regardless of what time frame he puts on them — its support is becoming increasingly concentrated geographically, which greatly improves its prospects in the right type of lower house seat.”

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