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Showing posts from April, 2010

Media wrap - The tax spin begins

POLITICS AND ECONOMICS Taxation Treasurer's tax system overhaul may benefit businesses - Australia's biggest companies will receive a tax break while the paperwork burden for small business will be slashed in a historic overhaul of the tax system - Adelaide Advertiser Miners' fury at double tax burden - Mining companies have warned that their profits are facing a multi-billion-dollar hit from the introduction of a resource rent tax, as West Australian Premier Colin Barnett accused the industry of naivety if it assumed he would ease the tax burden by abolishing state-based royalties - The Australian Economic matters Victoria's budget will confirm slow recovery from crisis - The first state budget to be delivered this year will confirm a slow recovery from the global financial crisis, with Victoria losing $3.8 billion in expected revenue between 2008 and 2012 - The Australian Population Tony Abbott sets population target of 29 million people - Tony Abbo

Media wrap - Cigarettes: First the packaging then the taxing

POLITICS AND ECONOMICS The fags Cigarettes to come in plain pack - Cigarette packs will be stripped of company logos, colours and brand imagery from January 2012 in a bid to slash the nation's smoking rate to 10 per cent - Sydney Daily Telegraph Plainly, cigarette packets get the stub - Cigarettes will be sold in plain packages from January 2012 as Kevin Rudd introduces the world's most draconian anti-smoking laws, in a move likely to spark a legal challenge from multinational tobacco companies - The Australian Health and hospitals Former ally David Penington savages Kevin Rudd's 'status quo' health reforms - David Penington, a senior fellow at Melbourne's Grattan Institute who initially backed the deal Kevin Rudd struck with the states, said yesterday he was "appalled at the lack of any agreement on governance that differs from the status quo", and had little faith any real change would be forthcoming from the reforms - The Australian E

Media wrap -More power for the spies

POLITICS AND ECONOMICS Emissions trading Rudd in ETS backflip - Kevin Rudd has dramatically shifted his position on climate change, declaring Australia will decide the future of its proposed emissions trading scheme when it sees what other countries do. In another big backdown, the government has put the scheme off until 2013 at the earliest - saying it remains committed to it but leaving its timing and detail vague - Melbourne Age MPs fear Kevin Rudd losing control - Concerns are growing within the federal government that Kevin Rudd is losing control of the political agenda after a series of policy reversals capped off by the dumping of Labor's key climate change policy. The Prime Minister's decision to delay the ETS will save billions in the May 11 federal budget, while the NSW government immediately said consumers would no longer face the massive electricity price rises - up to 46 per cent - that had been predicted - The Australian A tale of two senates: bad for th

Media wrap - Victorian Labor tries a primary for a pre-selection

POLITICS AND ECONOMICS Economic matters Rates tipped to top 8 per cent - Interest rates will be pushed above "normal" in the next year, a key forecaster has predicted, but the WA economy will accelerate and deliver more jobs and higher wages to a strongly growing population - The West Australian Welfare Plunge in work-for-dole cases - The work-for-the-dole program has been slashed by half in the past five years, sparking accusations the Rudd government has gone soft on dole recipients by allowing them to avoid mutual obligation - The Australian Political life Buswell facing the axe - The axe was poised to fall on hapless Treasurer Troy Buswell last night after he admitted misusing public money during his affair with Fremantle Greens MP Adele Carles. The West Australian understands that an exasperated Premier Colin Barnett will sack Mr Buswell when the two men meet this morning, with Mr Barnett expected to take over the Treasury portfolio just three weeks befor

Media wrap - the voters are grumpy and governments are on the nose

POLITICS AND ECONOMICS Economic matters Swan resists IMF, Obama on bank tax - Wayne Swan has voiced the Rudd government's opposition to a proposed global tax on banks to pay for the costs of shutting down failed financial institutions - The Australian No quick fixes in Henry tax review: Swan - The Henry review into the tax system was likely to help frame federal budgets over the course of a decade and would be offering no quick fix, according to the federal Treasurer, Wayne Swan - Sydney Morning Herald Henry Review may make tax returns easier - The Henry Review into taxation might make it easier for people to file their tax returns, Treasurer Wayne Swan has hinted - Melbourne Age Kevin Rudd's mean green sting - Pensioners who fix solar panels to their home and sell excess electricity back to the power company will have any credit or rebate counted as income and their pension payments cut - Melbourne Herald Sun Pain in CPI surprise - Economists say while an inte

Media wrap - A chaperone for the doctor

POLITICS AND ECONOMICS Taxation Families lost out in Budget - Working families will not get further tax relief or family payment increases in this year's Budget because most are almost $4000 better off under Labor, the Rudd Government says - Melbourne Sunday Herald Sun Alcohol industry at war over threat to our cheap wine - High-end winemakers are at loggerheads with bulk wine producers over how to respond to the release next week of the Henry tax review that will recommend Australia move to a volumetric tax on wine - Sydney Sun Herald Education Private school fees set to jump under Gillard review - Education Minister Julia Gillard has pledged that private schools will not lose funding, in terms of dollars per student, when a new model is introduced in 2013. But principals fear funding could be effectively ''frozen'', with no new money to cover inflation and soaring education costs - Melbourne Sunday Age Elections Libs will take on Nats for Riverina

Media wrap - Peter Garrett finds a defender in The Australian

POLITICS AND ECONOMICS Taxation Miners face billions in new taxes - Australian mining companies face a massive new tax of at least $5 billion a year as the federal government plans to stack a resources rent tax on top of the $7bn miners pay in state royalties - The Australian Henry tax review released on May 2 - The government has finally bowed to pressure to release the long-awaited Henry Tax Review -- already dubbed by the opposition a Trojan horse hiding big tax shocks. The report -- and Canberra's response to its recommendations -- will emerge on Sunday, May 2, giving the government just over a week to clear the air before the budget on May 11 - The Australian Tax review could spare tax returns - The Federal government will finally release the long-awaited Henry review of the taxation system tomorrow week, nine days before the federal budget. The centrepiece of the government's response will be reforms to spare ordinary Australians the hassle of filing annual tax

Media wrap - Now it's time for broken promises

POLITICS AND ECONOMICS Broken promises Broken childcare, insulation promises humiliate PM - The Rudd government has broken a key election promise on childcare, and abandoned its commitment to revive its disastrous home insulation scheme, in a day of humiliating backdowns - Melbourne Age Insulation, childcare pledges axed as poll looms - Sydney Morning Herald Pork barrels Audit finds roads scheme slush fund - The former Howard government's $400 million roads funding scheme could be seen as a political slush fund, according to a scathing audit report that shows projects in Coalition-held electorates had a much greater chance of being funded - Melbourne Age Privatisation Treasurer accused of misleading Parliament over Lotteries sale - NSW Treasurer, Eric Roozendaal, has been accused of misleading Parliament after he told the Legislative Council: ''No complaint has been made by any of the unsuccessful bidders about the Lotteries sale process'' - Sydne

Media wrap - A Hospitals "victory" analysed

POLITICS AND ECONOMICS Health and hospitals Confident PM sets the stage for election - Kevin Rudd has used political bribery and brute force to wrest from the states a new Commonwealth power over hospitals - Sydney Morning Herald Barnett defies Rudd on health deal - WA Premier Colin Barnett is standing in the way of Kevin Rudd's landmark health reforms, refusing to surrender a third of WA's GST revenue despite the Prime Minister increasing Federal inducements to $5.4 billion - The West Australian Health a done deal even without WA: Rudd - Western Australia Premier Colin Barnett is backing away from his initial view that a health deal struck between the Commonwealth and the Labor states and territories could fall over without his support - The West Australian Kevin Rudd's historic health reform deal finalised after negotiations with Premiers - Adelaide Advertiser Rudd's health revolution - The federal government will cut a separate GST revenue deal with

Media Wrap - And now for a hospitals plebiscite?

POLITICS AND ECONOMICS Polls Labor whacked on boatpeople in Newspoll - There has been a huge swing to the Tony Abbott-led Coalition on who is best to handle the issue of asylum-seekers arriving in Australia, with the Liberals holding almost a two-to-one advantage over the Rudd government. Based on preference flows at the last election, Labor leads the Coalition with an election-winning two-party-preferred vote of 54 to 46 per cent - The Australian Asylum policy scuttles Labor - Tony Abbott has clawed back Labor's lead over the Coalition, stealing a march on border protection while the government has been marking time on the issue of health reform - The Australian ALP continues to lead Coalition according to latest Newspoll - Melbourne Herald Sun Health and hospitals Rudd plans appeal to Australia over health - The Federal Government will hold a plebiscite - a national opinion poll - to win a mandate for its changes to hospital funding if the states reject his propo