The picture of the Daily Telegraph poster on the left was shot today... The one on the right is the real subtext as amended by Gus. 

John Passant examines the Turnbull Government's MYEFO and discovers Abbott's budget cuts — now repackaged and presented by "a silver-tongued leader". 

ON TUESDAY, the Treasurer Scott Morrisonreleased the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO). It confirms that a budget deficit is here to stay for some time.

Every budget and every MYEFO, the prediction for getting into surplus is delayed and this MYEFO is no different. Under the Abbott and Turnbull Governments, the surplus prediction has moved from 2018-19 to 2019-20 and now, to 2020-21.

The May budget deficit prediction for this financial year has increased by $2.3 billion to an estimated $37.4 billion. One reason for this is the collapse in iron ore and other resource prices and hence, in tax, from mining companies. Another major factor is lower than predicted wage increases, which means tax bracket creep isn’t as great and so isn’t bringing in as much extra revenue.

On top of that, the government has revised down Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth predictions from 2.75 per cent to 2.5 per cent. This means, among other things, less spending and hence, less GST and, with less non-mining company profits, less non-mining company income tax.

Such low GDP growth may also see unemployment increase, although this isn't indicated in the MYEFO. The current Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) unemployment figure of 5.8 per cent in November is, in my view, unreliable, given the low level of GDP growth – both actual and predicted – and the questions about the reliability of the changed ABS figures themselves. 

Then again, maybe there are all these low paid weekend jobs being created in services and retail, despite those supposedly high job-destroying penalty rates "holding back" these growing sectors.

Australia’s budget deficit and accumulated Commonwealth Government debt are small by comparison to most Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. So too, are government spending and government revenue as a percentage of GDP. Australia is a low spending, low taxing country.

Many commentators are calling this MYEFO a more sober assessment and approach. It isn’t because the Government continues to use the budget deficit bogy to attack the poor, the unemployed, the aged and the sick. The Government’s proposed "savings" – that is, cuts – of $5 billion come from, among other things, an attack on welfare "fraud".

Last year, only 1366 cases were referred for fraud prosecution. This is 0.02 per cent of all welfare recipients. The government claims this “crackdown" will raise an extra – unbelievable, in my view – $2 billion over three to four years, according to MYEFO. This is fairyland stuff designed more to create a "dole bludger" atmosphere rather than to address the real issues of collapsing revenue and ways to get rid of the tax rorts for the rich and powerful.

With their MYEFO announcements, this Government showed they are no different to Tony Abbott. pic.twitter.com/Fg59CbfUkh

— CFMEU (@CFMEU) December 16, 2015

The government is also proposing to remove bulk-billing incentives for imaging and pathology services — a backdoor Medicare co-payment. MYEFO estimates this will "save" $650.4 million over four years. The saving will mean some people won’t be able to afford the services and may as a result, according to one senior pathologist, die.

There are also cuts in the order of $472 million from aged care funding and $595 million over four years from workforce health programs. After all, (sarcasm alert) who needs a healthy workforce? And how productive are all those old people to society?

Cuts include funding for various arts programs too. Who needs a good book or film when you can read Gina Rinehart’s poetry? (In the interests of journalistic integrity –  or is it? – I should declare that Songs for the Band Unformed [Ginninderra Press], my first volume of poetry, will be published in mid-2016. I hope it is of sufficient quality to compete with Gina’s brilliant work.)

On top of all this, there are $7 billion worth of cuts stalled in the Senate which the Government has also factored into its savings. They are unlikely to pass through the Senate, so the deficit is, if we take away the Pollyanna polish the government is trying to project, another couple of billion worse off this year and into the future.

The 2014 budget exposed the Abbott Government as one that attacked the poor, the unemployed, the sick and the aged. The 2015 MYEFO cuts, that attack the same groups, expose the Turnbull Government as the Abbott Government with a silver-tongued leader.  

.@abc730 @TurnbullMalcolm taking money out of patients pockets #Medicare #auspol#abc730 @_Malcontent_ @johndory49 pic.twitter.com/GPO17P8Kbl

— Lynetta G (@artbylynettag) December 16, 2015

It should open our eyes that the $12 billion or so in superannuation tax benefits, that go to the top 10 per cent of income earners, remain untouched. Similarly, negative gearing and the capital gains tax 50 per cent discount, both of which overwhelmingly favour the rich, remain untouched. It is clearly about priorities and for the Turnbull government, protecting the rich and powerful and attacking workers and the poor, are its priorities.

By the time you read this, the Commissioner of Taxation (Chris Jordan) may well have released histax transparency report on the tax affairs of public companies with a turnover of more than $100 million. Based on the last general figures available from the Australian Tax Office (ATO), this report will detail those one third of public companies which don’t pay income tax. Further, according to theTax Justice Network and United Voice report, ‘Who pays for our Common Wealth?’, a large number of the top 200 Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) listed companies have effective tax rates (the percentage of tax paid on accounting income) of less than 10 per cent — well below the company tax rate of 30 per cent. We will soon find out who they are.

To be fair, the Turnbull Government does have a tax plan. They really want to increase the GST to 15 per cent and apply it to fresh food, health, education, sewage, water and financial services. They want to slug the poor and low paid workers so they can give tax cuts to companies and the rich.

You have to wonder, don’t you? In light of the soon to be released ATO revelations about the massive levels of tax avoidance and use of tax rorts legislated in the system by the rich and powerful, why are Turnbull and Morrison not attacking their tax rorts and tax avoidance? The answer seems pretty clear. This is a government of the rich and powerful.  

John Passant is a former Assistant Commissioner of Taxation in the Australian Taxation Office. He blogs at En Passant on politics from a socialist perspective

 

https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/myefo-abbotts-cuts-repackaged1,8504

Labor's assistant treasury spokesman Andrew Leigh has described the release of the company tax data of some of the nation's highest-earning businesses as the sort of information the Liberal Party never wanted the public to see.

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has released a list showing that nearly 600 of the largest companies operating in Australia paid no tax in the 2013-14 financial year.

More than 1,500 companies with annual incomes of more than $100 million are on the list. The data was released under legislation passed by the previous Labor government.

"The Liberal Party voted against the tax transparency laws when Labor announced them in 2013 and then when they got into office they tried every excuse to wind them back including suggesting that this would lead to kidnap risk," Mr Leigh said.

"[That] explanation [was] described by a particular tax expert as the stupidest excuse for non-disclosure he'd ever heard.

"Individual companies will need to be accountable for today's figures to their customers and their stakeholders.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-12-17/leigh-says-liberals-never-wanted-public-to-see-tax-data/7037958

 

The ATO's recent 'Corporate Tax Transparency Report' is reason to be "screaming from the rooftops for the companies in this list to explain how they have been exploiting us for years", according to former Assistant Commissioner of Taxation, John Passant.

THE AUSTRALIAN TAX OFFICE (ATO) released the 'Corporate Tax Transparency Report' last week.

It shows that 38% of the 1539 public and private foreign companies with turnover greater than $100 million paid no income tax in the 2013-14 financial year.

Recent amendments to the disclosure rules will see the ATO release similar tax details for Australian private companies with turnover greater than $200 million, possibly as early as January 2016. 

This first report specifically names the companies. It shows that 579 big businesses paid no income tax in 2013-14. Let that figure sink in as the government attacks those on welfare, the aged, low paid workers and others and plays around with increasing the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and extending its base to fresh food, health, education, sewage and water.

Among those who paid no income tax were (and this is just a few of the As)

• Adani Abbott Point Terminal Holdings (despite having almost $270 m in gross revenue);
• Australian Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd (with over $3 billion in gross revenue)
• American Express (with sales of $943 million)

Other non-taxables chosen more or less at random include David Jones with over $2 billion in sales revenue, Qantas, with gross revenue of more than $14 billion, its competitor Virgin, with  more than $4 billion in sales, ExxonMobil with more than $9 billion in gross revenue and the University Cooperative Bookshop with sales of $115 million. None had any taxable income or paid any income tax.

News Holdings Australia Ltd had revenue of $2.8 billion but no taxable income and no tax payable. Perhaps Mr Murdoch would like to explain how that comes about.

https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/tax-big-busin...

 

See News Holding product at top left... At top right is Gus' interpretation...

 

2015 was another year of profound shame for Australia’s mainstream media. Alan Austin reports.

THE FEAR-MONGERING, distortions, omissions and outright lies which characterised news reporting through the Labor years have continued. Now they serve to protect a corrupt and incompetent administration rather than destroy a sound one.

Consider this: right now a former state director of a political party is in prison awaiting trial. How much money is he alleged to have stolen? How much of this did he spend on fine wines, restaurants and luxuries? Holidays and travel? Was any spent on sex services? What was the political party? Who appointed him to the top job? Who are his accomplices in senior party ranks? What is his name? Who is his wife?

Hardly anybody knows. The media have agreed to suppress this matter. Compare this with the hounding of Craig Thomson — with screaming headlines for more than five years relating to his theft from a trade union. Blow by blowdetails of police investigations, page after page of tawdry allegations of sexual services, accusations relating to family members, insulting headlines demandinghe be gaoled, humiliating front page caricatures, prominent photos of him indistress, a media camp outside his home and countless attacks on his haplesscolleagues.

Kroger worried about Mantach's wife & children...can't remember anyone worrying about Thomson's wife & children https://t.co/YDtEiTMHfO

— MsTwiterati Nellie (@woolkebb) August 20, 2015

So what are the differences between Damien (what’s his name again?) Mantach (yes, that’s it!) and Craig Thomson? There are three. One was the state director of the political party governing Victoria for most of his period of tenure; the other was a lowly backbencher – one of 72 – from a regional electorate serving his first term in the federal parliament. One is charged with embezzling $1.53 million; the other was eventually found guilty of stealing $5,650.

But, of course, one was Liberal and the other was Labor. All mainstream media joined the sustained, frenzied five-year vilification of Thomson. And all agreed to conceal Mantach’s misdeeds apart from brief reports of the scant facts.

 

read more: https://independentaustralia.net/business/business-display/australias-media-in-2015-a-year-of-distortions-disservice-and-disgrace,8558