TAX SAGA ENDS WITH WHIMPER
More than 10 million Australians will receive a tax cut of up to $1080 from next week, after the Coalition passed its full $158 billion tax cut package with the support of Center Alliance, Jacquie Lambie and, ultimately, Labor, once its amendments failed.
The tax cut is expected by some to lead to a “GFC stimulus-like bounce”, The Age/SMH reports, with “a lot of big-screen TVs going out the door on the back of this”. Harvey Norman executive chairman Gerry Harvey made the same comparison ($), telling The Australian that the tax cuts would result in “a direct pick-up in consumption”. However an op-ed by The Australian’s economics editor Adam Creighton points out that the size of the stimulus and changes in the economy since the GFC might weigh on consumers’ propensity to spend ($), leaving them more likely to save their tax cut.
NOAH HARD FEELINGS
Labor’s national secretary Noah Carroll is expected to announce his resignation at the party’s National Executive today, The Age/SMH reports.
Carroll, who became national secretary in 2016 after leading Labor to victory as Victorian state secretary, will likely remain in the role ($) until former South Australian premier Jay Weatherill completes his campaign review of the federal election, The Australian reports. Many blamed Carroll for the election loss, with earlier reports revealing he was “dead as a dodo” following the result and was being urged to jump before he was pushed.
PLEASE EXPLAIN
The Coalition has been asked to please explain the actions of four current and former MPs. Motions in the Senate yesterday demanded explanations for Angus Taylor and Josh Frydenberg’s endangered grasslands conduct, and Christopher Pyne and Julie Bishop’s new jobs.
A Greens motion on Taylor and Frydenberg passed with support from Labor and crossbench senators, demanding Coalition Senate leader Mathias Cormann explain the actions of both ministers during the next sitting period. Labor’s motion asking Scott Morrison to outline what he knew about Pyne and Bishop’s new roles also passed, with Cormann revealing that the PM has written to the head of his department seeking clarification on the ministerial code of conduct.
[free_worm]
THEY REALLY SAID THAT?
I thought the timing was just calculated to win support … It showed a patronising insensitivity to the Jewish community.
Malcolm Turnbull
The former prime minister slams Morrison’s Israel embassy move, telling a charity event on Sunday it was “a really dumb thing”.
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Police raid rural property in connection with fatal Darwin shootings
Australia ‘deeply grateful’ to Sweden for helping Alek Sigley out of North Korea
North Korea rescue bid for Alek Sigley began after G20 dinner ($)
IS cell accused Isaac El Matari ‘had attack training plans’ ($)
CRIKEY QUICKIE: THE BEST OF YESTERDAY
Winning the hearts, minds (and pockets) of doctors
“Novo Nordisk’s influence runs deep in the tight-knit world of obesity specialists. Inq’s investigation reveals a network of relationships in Australia that the company has nurtured. How? By supplying financial support for professional research, conferences, and education for doctors. And by stumping up money to help the leading not-for-profit professional groups, Obesity Australia and the Australia New Zealand Obesity Society (ANZOS), advance their cause. Drawing on data from a declarations register run by the pharmaceutical industry body, Medicines Australia, Crikey‘s Inq team has pieced together how the money flows to those working in obesity.”
‘No more than 11 minutes’: how long does Dutton take to decide someone’s fate?
“Cancelling a person’s visa is one of the most significant powers vested in a government minister. It has life-changing implications for the person involved — in this case particularly so given Chetcuti had not lived in Malta for 76 years. One wonders if there are other visa revocation cases handled by Dutton where voluminous materials are not deliberated upon, but instead given a cursory glance by him? An audit of ministerial visa revocation files carried out by an independent reviewer would give us the answer. Dutton’s conduct in this case and the 2017 case seemingly show how little he is interested in according fairness to the visa holder and using his considerable powers in deliberative ways. And this is the minister with more powers than any other in the Morrison government.”
Don’t do it, Jacqui!
“But the trade is so pissweak the government won’t need to welch; and if they did, what do they care? The tax cuts is their whole programme. They’ll be running on stage 3 in 2022. Not exactly hardball. Nor softball. More like a foam party. Some have said that the days of independent Brian Harradine are back. Maybe there’s a secret deal as part of the mix, but it would have to be a pretty good one. And it’s an insider’s business-as-usual way to operate in any case, where the point is to blow that stuff open. For a $95 billion second-rate tax cut, Harradine would have got every Taswegian an apartment, a jet pack and an ice-cream. If Lambie votes this through on this deal, then her caravan of courage didn’t go far before the wheels fell off.”
THE COMMENTARIAT
Why was Labor even thinking about ‘stage three’ tax cuts? – Waleed Aly (The Age/SMH): “What was the risk here? Were the tax cuts to pass without Labor, it could have preserved its philosophical position without the political pain of holding up tax relief. If it turned out Labor’s votes were needed, it would have invited a debate where it wants tax cuts for lower and middle income earners sooner than the Coalition, without regressive tax reform. Whatever the case, Labor could have preserved some sense of what it’s about as a party – the starting point for a narrative, if you will. Seems to me the greatest risk was to abandon that.”
Stimulus could be a ‘drop in the ocean’ ($) – Adam Creighton (The Australian): “As confidence in the economy flags, the government is pinning hopes on its legislated tax cuts to boost growth and spending. For all the fanfare, though, the cuts are small, and evidence suggests taxpayers will save a big chunk of the extra cash. ANZ estimates the impact this year at $7.2 billion — equivalent to an annual increase in disposable household income of 0.6 per cent. This is less than a quarter the size of the Rudd government’s fiscal stimulus payments rolled out from the end of 2008, the efficacy of which economists furiously debate.”
ALP must show it understands how wrong it was on tax cuts ($) – Anna Caldwell (The Daily Telegraph): “Post-election, Labor is all contortion, no contrition. The Opposition’s acrobatic backflip on tax cuts, waving through what were characterised during the election as impossible gifts to the “top end of town”, was a recognition that, post-campaign, the politics are against them. But has this contortion act set the scene for what to expect from the Opposition for the next three years?”
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE
WHAT’S ON TODAY
Sydney
- The Parish of St Francis of Assisi Paddington and St Joseph’s Edgecliff will host “My Faith in the Wake of the Royal Commission”, an evening with Robert Fitzgerald AM, former commissioner of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Sexual Abuse, discussing how Catholics can reconcile the sexual abuse crisis with their faith.
- The Australian Institute of Architects, NSW Chapter will host its 2019 NSW Architecture Awards.
Adelaide
- The Light The Way Foundation will host “Celebrating Women’s Success In Sport”, with guest speakers Chelsea Randall (Crows), Anneliese Rubie (Olympian), and Ella Nelson (Olympian).
- Carbon Neutral Adelaide will host “Towards a Low Carbon Business”, with a panel of business leaders, including SkyCity Entertainment Group Manager Courtney Simpson, Uniting Communities Corporate Services Manager Lee Sauerwald, and Environmental Sustainable Development Consultant Ken Long.
- Expert Education and Visa Services Adelaide will host its fifth annual Education and Migration Fair.
Melbourne
- Champion speedcubers Ethan Pride and Jack Cai will attempt to solve Rubik’s cubes while submerged in a shark tank at Melbourne Aquarium.
- AFL umpire Shane McInerney and AFL Head of Umpiring Grant Williams will hold a press conference ahead of McInerney’s breaking of the VFL/AFL games umpiring record.
- Victoria’s mental health royal commission will hold further public hearings, with witnesses perinatal psychiatrist Dr Gaynor Blankley, school principal Shaun McClare, and Royal Children’s Hospital’s Dr Ric Haslam.
Brisbane
- Anti-Adani activists will again take to Brisbane streets with the aim of causing huge disruption to peak hour in the CBD.
“GFC stimulus-like bounce”……. At the time of the GFC our economy was not in the mess it is now, and the threat was external. People did NOT need the money to feel safe, and they did as expected and spent it , producing the desired ‘bounce’.
There aren’t even enough dead cats around to illustrate the bounce we will get from this piece of economic wizardry.