Thursday 28th of March 2024

not a question of politics... wink wink say no more...

 

hum...

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said he’s yet to be convinced of the benefits of increasing the goods and services tax unless it boosts economic growth and employment.

The government, which is expected to hold an election in the second half of the year, is looking at an overhaul of the taxation system, including a potential increase in the GST to 15 percent from 10 percent.

“Whatever policies we take as part of our tax reform package will be ones that we are satisfied will deliver the growth and jobs outcome that we want,” the Liberal Party leader told the ABC “Insiders” program on Sunday.

An increase in the GST by itself would be negative because the question remains what you do with the proceeds, Turnbull said. He said he wants taxes as a percentage of Australia’s gross domestic product to come down.

Turnbull referred to the argument that says the extra A$30 billion in revenue generated by a higher GST could be used to reduce personal income taxes once people on low incomes and on welfare have been compensated.

“It’s not a question of politics here,” he said. “At this stage I remain to be convinced, to be persuaded, that a tax mix switch of that kind would actually give us the economic benefit that you’d want in order to do such a big thing.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-02-06/australia-s-turnbull-yet-to-be-convinced-of-gst-increase-benefit

 

Come on Malcolm, you're a fucking expert. Stop dithering and fence-sitting. Take the plunge one way or the other. Make a fucking decision.

 

a very tempting lolly for the lazy politician...

"It's not a question of politics here," he said on ABC Insiders. "At this stage, I remain to be convinced or persuaded that a tax mix switch of that kind would actually give us the economic benefit that you'd want in order to such a big thing."

He said changing the GST is complex and would need careful consideration from all angles. 

"You have to first decide: is this policy going to give you the economic outcome you want? Then you have to assess the practical politics. With the GST income tax swap proposal, it has not yet passed that first test and that's what the analysis is being undertaken," he said.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull last week appeared to cast doubt that his government would go ahead with a change in the GST as part of its tax reform package.

http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2016/02/07/pm-turnbull-not-convinced-case-gst-increase

insecure work does not work...

 

In Germany, the encroachment of “non-standard employment relationships” in casual, contract, labour hire or other insecure arrangements has risen to a total of 20% across its mainly service-based economy, and it’s provoking a national discussion about thesocial impacts of insecure work.

But in Australia, we are already at 40%. A full quarter of our working population receive no sick or paid leave.

And with the federal government applying screws to healthcare affordability at the same time they’re considering a 50% GST increaseattacking unions and going after penalty rates, there has never been a more exciting time to examine the precarious reality faced by Australia’s own workforce as their pay and conditions are exploited and their safety nets ripped up.

Such a discussion is, at least, happening in Victoria. Monday will the first day of public hearings in Melbourne for a Victorian inquiry into insecure work and the labour hire industry that’s sprouted around it.

The inquiry was a pre-election promise by the premier, Daniel Andrews, however the state minister for industrial relations, Natalie Hutchins, began the inquiry in September 2015 off the back of the 7-Eleven scandal, a shocking Four Corners investigation into workplace abuses within the food supply chain and a cascade of subsequent exposures into sham contracting and exploitation of insecure work across several different industries.

.

http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/commentisfree/2016/feb/07/insecure-work-loss-of-entitlements-underpayment-its-all-in-a-days-work

 

 

Insecure work does not make anyone work harder or better. All it does in increase the sickness, the resentment, the despair and the financial trauma for most. The word slavery enters the mind. As most of the poor would not pay much income tax, a generous government reduction of such would NEVER OFFSET a rise in GST.  Other costly mechanism such as increased welfare would have to be added to the mix, adding more levers to an economy with too many levers designed to keep the poor in poverty.

 

turnbull, waiving a broken stick...

As threats go it was as hollow as a Halloween pumpkin.

Malcolm Turnbull had Victorian Senator John Madigan on the phone on Tuesday and the Prime Minister was in persuasion mode.

Madigan should get onboard and support the reintroduction of the Australian Building and Construction Commission as result of the damning findings of the trade union royal commission, the PM told him.

If he and his fellow recalcitrants on the crossbench refused, Madigan would be facing a snap double-dissolution election, Turnbull warned.

The threat of a 'double-D' is supposed to instil fear in senators, most of who have served less than two years of their six-year terms.

Crossbenchers are elected via the micro party preference lottery and getting re-elected is like a Lotto millionaire following up with a Powerball win.

But Turnbull hadn't done his homework.

Madigan is the only crossbencher of eight whose term ends in 2016 and a double-dissolution would suit him fine.

All senate seats are up for grabs in a double-D, meaning the quota to get elected is halved. That makes it exactly half as difficult for Madigan, the slow-talking former blacksmith, to get re-elected in that scenario.

In any case, Glen Lazarus, Jacquie Lambie, Ricky Muir and Nick Xenophon – the other critical missing votes for the government on the building watchdog – all called the PM's bluff on an early poll, inviting him to "bring it on".

Turnbull's backfiring popgun on the ABCC was emblematic of a week in which the sunshine and "agility" agenda of 2015 was mugged by the much larger issues that will dominate election year 2016.

Turnbull was still talking up the "frontiers of change" and "brilliant young men and women coming up with new applications" in response to his first question time Dorothy Dixers.

But when pushed sideways on to the more dangerous terrain of tax reform and education funding, Mr Agility appeared to have a bit of concrete in the boots.


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/comment/the-week-when-turnbulls-agility-agenda-was-hit-by-the-realities-of-an-election-year-20160205-gmmnay.html#ixzz3zRUjQZeK 
Follow us: @smh on Twitter | sydneymorningherald on Facebook

nearly fully rejected...

 

Some brutal things have been said about Malcolm Turnbull during his long career in public life – that he's narcissistic, bullying, volatile, duplicitous, disingenuous – but no-one has yet proposed that he is certifiably insane.

He may be certifiably insane. We will soon see. If he commits his government to increasing the GST from 10 per cent to 15 per cent, he will be certifiably, clinically, incurably insane.


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/comment/is-malcolm-turnbull-insane-we-shall-soon-find-out-20160207-gmnqky.html#ixzz3zVzaCwQe
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Federal Government ministers have told the ABC the Coalition has abandoned the idea of lifting the Goods and Services Tax (GST), but its tax plans may still contain some bold ideas.

Key points:
  • Ministers say GST hike now off the table
  • Reports receive mixed reaction from backbench
  • Government warned to proceed carefully with tax reform

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull all but confirmed the decision to take a GST hike off the table, when he said it had not passed the "first test" of delivering economic growth.

"At this stage I remain to be convinced or persuaded that a tax mix switch of that kind would actually give us the economic benefit you'd want in order to do such a big thing," Mr Turnbull told Insiders.

Ministers have told the ABC it would be sensible to officially end the debate around the GST soon, but that tax reform would still have to be delivered in the federal budget in May.

 

read more: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-08/no-gst-hike-in-government-tax-plans-ministers-say/7147298

 

See toon at top

 

surviving on charity from business...

 

According to the Labor Party's rising star, Senator Sam Dastyari, 10 big companies control our political process. They are the four big banks, three big mining companies, the two big grocery chains and the one big telco, Telstra.

The only surprise in that list was his third miner, not the foreign-owned Glencore Xstrata – to go with the foreign-owned BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto – but the largely Australian-owned Fortescue Metals.

I doubt it's quite that simple but, on the other hand, I doubt many people would believe me if I claimed that big business had no great influence on our politicians.

You don't need to look far to find evidence of the power wielded by "the big end of town".

Consider the fate of the mining tax. First Julia Gillard allowed the original big three miners to redesign the tax to their own satisfaction, hugely reducing its revenue-raising potential, then Tony Abbott abolished it.

Or consider the banks. Whenever they fail to pass on in full to home buyers a cut in the official interest rate, the pollies on both sides are loud in their condemnation. But they never actually do anything.

Since the global financial crisis they haven't been game to make the one big change we need, obliging the banks to choose between their government guarantees and their right to continue engaging in speculative market trading.

When the former Labor government responded to the various cases of bank-owned outfits giving appalling advice to small investors by tightening up the rules and limiting the use of commissions, first Labor toned down its investor protections in response to bank objections, then the incoming Coalition government attempted to tone them down a lot more.

And any number of farmers and small suppliers will tell you Woollies and Coles are allowed to get away with murder.

It's tempting to think the economy is controlled for the benefit of big business, not mere consumers.

But there are plenty of counter examples. Take Malcolm Turnbull's decision not to make changes to the goods and services tax.

Who do you think was pushing hardest for the GST to be raised? They hoped the proceeds would be used to cut the rate of company tax.

The point is that politicians survive only by getting enough votes, and each of us gets a vote but companies get none. Turnbull turned away from the increased GST because he feared the economic benefits from a change wouldn't be sufficient to justify the risk of losing many votes.


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/comment/big-business-has-big-influence-on-politics-20160209-gmp3m1.html#ixzz3ziGbWUSV
Follow us: @smh on Twitter | sydneymorningherald on Facebook

Meanwhile at the world cash-flow headquarters:

...

By contrast, when the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund lends cheap money to developing countries, it imposes conditions on what they can do with it. To have the desired effect, QE should have been accompanied not only by official efforts to restore impaired lending channels (especially those directed at small- and medium-size enterprises), but also by specific lending targets for banks. Instead of effectively encouraging banks not to lend, the Fed should have been penalizing banks for holding excess reserves.

While ultra-low interest rates yielded few benefits for developed countries, they imposed significant costs on developing and emerging-market economies. An unintended, but not unexpected, consequence of monetary easing has been sharp increases in cross-border capital flows. Total capital inflows to developing countries increased from about $20bn in 2008 to over $600bn in 2010.

At the time, many emerging markets had a hard time managing the sudden surge of capital flows. Very little of it went to fixed investment. In fact, investment growth in developing countries slowed significantly during the post-crisis period. This year, developing countries, taken together, are expected to record their first net capital outflow – totaling $615bn – since 2006.

Neither monetary policy nor the financial sector is doing what it’s supposed to do.


read more: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/02/what-s-holding-back-the-global-economy