SENIORS, LOW-INCOME EARNERS FINAL WINNERS OF BUDGET LEAKS
Seniors and low-income earners are the final groups to benefit from pre-budget leaks, with Treasurer Scott Morrison set to hand down the document at 7.30pm tonight.
The Australian ($) reports that the Coalition will target baby boomers with a multi-billion-dollar aged-care and retirees package, including 20,000 new home-care places to allow older Australians to live in their homes longer and with better care. The ABC also reports a $10 a week tax cut for low and middle-income earners. Previous announcements ($) have included a controversial push to legislate a 23.9% tax-to-GDP cap and $24.5 billion infrastructure injection.
BOB HAWKE ADMITTED TO HOSPITAL
Former Prime Minister Bob Hawke was admitted to a Sydney hospital last night in a reportedly non-critical state.
Sources have told the ABC that initial reports of Hawke suffering from pneumonia or a stroke were false, and that the 88-year-old former Labor leader is “just in hospital for some minor tests, nothing serious”.
CLINTON MEETS ADERN
Former US presidential candidate and secretary of state Hillary Clinton has described New Zealand Prime Minister says Jacinda Ardern’s victory as “shot of optimism” to the world, following her own loss to Donald Trump in the 2016 election.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Clinton and Ardern met in Auckland last night, and everything from working in public office as mothers to the US election to Clinton’s recently published book What Happened.
THEY REALLY SAID THAT?
These are people paying 47 cents on $200,000, they’re paying 39 [cents] on $100,000. They’re paying higher than the corporate rate. They haven’t had any tax relief for 10 years. And I think those forgotten people, those people that don’t have organised lobbyists to speak for them, also ought to be in the calculation of the Government at the moment.
Peter Costello
The former treasurer reminders the Liberal Party and 7.30 Report of Australia’s real battlers: the embarrassingly wealthy.
CRIKEY QUICKIE: THE BEST OF YESTERDAY
“It may not have been Goebbels who uttered the infamous phrase ‘When I hear the word culture, I reach for my gun’, but the phrase springs to mind in considering the (very rapid) appointment of former Commonwealth Bank head, Future Fund chairman and financial services inquiry head David Murray to the recently vacated AMP chair. While Murray’s appointment to the Brenner Pass has been welcomed, it’s worth reflecting on what no journalist over the weekend except Fairfax’s Elizabeth Knight noted about Murray’s view of regulating culture.”
“In the main bar at Carriageworks, home of this year’s Sydney Writers’ Festival, there was only one topic of conversation — US writer Junot Díaz and the women who accused him of assaulting her, Zinzi Clemmons. Following the very public accusation, why did the organisers issue a statement potentially defaming Díaz? Did nobody run it past a lawyer?”
“A fantasy budget can’t inhabit a totally fantasy world. You can’t assume infinite money or compliant citizens who remain inert while you utterly uproot the fabric of Australian society. A good fantasy budget, like any good story, is a tale of heroism in a world recognisably similar to our own.”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Former Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis accused of using $2.7m contingency fund for ‘pork barrelling’ ($)
Bureau of Meteorology warns of strong winds across the state ($)
Adani losses prompt mining company to shift away from imported coal
Coalition and Labor strike deal over Murray-Darling basin plan
Peter Dutton set to review cases for immigration of white South African farmers ($)
Activists’ asylum call looms as conference pain for Shorten ($)
WHAT’S ON TODAY
Canberra
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Treasurer Scott Morrison will deliver the 2018/19 federal budget at 7.30pm AEST. Federal parliament will also resume today, including question time.
Melbourne
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Day one of the three-day Climate Adaptation Conference, the sixth national conference discussing practical responses to climate change.
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Day two of Melbourne Knowledge Week, featuring a multi-course tour of food technology — from hunting and gathering, to current gastronomic trends, to futuristic preparation — in “Edible History of Technology in Food”.
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Melbourne’s ‘Bad Roads Rally’ will see bus, truck and car drivers, motorcycle, scooter and bicycle riders and, finally, pedestrians protest for safer rural roads.
Perth
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The final report from the Procedure and Privileges Committee inquiry into the former Labor Member for Darling Range, Barry Urban, over allegedly fake claims of medals and qualification.
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The Corruption and Crime Commission will investigate two Horizon Power employees for allegedly failing to declare a jointly-owned IT consulting company that the state-owned entity paid $1.16 million for services between August 2013 and September 2017. Day two of a planned week-long inquiry.
Brisbane
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Following the Ipswich City Council’s widening corruption scandal, Queensland’s Local Government Minister Stirling Hinchliffe will ask cabinet to give him expanded powers to sack councils when they lose the trust of their communities.
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A State Funeral for former Labor Deputy Premier Terry Mackenroth will be held today.
Sydney
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Day two of a week-long coronial inquest into six opioid deaths in 2016. Some of the overdoses reportedly involved fentanyl, an opiate drug prescribed for pain relief.
Australia
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Australian men’s health charity, the Movember Foundation, will encourage men to check in on each other’s mental and emotional health as part of unofficial day of mateship, “MAYEIGHT!”. With 1 in 4 Australian men stating they have few or no social connections and one-third being unsatisfied with the quality of their friendships, the group is encouraging people to reach out, whether through coffee with a workmate, a round of golf or a pub meal.
United States
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Mediation is due to begin in rape civil lawsuit brought against Jarryd Hayne in California.
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Former Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor will make his second appearance in court to face charges over the shooting death of Australian Justine Damond.
France
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The 2018 Cannes Film Festival runs from today until May 19th, with Australian acting royalty Cate Blanchett heading the jury as President.
Portugal
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Eurovision semi-finals begin today, set to run until finals on May 12th and include Jessica Mauboy representing Australia.
THE COMMENTARIAT
Budget 2018: We can influence our region far better with aid than guns — Marc Purcell (The Age): “This week’s federal budget is set to include a $3.8 billion loan scheme designed to ramp up Australia’s credentials as a global arms dealer. This amount is almost equivalent to the total annual amount allocated to foreign aid in the same budget. What kind of signal does this send to our neighbours in the region?”
Eight charts on our growing tax problem: what abandoning tax reform means for taxpayers — Rebecca Cassells and Alan Duncan (The Conversation): “As we move closer to Treasurer Scott Morrison’s third budget, what we do know is this – Australia has a revenue problem. A more global and digital economy; an ageing population with fewer taxpayers and sluggish wage growth make future predictions of revenue even more precarious. There’s never been a better time for tax reform.”
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE
Ooooooohhhhhhh!!!!!! Classic Australian Tall Poppy Syndrome at it’s best in The Worm this morning! An income of $100,000 to $200,000 does not in any way make you “embarrassingly wealthy”. You’re out by an order of magnitude. $100,000 to $200,000 certainly makes you comfortably well off, but it does not get you into the mega-rich category at all. GPs, medical specialists, lawyers, accountants, dentists, senior public servants, and a host of others enjoy this sort of income, and yes I’m one of them. Yes, I’m quite comfortable thank you very much, but after 6 years of university, followed by 9 years of specialist training working hours most people would find ridiculous (because they were) for not very much, certainly on an hourly rate, as most hospitals refuse to pay junior medical staff for overtime, and if you don’t like it you can kiss your place in the specialist training schemes goodbye. As a consequence I reckon I’ve earned it.
The tax man has for years had the hose of his hoover in my wallet, sucking it dry. Why? Because I’m a soft target, I cannot afford a company in Panama and a cadre of QC’s to arrange my affairs so I earn millions, but pay peanuts, that is the sole preserve of the truly embarrassingly wealthy. I do not for one second believe I should not pay a fair amount of tax, just the opposite. I just find the fact I pay a higher rate than corporations, and more in dollar terms than 30% of big companies with mega billions of turnover grossly unfair. If King Rupert and his bilionaire mates were all taxed properly most of us wouldn’t have to pay very much at all.