Taxing cuts

WORKING ON THE NUMBERS

It’s OK to change your mind about the stage three tax cuts, Liberal MP Bridget Archer has told the government, as Treasurer Jim Chalmers indicated the 2018 policy was under review. She told Guardian Australia it’s probably not the right time for the cuts, which create a 30% flat tax rate for everyone earning between $45,000 and $200,000 (thus benefitting the high earners the most). A frustrated Archer points out that when the circumstances change, sometimes it’s better for the country for promises to be broken — and to be fair, we are likely hurtling towards a global recession.

But the blowback, which is usually mostly from media, worth noting, is “nonsense”, Archer says. The Australian ($) reckons 2.5 million middle-income earners will pay thousands in tax if Labor ditches the cuts, which isn’t exactly right — a better way to put it is, middle-income earners would not save thousands in tax if Labor ditches the cuts. “Bracket creep” is worth considering, however — that’s government spending going up, outdating the tax brackets. By the numbers, the paper says, a $120,000 salary would not save $1875, while a $160,000 salary would not save $4675.

Meanwhile, there are 301,000 job vacancies across Australia right now, which is nearly 40% higher than this time last year, the SMH reports. About a third of all occupations are affected by the skills shortage. It’s the finding of the annual skills priority list, which will be released today. New additions to the short-staffed list in the past year include “hotel manager, beauty salon manager, chemical engineer, primary school teacher, secondary school teacher, dentist, paediatrician, neurosurgeon, blacksmith, meat boner and slicer, slaughterer, web developer, bus driver and scaffolder,” the paper says. Why? COVID-19 and a changing economic landscape, the report says. Short-staffing is causing issues across the workforce — except at Qantas, the airline claims. It says its decision to shed 2000 staff in 2020 is not the reason for lost baggage and service disruption, as The New Daily reports.

[free_worm]

THE VICTORIAN ERROR

Victorian Liberal MP Tim Smith is claiming a $400-a-week parliamentary car allowance, the Herald Sun ($) reports, even though he has been banned from driving since he crashed his Jaguar into a Hawthorn property with a blood-alcohol level of 0.131 (the limit is below 0.05). Smith is leaving politics at November’s state election but can claim $22,350 in total until that date — the loophole is sure to raise eyebrows. The paper adds that Smith, who was opposition attorney-general before the car crash, hasn’t paid the bill for the damage yet — it reports he offered “substantially” less than the family claimed, though Smith told the paper he offered to meet “all assessed repair costs”.

Meanwhile the Victorian government has the “largest state budget deficit in the nation, the largest state government debt, the highest level of taxation as a share of the economy, the fastest-growing government spending rate as a share of the state’s economy, and the fastest-growing public sector wage bill”, The Australian ($) writes. That’s according to the Institute of Public Affairs’ Daniel Wild who authored a preelection report into the state’s economy. It found Victoria’s $101.9 billion debt is comparable to 1995’s post-Cain-Kirner recession peak. But the Andrews government says the state’s economy is now rated the fasted growing and best performing in the country — basically, you gotta spend money to make money. NSW is spending the second-most in the country, the paper adds, with an 85% surge since 2014.

BEAUT UTE-Y!

Electric vehicle Tesla was Australia’s third-best-selling car in September, the AFR reports, accounting for 4359 cars sold. The Toyota HiLux ute leads the pack with 5170 sales, and the Ford Ranger ute was in second place with 4890 models sold. Why are so many utes flying out of the showroom? Firstly, there’s a tax incentive for tradespeople and business owners — people can write off the full value of a work car like a one-tonne ute, a van and a small truck that cost under $150,000 each, as Car Sales reports. And it’s not like the taxi industry is providing an attractive alternative to car ownership — people are accusing cabbies of increasingly demanding upfront cash instead of using meters, Guardian Australia reports. A Transport for NSW spokesperson told the paper it’s an offence for taxi drivers to not use the meter for cabs you catch from a taxi rank or hailed from the street — one for us to remember when we catch a ride from the airport.

Meanwhile, you may soon spot a new plate on our roads, in addition to the L and P plates associated with newish drivers: the R plate, as 7 News reports. Folks who have lived through an automotive trauma — like witnessing or being in a car crash — can put the plate on their exterior to let other drivers know to give them a break when driving nearby. The idea is similar to the “Baby on Board” stickers you might’ve seen around to indicate there’s a young kid inside the car. The R plate isn’t a government measure, however — it was introduced by mycar, formerly Kmart Tyre & Auto.

ON A LIGHTER NOTE

Folks, a 72-page report has deepened the international chess crisis as unlikely up-and-comer Hans Niemann has been accused of cheating more than 100 times in his career. Fans watched in awe as Niemann, 19, smashed the world champion, Magnus Carlsen, 31, in a spectacular showdown earlier this year, sending the chess world into a tailspin. The plot thickened when Carlsen walked away from a second match with Niemann after just one move. It was an unprecedented act from Carlsen, who is considered by many to be the greatest chess player of all time. At first, Carlsen was cryptic in his thinly veiled comments about his resignation from the competition — but last week, he went all in. There’s just no way this American teen broke my 53-game unbeaten run in classical (in real life) chess, the Norweigan insisted. “I believe that Niemann has cheated more — and more recently — than he has publicly admitted,” his lengthy statement read.

The hefty report found Niemann probably cheated in more than 100 online games (he’s been banned from Chess.com) by toggling his screens between a chess engine and the game — likely facilitating his “statistically extraordinary” rise to the top. But there was simply no evidence that he cheated against Carlsen in real life. Niemann has admitted to cheating in two online games in his youth, but he has been steadfast in his assurance that he beat the G.O.A.T. fair and square. And he’ll prove it. “If they want me to strip fully naked, I will do it,” Niemann vowed. My stars. So why is Carlsen so sure Niemann cheated against him? He says Niemann hardly concentrates while he’s playing, and is entirely at ease — even though Niemann played black (a disadvantage in chess). Niemann plays “in a way I think only a handful of players can do”, which he could take as perhaps the highest praise possible — if, and this is a big if, Niemann’s conscience is clear. If you ask me, there’s only one possible next move: a game of nude chess.

Hoping you score an unlikely win today too.

SAY WHAT?

The good thing about the last federal election is a lot of those lefties are gone – we should rejoice in that. People I’ve been trying to get rid of for a decade have gone, we need to renew with good conservative candidates.

Teena McQueen

The Liberal party’s vice-president is in hot water after she appeared to celebrate the loss of a slew of MPs from her own party, something that plunged the Coalition into opposition in May. Liberal Senator Simon Birmingham slammed the comments, saying there’s no place on the executive for disloyalists.

CRIKEY RECAP

Where was Andrew Thorburn’s Christian faith when he was NAB’s CEO?

Bernard Keane

Oct 05, 2022

63

“NAB has now repaid $1.247 billion to more than 770,000 people that it took from over the years. Thorburn had to quit after being singled out for criticism, along with his chairman Ken Henry, in the royal commission report.

“Behaviour is the key. At what point as NAB CEO between 2014 and 2019 did Thorburn allow his Christian faith to intrude on his management? Not alleged Christian principles like opposing abortion, or calling LGBTIQA+ people sinful, or demeaning women, but more basic principles like admitting wrongdoing?”

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Australia looks at ‘adopting’ a region to help rebuild ravaged areas of Ukraine

Amber Schultz

Oct 05, 2022

58

“The proposal was first discussed by foreign and Ukrainian ambassadors at a meeting in July in Kyiv with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and put forward to the Australian government shortly afterwards by Ukrainian ambassador to Australia Vasyl Myroshnychenko. A more detailed proposal was submitted late last month.

“The presentation, seen by Crikey, shows that 10 nations have pledged to partner with regions. Turkey will take on Kharkiv, The Netherlands will help rebuild Kherson, and Italy will tackle three regions: it’s pledged to take on Odesa and will partner with the UK to rebuild Kyiv and Estonia to rebuild Zhytomyr. Chernihiv will be rebuilt by Lativa, France and Sweden.”

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Australian quizzed about abortion at US border says DFAT must update travel advice

Julia Bergin

Oct 05, 2022

11

“Asking a woman whether she’s had an abortion has not historically been a prerequisite for entry into the United States, but the US Customs and Border Patrol at Los Angeles airport told 32-year-old Australian Madolline Gourley that it was part of its ‘policy’.

“She now wants the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) to update its travel advice for women of childbearing age heading to the US … In June, Gourley was detained at LAX for failing to provide correct travel documentation to go and cat-sit in Canada. She was eventually declined entry to the US and deported.”

 

READ ALL ABOUT IT

Four killed in bombing at Afghan Interior Ministry mosque (Al Jazeera)

Nobel prize in chemistry Is awarded to 3 scientists for work ‘snapping molecules together’ (The New York Times)

Christchurch and Wellington expected to feel like -7C on Thursday morning (Stuff)

US aims to turn Taiwan into giant weapons depot (The New York Times)

This desert city has won the rights to host the Asian Winter Games. But it doesn’t exist yet (SBS)

Ethiopia govt says accepts [African Union] invite to peace talks (news.com.au)

Soaring egg prices force French food industry to change recipes (Reuters)

Danish general election called after PM faces mink cull ultimatum (The Guardian)

THE COMMENTARIAT

Bring jihadi families home at our peril — Peta Credlin (The Australian) ($): “If, as seems likely, the Albanese government has decided to bring 16 ‘jihadi brides’ and their 42 children to Australia, it has weighed the wellbeing of terrorist sympathisers and their dependants against the safety of the Australian community and concluded a serious risk to people who rejected their country justifies the risk to others and the ongoing expense of bringing them back. I don’t come to this issue as a mere commentator. I was the prime minister’s chief of staff when Australia took on the war against Islamic State and committed our military. I sat through high-level security briefings (including imagery I will never forget) laying bare the group’s violent depravity and bloodlust in pursuit of a terrorist caliphate.

“When we consider bringing these women home, it’s those images I can’t forget or the evidence I heard time and again about the involvement of women and youths in the work of Islamic State. It was women, in many instances, who reached out online and helped radicalise young Westerners to join their cause. It was women who fled their countries to join the death cult and act as the breeders for a new generation of jihadis. Sure, now they tell us they recant this ideology of hate, but who among us wouldn’t when confronted with life in a Syrian prison camp versus the comfort of the Australian suburbs with housing and welfare payments and healthcare laid on? … Of the 25 suspected terrorists and terrorist trainees who returned to Australia from Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban two decades back, 15 subsequently were involved in terrorist activities here and nine were convicted.”

Tanya Plibersek should seize the moment — Bob Brown (The SMH): “Two weeks before her Press Club appearance, Plibersek gave WA’s Main Roads the thumbs-up to blitz 70 hectares of Gelorup woodlands south of Perth for a Bunbury bypass. She had completely ignored pleas from locals to hear their case for an alternative bypass route. Here was an “ecological bomb” which Plibersek should have defused. The woodlands are habitat for rarities including three species of black cockatoos, native fish, orchids and the critically endangered western ringtail possum. Her management plan required the possums to be “shepherded” out of the way but the death of six has now halted the works. The halt is a second chance for Minister Plibersek to assert her environmental priority.

“Meanwhile, the Scarborough project’s onshore processing called for more of the Murujuga Aboriginal rock art site on the Burrup Peninsula to be destroyed. An inland industrial site was set aside decades ago for such industry, but going there would cost Woodside more. Plibersek visited the Burrup and, over the opposition of local Aboriginal women, gave Woodside the nod. Under the Morrison government, 86 peaceful protesters were arrested in northwest Tasmania’s takayna/Tarkine rainforest for allegedly obstructing work on MMG’s acid tailings waste dump. The forest is home to the Tasmanian masked owl, the largest barn owl on Earth, listed by Plibersek’s office as vulnerable to extinction.”

HOLD THE FRONT PAGE

WHAT’S ON TODAY

Ngunnawal Country (also known as Canberra)

• Former ACCC chair Rod Sims, ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr, Australian Council of Trade Unions secretary Sally McManus, Independent MP Zoe Daniel, the Australia Institute’s Richard Denniss, and former Reserve Bank governor Bernie Fraser are among the speakers at The Australia Institute’s Revenue Summit 2022, held at Parliament House.

Whadjuk Noongar Country (also known as Perth)

• University of WA’s Oron Catts and Christopher Lin, and Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries’ Shelagh Magadza are among several speakers on a panel that will explore a new policy agenda for Australian arts and culture, held at the State Library Theatre.

Eora Nation Country (also known as Sydney)

• President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy will address the Lowy Institute via live video link from Ukraine and take questions from the audience.

• Food waste campaigners Alex Elliott-Howery and Jaimee Edwards will chat about their new book, The Food Saver’s A-Z, at Newtown Neighbourhood Centre.