SCOTT MORRISON

GETTING THE GST OF IT

Treasurer Scott Morrison will today announce plans to remodel the GST distribution system to both tentatively alleviate concerns from larger states and, through added funds, make sure no state is worse off.

Following a year-long review from the Productivity Commission, the ABC reports that the Coalition’s new model will reject the Commission’s advice to cut GST revenue to all states except NSW and WA by better reflecting total wealth of states. First, the government plans to top up WA’s GST share post-mining boom, then add hundreds of millions to the GST pool and, once the changes are in place by 2026/27, ultimately tweak the system to tie the fortunes of smaller states to larger states such as NSW or Victoria.

Reports from states that avoided the Commission’s recommended hit, such as the Adelaide Advertiser ($) and Hobart Mercury ($), have largely been positive over the plans, although The Age/Sydney Morning Herald have led with the reported billions in costs to Victoria and NSW.

HOME SWEET HOME

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has hit back at New Zealand’s acting Prime Minister Winston Peters for criticising Australia’s detention of a minor in adult immigration detention.

According to The Age, Peters has accused Australia of breaching the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in moving a 17-year-old New Zealand citizen from a NSW youth detention centre to Melbourne’s Immigration Transit Accomodation in March, the mental and emotional consequences of which Crikey has outlined previously.

Dutton has in turn said that if New Zealand “want him back, then he’s welcome to get on the first flight out”. The child has lived in NSW with his family since he was 11, and according to lawyer Greg Barns has demonstrated “nothing in his offending that would make him such a danger to the community [that] he has to be removed”.

NEWS FROM THE CAVE

A trapped group of student soccer players and their coach have been given a crash course in swimming and diving, as rescuers work to get them out from underneath a cave in Thailand. 

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that the 13 boys, none of whom can swim, have a group a medics, counsellors, and Thai Navy SEALS working them through possible escape scenarios, including a last-ditch option of diving, as authorities continue to work on an extraction plan.

[free_worm]

THEY REALLY SAID THAT?

Very little of what Tony Abbott says is helpful.

Damian Drum

The Nationals backbencher speaks for Australia, when discussing the Coalition’s in-fighting over energy.

CRIKEY QUICKIE: THE BEST OF YESTERDAY

Banned telecom Huawei is bidding to run Australia’s 5G, and we shouldn’t try to stop itMichael Sainsbury

“Previously blacklisted telecom Huawei and fellow Chinese vendor ZTE are two of five companies bidding for Telstra’s core 5G network, Crikey has learned. These include Finland’s Nokia, Sweden’s Ericsson and Korea’s Samsung. Ericsson won the test-of-concept network rolled out for the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games. Since then, Telstra has been testing the other companies out of the same exchange.”

Press gallery to boycott forum over Nauru ABC banEmily Watkins

“The federal parliamentary press gallery will boycott the Pacific Islands Forum if the Nauruan government doesn’t reverse a ban on visas for ABC journalists. Nauru, which is hosting the forum, said on Monday it would not grant visas to ABC journalists for the event, which Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull will attend.”

Jonathan Denney prying eyes
Australians are concerned about their online privacy but do little to protect itBernard Keane

“New polling from Roy Morgan, released early to Crikey for our Prying Eyes series, shows Australians are deeply concerned about the way their personal information is exploited by corporations — but unwilling or unable to take action themselves to protect it.”

READ ALL ABOUT IT

‘Attack on feminism’: Andrew Nolch on why he defaced Eurydice Dixon’s memorial

Ghost scam targets Chinese woman in Perth CBD

Former NT cop assaulted his police officer wife ($)

Archbishop Philip Wilson to lodge appeal against conviction

Motorists stuck on Cairns road after fresh bitumen melts and glues cars to the road

Attorney-General says no conflict of interest in her approving compo payment to Henry Keogh ($)

One Nation tells voters to ‘put Labor last’ in swing seat of Longman

Banking royal commission: Thousands of funeral insurance customers may be ‘unaware they’re not covered’

Frydenberg tells Western Australia to pay for baited shark drumlines

Australia in five-country J5 alliance to fight tax crime ($)

WHAT’S ON TODAY

Canberra

  • The federal government is due to release a GST disruption review report.

Darwin

  • Foreign Minister Julie Bishop will lead a Northern Territory business, tourism and investment showcase with a delegation of 70 Ambassadors and High Commissioners from around 70 nations.

  • The banking royal commission will continue examining financial issues affecting Indigenous Australians.

Melbourne

  • Day one of the ten-day Provocare Festival of the Arts 2018, to feature Spencer Tunick’s nude installations.

  • Artisans of Florence International will present a collection of seven Michelangelo sculptures as part of a Collins Street pop-up exhibition throughout July.

Adelaide

  • Associate Professor Rebecca Lester will give evidence at the royal commission into the Murray-Darling Basin.

  • The Independent Commissioner Against Corruption will hold a public hearing into SafeWork SA, with Metropolitan Fire Service chief officer Greg Crossman set to appear.

  • Organisers for the World Solar Challenge will hold a media call featuring the first team to sign up for the 2019 event, the Australian Technology Network team made up of five universities across Australia.

Burnie, Tasmania

  • Labor leader Bill Shorten and candidate for Braddon Justine Keaywill tour Wivenhoe Showgrounds.

Brisbane

  • The Climate Council will launch a new Great Barrier Reef report featuring groundbreaking findings on the frequency of bleaching not only for the GBR but also across global coral reefs.

  • An Ekka media preview will feature entertainment, animals, major announcements and food and wine.

  • The Australia China Business Council Queensland will hold a welcome dinner for Air China’s new direct flights between Beijing and Brisbane.

Sydney

  • A state funeral service will be held in honour of the late Honourable Sir Laurence Street, former Chief Justice of the NSW Supreme Court and Lieutenant-Governor of NSW.

  • HolonIQ will host “Education in 2030: Five scenarios for the Future of Learning and Talent”, their final stop in a global tour presenting new research.

  • LMI Group Insurance News will hold the Mansfield Awards 2018, celebrating Australian insurers.

Perth

  • Sea Shepherd Australia will host a screening of the documentary Albatross, with Greens Senator Peter Whish-Wilson, Founder of Plastic Free July Rebecca Prince-Ruiz, and Managing Director Sea Shepherd Australia Jeff Hansen.

  • The Design Kids, Australian Design Radio and Never Not Creative will hold a series of panel discussions on design, community and industry.

Hobart

  • Genealogist Maree Ring will present “Old Hobart Church Cemeteries and their Records”, a public lecture held as part of the Professional Historians Association of Tasmania’s Lunchtime Lecture series.

Australia

  • Nominations close at midday local time for those wanting to stand for the Super Saturday byelections in Braddon, Fremantle, Mayo, Longman, Perth on July 28.

London, England

  • Prince Harry and Meghan,Duchess of Sussex, will meet Commonwealth youth leaders including representatives from Australia, New Zealand, Tonga and Fiji, where they will be touring in October.

THE COMMENTARIAT

Struggling to understand Turnbull’s GST changes? You are not alone… — Jessica Irvine (Sydney Morning Herald): “To understand the mindbogglingly complex fracas erupting over the proper carve up of GST revenue, you need to first understand that carving up a country into states is a pretty arbitrary and messy business to begin with. Before Europeans arrived, Indigenous Australians carved our landmass into more than 500 ‘nations’, each with their own separate languages and cultures.”

Millennial voters go left: Is age now driving the West’s political rage? ($) — Tom Switzer and Charles Jacobs (Australian Financial Review): “Millennials are lurching left in ways that could have profound consequences for Western politics. Since the beginning of the century, there has been a major shift in the political sentiments of young voters in Western democracies. As more people born between 1980 and 1996 have become eligible to vote, the political alignment of younger voters has become disconnected from the overall electorate.

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