Jumpingmanjim posted:

Oh god the new three word slogan is work, save, invest because we can't treat voters like adults.

Also surely a GST hike would reduce demand somewhat. Not good when we are heading for recession.

quote:

Scott Morrison on raising the GST Monday 2 November 2015 7:42AM (view full episode)

Momentum is building to increase the GST to 15 per cent, with revelations Treasury is drawing up a number of reform options for the Turnbull Government. Senior Liberal figures are urging the Prime Minister to release proposals to lift and/or broaden the tax, including compensation for lower and middle income earners, well ahead of next year's election.

Labor, however, remains flatly opposed to any change.

Federal Treasurer Scott Morrison joins Fran Kelly on RN Breakfast.

quote:

Government would raise $130b if GST was broadened, raised to 15pc, PBO modelling shows AM By political reporter Naomi Woodley Updated about 3 hours ago

The Federal Government would raise $130 billion in 2017-18 if it increased the GST to 15 per cent and dramatically broadened the tax base, according to new figures from the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO).

Key points:

Adopting a New Zealand-style GST would raise $130 billion in 2017-18
Change would see GST raised to 15pc, tax base broadened
Nationals MP David Gillespie says change could allow for inefficient taxes to be cut
Nationals MP David Gillespie asked the PBO to model a New Zealand-style GST after it was suggested to him by his constituents in northern NSW as a way to help end funding disputes between the Federal Government and states and territories.

"It's not part of a coordinated program, I just got off my butt and did this myself, because I want my people in the Lyne electorate to get their voices heard in Canberra," Dr Gillespie told the ABC's AM program. "We should discuss a lot of these issues upfront and centre with the electorate and tell them the options, and tell them what the problems are." The current 10 per cent GST has a range of exemptions, including basic food, health and education services, but in New Zealand, it covers a much larger share of consumption. "They seem to be going from strength to strength in their economy*," Dr Gillespie said. "They have it at 15 per cent, we have it at 10 per cent."

Inefficient taxes abolished in return for GST hike: Gillespie

Dr Gillespie said the PBO calculated that changing the GST to a New Zealand-style model would generate $65.6 billion in additional revenue in the 2017-18 financial year, bringing the total revenue to more than $130 billion. He said that, in turn, could pay for a range of benefits requested by his community. I'm not advocating just a tax grab. We've got to put our income taxes down, our small business taxes down, we have to fund roads and infrastructure in the regions more," Dr Gillespie told AM.

People put their lives and souls into small businesses and to be paying payroll tax and high company tax defeats the purposes of all their efforts. David Gillespie "In my part of the world, I have an awful lot of pensioners and people on low fixed incomes and there will be a [consumer price index] increase with this, so we need to compensate them, and increase the base rate of their pension." If the Government adopted Dr Gillespie's plan, it would represent a radical restructure of the way the Commonwealth interacts with the states and territories. Dr Gillespie said in return for the increased revenue from the GST, funding agreements between the Commonwealth and the states and territories worth about $50 billion could be abolished, and inefficient state taxes should also be cut. His suggestions include reducing personal income tax, abolishing state payroll tax and cutting the small business tax to 25 per cent.

Tough decision for Bill Shorten

A popular Prime Minister leading a party praised for its economic management wants to have a national conversation about expanding the GST. This leaves the Opposition Leader in an invidious position, writes Paula Matthewson. "We do have big challenges in our federation, but everyone wants the incentive to work harder and not be taxed, so bracket creep is an issue," he said. "People put their lives and souls into small businesses and to be paying payroll tax and high company tax** defeats the purposes of all their efforts." The Federal Treasury has already modelled a series of changes to Commonwealth taxes like the GST, and is now doing similar work on state taxes as part of the Government's policy development through the federal and tax white papers. In a statement, Treasurer Scott Morrison said they were looking for "the best mix of options that are going to encourage jobs growth and economic growth". Dr Gillespie said state and territory leaders should be attracted to his plan because it would give them a "reliable funding stream".

Speaking from Papua New Guinea during his tour of the Pacific, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said he was prepared to fight the Government if it moved to increase the GST. "I don't believe reform in this country should have to be paid for by people paying extra in their GST, I think there are other ways of making this nation function better," Mr Shorten said.

Nibbles! posted:

I think that was the Mike Baird argument: "it's not regressive if you're compensating lower income earners". Which of course begs the question if you want to spare lower income earners why not just exclude them by taxing elsewhere, and avoid the inflated admin costs that go along with compensating, to begin with.

We know super is a tax haven atm, negative gearing is ballooning every year and the effective tax rate on the highest incomes is effectively 26% or 27%. Then there's multinational tax avoidance.

thatbastardken posted:

Lid posted:

Media Watch having a go at the woman who claimed Prime Ministers were in a secret paedophile ring. It was treated with surprising credence given the situation in the UK.

Media Watch unearthed articles she had previously written that the ring was run by the CIA who received satanic training by Nazi war criminals allowed into Australia.

quote:

“The matter was thoroughly investigated by ACT Policing’s Operation Attest and there was no evidence to substantiate the complainant’s allegations,” ...

quote:

NSW Govt announces $47mil counter-terrorism package for 'at risk' schools Tuesday 3 November 2015 6:50AM (view full episode)

When radicalised Sydney schoolboy Farhad Jabar fatally shot a police employee in Sydney's west, the authorities' attention turned to schools in New South Wales. Now, a month later, the State Government has unveiled a new counter-terrorism strategy aimed at recognising and preventing extremism in the classroom. As part of a new $47 million package, five expert teams made up of psychologists and former principals will be sent to schools identified as being at risk. The program will begin in 2016 and will also include training for existing counselling and teaching staff.

New South Wales Minister for Education, Adrian Piccoli joins Fran Kelly on RN Breakfast.

GoldStandardConure posted:

Did we contract the meals out to Sweeney Todd?

quote:

Justice Minister Michael Keenan on Australia's 'national intelligence super agency' Thursday 5 November 2015 8:06AM (view full episode)

The Federal Government is stepping up its counter terrorism efforts, announcing a new 24-hour 'national intelligence super agency' to better track potential terrorists. It comes amid reports the banks have become the new frontline in the financing of terrorism, which has tripled in the past financial year. The Turnbull Government will today host a meeting of state and federal attorney generals, to discuss counter terrorism efforts.

Justice Minister Michael Keenan joins Fran Kelly on RN Breakfast.

quote:

The purpose of this paper is to shed light on how Australia’s tax and transfer system
functions to distribute income across the population and over lifetimes. This work is not
intended as an evaluation of current policies. Rather, it presents a descriptive analysis of
tax and transfer incidence to inform public debate about the distributive impacts of the tax
and transfer system in the lead up to the development of the Australian Government’s Tax
Options and White Papers.

The Peccadillo posted:

Six thousand bastardly loving pages

quote:

Business Council of Australia urges PM to ensure tax reform package includes cuts to company tax rate Friday 6 November 2015 8:07AM (view full episode)

As the GST debate rages on, the Business Council of Australia (BCA) has urged the Turnbull Government to ensure any tax reform package includes cuts to the company tax rate. The BCA President Catherine Livingstone told a business dinner last night attended by the Prime Minister that nothing would stimulate innovation and economic growth more than 'a reduction in the tax rate for all businesses'. The peak business lobby group backs a lift to the GST, and a broadening of its base, but says any changes have to be part of a broader tax reform agenda that includes tax cuts for business, and for individuals to offset bracket creep.

Chief Executive of the Business Council of Australia, Jennifer Westacott joins Fran Kelly on RN Breakfast.

quote:

(extract)SCOTT MORRISON: Well I think that's a fair comment. It is a fair comment. And the Prime Minister today I think was saying, "Well this is how you gauge your relationship with the Australian people on these things and they will give you the honest feedback about where they think things are." I mean, issues of compensation, for example, but I think that's why it's important to bring facts into the debate. I mean, on compensation matters, when the GST was introduced back in 2001, we have had a compensation package back then and it worked. And equally, although we didn't support the carbon tax and we gave the ultimate compensation by getting rid it of it, the previous government had compensation packages for the carbon tax. So, you can put in place measures and mechanisms on whatever set of options you might like at which do protect the most vulnerable.

quote:

(extract)SCOTT MORRISON: Because - the question assumes that by changing the tax mix, you can't grow the overall economy and grow the revenue base and so I don't share that assumption. Our tax system is actually holding our economy back and we can grow our revenue. Now our revenue is, as we discussed last time, is due and projected to grow over the next few years and will return to above the long-run average and that will be enhanced by a growing economy. But the way you grow your revenue is not by taxing people more, but by having a tax system that encourages growth and I think has the right combination of taxes. And let's not forget the almost $85 billion in taxes and charges levied at a state and territory level. What's on the table is just not the Commonwealth taxes, but all taxes and that's why this is a process we're working with in partnership with the states and territories. The only people that I'm aware of that have publicly advocated an increase in the GST are state governments and former Labor premiers.

quote:

Russian plane crash: British spies uncovered Isil bomb plot

The Telegraph has learnt that an Isil bomb plot was uncovered by British spies, as Obama says a bomb "certainly possible" - yet Russia and Egypt insist it is too early to say

quote:

We are taking very seriously the possibility that there was a bomb on board. We're going to spend a lot of time just making sure our own investigators and own intelligence community find out what's going on before we make any definitive pronouncements. But it's certainly possible that there was a bomb on board.

quote:

British spies uncovered Isil bomb plot
The Egyptian security shutdown was sparked after British spies intercepted messages which showed Isil extremists had plotted a major terror attack in the region, the Telegraph can disclose.
The communications and “chatter” - uncovered by British intelligence only after the Russian passenger jet tragedy - are what led David Cameron to say it was “more likely than not” that a bomb brought the plane down on Saturday killing 224 people.

The intelligence resulted in Britain suspending all flights to and from Sharm el-Sheikh, leaving 20,000 British tourists stranded at the holiday resort. Flights will resume on Friday with 20 aircraft carrying about 4,000 people back to Britain. But passengers were warned they would not be allowed to take luggage in the hold. The move suggests officials fear a bomb was smuggled into the hold of flight 7K9268 in the checked luggage. It came as it emerged Britain raised concerns around baggage handling at Sharm el-Sheikh airport ten months ago.

Birdstrike posted:

I don't know, Cartoon isn't that old is he?

thatfatkid posted:

You are so very smug, please stop trying to dictate what discussions are suitable for these threads.

Also bike helmets are unironically the nanny state run amok, nuclear power is cool and good but so are renewables, bottled water is capitalism at its worst, christmas decorations ??? and gun control is kinda good i guess?

dr_rat posted:

Just going to leave this and the inevitable alp loss of the next election right here:

So looks like shortens not provably criminal corrupt... thats er something I guess.

AWU looks like it might be a bit hosed though.

quote:

The claim: Daniel Webb, director of the Human Rights Law Centre, says Australia is currently spending "more than five times the United Nations refugee agency's entire budget for all of South East Asia" on offshore processing of asylum seekers.

The verdict: Although difficult to pinpoint a final figure, current spending for the 2014-15 financial year based on Senate estimates is comfortably over $1 billion, while the UN's budget for the South East Asia region is $US157 million in 2015. Mr Webb's claim checks out.

Starshark posted:

What's with the captions on the photos of Turnbull, did the editor have a stroke or something?

quote:

Childcare industry fears families worse off under Government changes By political reporter Julie Doyle Posted about 10 hours ago

Childcare providers are warning the most disadvantaged children could drop out of early education because of the Federal Government's planned funding changes. Industry and parents groups are stepping up pressure on the Government to make changes to the package that was unveiled in May. They are worried about a tougher activity test parents will have to meet before they qualify for subsidised child care.

Key points:

Industry representatives say low-income families will be worse off under new child care package
Parental 'activity test' under spotlight with concerns it could lead to some children leaving early education
Education Minister says changes designed to ensure extra funding 'met needs of those most reliant on child care'
Early Learning Association of Australia chief executive Shane Lucas said the Government was taking the wrong approach.

"We certainly think there could be many thousands of families that will be worse off under this package," Mr Lucas said. "And we're very concerned about the notion of children being impacted because of effectively the actions or inactions of their parents. I think one of our concerns all along with the Government's approach to this issue is that it sees early learning and care as fundamentally a workforce participation issue for parents as opposed to how we see it as a great benefit for children."

The overhaul of the childcare sector includes a tougher activity test or higher standard parents have to meet to qualify for Government-subsidised care. Parents have to be working, studying, training or volunteering for a minimum of eight hours a fortnight to qualify for any child care. Lin Hatfield Dodds from UnitingCare Australia said she was concerned about the change. "It seems to us to be an overly bureaucratic measure that's not going to work in the best interest of children," Ms Hatfield Dodds said. "The test actually takes the focus away from the importance of quality services for children and instead it concentrates on how they'll be qualified or disqualified from care depending on their parents' or guardians' circumstances. "We would rather have an activity test focused on the needs of the child."

Changes to affect low-income families

The package also includes changes for low-income families — those earning less than $65,000 a year. As it stands these families can receive 24 hours a week of subsidised child care without meeting any activity test, but the Government wants to halve that to 12 hours a week.

Child care changes explained

New 'activity test' means parents have to be working, studying, training or volunteering for a minimum of eight hours a fortnight to qualify for any child care
Low-income families — those earning less than $65,000 a year — can receive 12 hours per week (down from 24 hours per week) of subsidised child care without meeting the activity test
Legislation to be introduced to Parliament this year with new arrangement to apply from July 2017
Samantha Page from Early Childhood Australia said that was not enough and she was worried children would leave the system.

"That's one of the concerns across the sector that families might drop out, that families with children who would most benefit might drop out," Ms Page said. "For higher-income families that might choose to use in-home care arrangements like nannies — that's their choice, that's their right to choose, we're not trying to keep those kids in the system. The children we're trying to keep in the system are the vulnerable and disadvantaged children who really benefit from access to quality programs. What we'd like is for the Government to guarantee children access to at least two days a week to a quality program regardless of parental activity. And then for access above two days a week to be subject to the activity test. So we agree in-principle with an activity test but we think children should get at least two days a week before that activity test is applied."

Activity test under the spotlight

As part of this process the Federal Government called for submissions on the impact of the proposals. Most submissions identified concerns about the activity test because of the potential impact on children, including the New South Wales Government. Its submission recommended the Federal Government review the activity test and the cut to minimum hours for low-income families. It said the activity test "may impact on national efforts to ensure universal access to quality early childhood education" as some families who did not satisfy the activity test may choose to opt out of formal early childhood education. The submission also said "reducing the minimum hours of subsidised care for vulnerable and disadvantaged children is inconsistent with universal access commitments".

Education Minister Simon Birmingham now has responsibility for child care as well.

Senator Birmingham said the changes were designed to ensure that extra funding met the needs of those most reliant on child care to juggle work and family life. "For many, many Australian families child care is their ability to be able to balance work and family obligations and we're gearing the system to be able to give the greatest support to the families who need it most so that child care does not become the impediment or is not in future the impediment to people going back into the workforce or working more hours to support their family," he said. People in the sector need to recognise and, if need be, adjust their business models to support those families who are looking to provide for their children for six hours a day or four hours a day over three days. Senator Birmingham said the Government was committed to providing early learning opportunities for all children before they started school. "That's why we're investing more than $800 million exclusively in pre-school activities for four-year-old children across the country to guarantee 15 hours of access to pre-school environment," he said.

He rejected the argument that 12 hours a week of subsidised care for low-income families amounted to only one day a week. "Well when people send their children to school — if they're there between the hours of 9am and 3pm — that's six hours a day," Senator Birmingham said. "So the idea that supporting children for 12 hours a week is less than or only equivalent to one day a week is quite ridiculous. And so people in the sector need to recognise and, if need be, adjust their business models to support those families who are looking to provide for their children for six hours a day or four hours a day over three days."

The Government plans to introduce the childcare legislation to Parliament before the end of the year and wants the new arrangements to apply from July, 2017.

Cartoon posted:

DON'T TOUCH THE POOP PLEASE

Au Revoir Shosanna posted:

Plenty of people will argue into their graves disagreeing with this.

quote:

The policies of de-regulation imposed by Thatcher and Reagan led to an era of wrong-doing and institutional banking and financial institutional fraud from which it will take many years for us to recover. Yet even now, there is not a politician who has the gumption or will to face down the financial sector, and impose a regime of control which will work. No-one has gone to jail for any of these frauds or white-collar crimes, truly the fat cats my believe that they are a protected species.

Cartoon posted:

DON'T TOUCH THE POOP PLEASE

Zahki posted:

https://www.reddit.com/r/australia/comments/3s3o1g/i_lived_through_two_riots_on_christmas_island_as/

quote:

Australia's asylum seeker policies under international scrutiny at UN Human Rights Council review Tuesday 10 November 2015 6:19AM (view full episode)

Australia's human rights record has come under high scrutiny by the United Nations, just 24 hours after a Christmas Island Detention Centre riot, which followed the death of an Iranian refugee. Overnight, the UN has been examining Australia's human rights record as part of the four-yearly review undertaken in Geneva. Australia has come under fire for its offshore processing of asylum claims, turning back boats, and holding children in detention. Also raised were concerns about sterilisations of disabled people, and discrimination against Indigenous people.

Benedict Coyne, from the national committee of the Australian Lawyers for Human Rights, joins Fran Kelly on RN Breakfast from UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

quote:

Here is a bit more detail from Peter Dutton about the detainees on Christmas Island.

Many of the people on Christmas Island in the detention centre there, bikies, people that have been committed or convicted of manslaughter, of serious grievous bodily harm charges, sexual assault against children, and we’re not going to tolerate destruction of commonwealth property and those people that have undertaken that sort of behaviour will face the full force of the law.

quote:

He said New Zealanders who served short jail sentences for petty crimes and those who have been charged with a crime but given suspended sentences, make up the bulk of those awaiting deportation. “They’re people you’d have a beer with in the pub,” he said. “They’re not the murderers and rapists [they’re made out to be].” The Australian and New Zealand Greens have lodged a complaint with the Australian Human Rights Commission on the policy.

Australian Greens senator, Sarah Hanson-Young, has labelled it “arbitrary”.

“The automatic nature of these visa cancellations mean that we don’t just have people who have served prison time for serious crimes,” Hanson-Young told reporters on Friday. “We’ve got to get real here. This includes people with traffic offences, who have been caught shoplifting.”

SynthOrange posted:

Just imagine Dutton riding a shopping trolley down a hill.

Splode posted:

I wish you'd been a melamine casualty

Splode posted:

Do we know how many good informative posts on a topic we can have before it deteriorates, or is it just however long it takes negligent to show up?

quote:

High Court rules NT's controversial paperless arrest laws are valid Thursday 12 November 2015 8:34AM (view full episode)

Yesterday, the High Court ruled that the Northern Territory's controversial paperless arrest laws introduced last year were valid. The laws allow police to detain people for 4 hours for minor offences, such as drinking in public, swearing or making too much noise—without filling in any paper-work. Overwhelming, it's been Aboriginal people detained. One Indigenous man has died in custody, which prompted harsh criticism of the laws from the Northern Territory coroner. The Territory's Attorney General, John Elferink, joins RN Breakfast to discuss the High Court ruling, and to respond to serious allegations raised on yesterday about the dire state of the juvenile justice system in the Northern Territory. It's another topic which is disproportionately affecting the Indigenous population in the territory.

QUACKTASTIC posted:

So what, paperwork is just too hard now? What was their justification for this?

hooman posted:

Paperworkless arrests I believe.

freebooter posted:

Like, go ahead and say "they don't have the capacity" or whatever, but... the formula scandal happened 7 years ago. Build factories, expand production. If you're not paying attention to trends you're a bad manager and the market will deservedly eat you alive.

Laserface posted:

Apparently the raw materials required aren't available in quantities they need to ramp up production if the article I read the other day was accurate.

SynthOrange posted:

Abbott throwing a shitfit over being called a human turd.

ewe2 posted:

According to a tweet this article was removed from an edition of the Age on police request and Julian Burnside managed to get a copy:



Australia™

DAAS Kapitalist posted:

I'm sure the whole incident was just a split second action in a dynamic environment.

quote:

Even in today’s era of irregular warfare, the fine art of collecting human source intelligence has in large part become lost thanks to the relative comfort afforded by partner relationships and advances in intelligence technology. This reliance has been coupled with the tendency to lean on practices and procedures that reduce the risk of seeking out and engaging potential human sources.

Vladimir Poutine posted:

There was a decade of optimism in mainstream culture in the west between the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1991 and 9/11 in 2001 that basically got to the point where a lot of popular culture started using aliens and the paranormal as threats in plotlines instead of foreign policy badguys. For people like me in their 20s and early 30s the contrast between now and the climate we grew up in is really jarring.

Cleretic posted:

Isn't France basically just the most racist goddamn country in the EU? I mean yeah, tragedy that it happened at all, but kind of unsurprising that it specifically happened there.

quote:

George Brandis on Australia's terror threat level Monday 16 November 2015 7:35AM (view full episode)

Australia's terror threat level remains under constant review following the terrible events in Paris over the weekend. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who is attending the G20 summit in Turkey, is receiving ongoing briefings from ministers and security agencies concerning the threat to Australia after the Paris attacks. Attorney General George Brandis is a member of the National Security Committee of Cabinet.

George Brandis joins Fran Kelly on RN Breakfast.

Tirade posted:

What makes you so confident that it's a forged passport?

quote:

Whether the passport was planted, stolen, forged or genuine, investigators should find out the truth soon enough. But regardless of what they discover, a wider debate has now begun about the wisdom of letting so many unknown migrants enter Europe through its southern borders, and being allowed to move onwards through the continent with few restrictions. Already, there are calls to step up the policing of Greece’s maritime border with Turkey, and to block the passage of refugees entirely.

Tirade posted:

Saying "let's wait for the facts to shake out" (i.e. what the Guardian article is saying) is very different to saying that it's a confirmed forgery and the media is peddling lies by not reporting it (i.e. what birb katter is saying).

Tirade posted:

But to be clear, the strikes today were almost certainly more than routine - both in size but also in terms of publicity. Hollande would have probably personally given the direction to hit a whole bunch of ISIL targets, which is understandable really.

gay picnic defence posted:

What takes the place of a military campaign against ISIS? Do you think there can be a political solution when you have a horde of violent extremists trying to carve themselves an empire in the middle east? I don't see how any sort of peaceful solution can be reached unless there is some kind of stability in the affected areas, and you aren't going to find stability while ISIS is in control.


As an aside, is it counterproductive to refer to 'Islam' when referring to Islamic extremists like ISIS? I was having this debate with my grandpa who reckons probably the worst thing the West could have done is call ISIS by that name instead of 'daesh' or something because it alienates moderate muslims.


Go to a bunch of supermarkets, buy as much formula as you're allowed and flog it on ebay. Simple.

NoNotTheMindProbe posted:

But why does it sell out? Surely that stuff should be super common and cheap?

Mithranderp posted:

yeah, or that.

From all reports WfD is really prohibitive if you are actually trying to get work, seeing as it takes up a bunch of your prime job-seeking hours. So either reduce the hours, or increase their pay to minimum wage, or both. Both is good.

Seagull posted:

how many more MSF hospitals will we bomb though