Paul Malone’s speculation that the mining sector successfully out-manoeuvred the federal government in negotiating the failed Mineral Resources Rent Tax, might have substance however, so to would my thesis that the government was entirely happy with the outcome, having spared yet another major rent-seeker from having to pay its way, on the one hand, whilst having conned the electorate into thinking that it had ‘done something’ to stop the rip-off of this country’s natural resources by largely foreign-owned multinationals, on the other. 

The simple truth is that if Julia Gillard had been sincere in wishing to impose a genuine super-profits tax on the mining sector, we would have one. The proof of this argument lies in the fact that successive Labor governments since Gough Whitlam have presided over a substantial increase in the percentage of national income going to corporate profits, whilst both the incidence & quantum of company tax being paid by the corporate sector has steadily declined along the way.

At the end of the day, the only difference between Gillard & Abbott or Labor & the Coalition, is a matter of degree.

The political risk of their workplace policy is clearly not lost on Tony Abbott. The Coalition’s industrial relations policies run the risk of not just WorkChoices déjà vu, but it also underlines the potential gap between their philosophy, the expectations of the business and the relatively egalitarian values of suburban and regional Australia.

Abbott timed his IR policy announcement brilliantly — just before budget week. This meant analysis of his scheme was limited too just a day or so in the media, leaving his most contentious claims only partially challenged and somewhat forgotten.

Needless to say, Abbott has been treading very carefully on industrial relations – with the help of some handy three word slogans – while he says Australia has a

“…militancy problem, a productivity problem, and a flexibility problem.

read more: http://www.independentaustralia.net/2013/politics/would-abbott-bring-back-workchoices/

OBSERVERS AWARE of Australia’s extraordinary economy were stunned to hear Opposition leader Tony Abbott’s budget reply speech on Thursday.

Never so many implied falsehoods, bare-faced hypocrisies and blatant lies in the one presentation since … well … since Abbott’s speech at the IPA dinner in April.

Would this be the end of Phoney Tony? Could any leader survive the media onslaught after a hubristic homily with such huge hypocrisies?

Well, not only was media reaction completely devoid of fulmination against the fibs, but it seemed none had even been detected. Somewhat bizarre.

read more: http://www.independentaustralia.net/2013/politics/tony-abbotts-budget-reply-porkie-pies/

The budget is in deficit, but there is a massive surplus. The problem is that it is concentrated in the hands of a tiny minority, and the ALP isn’t seriously interested in touching it, writes Ben Hillier in Socialist Alternative.

According to the Boston Consulting Group’s Global Wealth 2012 report, there are 228 households in Australia each with more than $100 million in financial wealth. A 2012 Capgemini and RBC Wealth Management report found that there were 180,000 individuals with US$1 million or more “at their disposal for investing”. The Forbes Rich List names 22 Australian billionaires, whose combined fortunes totals $73 billion.

Just last week National Australia Bank announced a $2.92 billion profit for the first half of the financial year. A week earlier, ANZ reported a 10 percent rise to $3.2 billion and Westpac reported a record $3.5 billion steal. Back in February, the Commonwealth Bank reported a first half profit of $3.7 billion. In the mining sector, BHP Billiton posted $4.2 billion and Fortescue half a billion. Hancock Prospecting previously posted $3.2 billion for the full year. The retail sector is crying poor, but Myer and Harvey Norman took home $200 million between them.

Yet the business lobby – the representatives of the moneyed few – has been calling on the government to reduce costs for business and lower the company tax rate. This budget is not delivering the business world’s ambit claims, but nor is it really taking back any of what the ruling class has managed to squeeze to their advantage over the last decades. The government plans to increase tax revenue by closing loopholes, deferring income tax cuts and changing some of the rules on coroprate deductions. But most of it is peanuts in the scheme of things.

Treasurer Wayne Swan is blaming a “savage hit to tax receipts”, amounting to $17 billion over the last year and $170 billion since the GFC in 2008, for cutting a hole in its plans to deliver a surplus. It’s all the fault of blind market forces, according to the ALP. But the main reason there is a government deficit is because the government isn’t taxing the rich. This budget does not change that. Australia has the fifth lowest tax to GDP ratio in the OECD – meaning it is one of the lowest taxing governments in the advanced economies. And so it will remain.

The mining companies have effectively taken the collective resource wealth of the country and been allowed to pocket the benefits from its extraction. Fortescue Mining Group hasn’t paid company tax in the last 16 years and took the government to the High Court to try and rule the mining tax unconstitutional. The banks have been able to gouge working class people with mortgages and credit cards for billions of dollars. There is no better word than theft to describe the practices of the banks and the mining companies – but it is perfectly legal.

In fact, the National Accounts show that more than one-quarter of all national income goes to company profits: that’s more than $330 billion every year. Yet, according to Deputy Commissioner of Taxation Jim Killaly, between 2005 and 2008, before the “savage hit” to government revenues as a result of lower tax receipts, 40 percent of big business in Australia paid no income tax. Think about that next time you’re told there’s no money for higher education or decent infrastructure.

It’s not only the corporations, but the ultra rich in general, who are allowed to minimise their taxes through a host of schemes. In early May Tim Colebach, economics editor at the Age newspaper, reported that data from the Tax Office shows 70 people with incomes of more than $1 million paid no tax last year. They collectively “earned” $194 million, while paying their accountants a total of over $30 million to reduce, on paper, their individual taxable income to around $20,000 – and it was perfectly legal.

It seems, and it is, pretty simple that we should dramatically increase taxes on the rich to fund education, health, welfare and infrastructure spending.

Yet the surplus that exists is about more than just money, taxes and profits. The country’s extensive productive assets – the factories, the telecommunications and electricity grids, the roads, the ports, the office buildings and raw materials etc. – provide the basis for a society of abundance; a society in which, at a bare minimum, no one goes hungry and where no one is forced to sleep rough.

The labour that millions of people perform day in and day out – stacking supermarket shelves, harvesting crops, transporting produce, building homes, manufacturing goods etc. – is enough to ensure that social life continues. And we have more labour that could be performed to fix the decrepit schools, expand the public transport networks, get roof over people’s heads etc.

Instead we see government cuts, homelessness, poverty and unemployment. We see factories closing and people struggling to get by, burdened by debt and stress. All because of the concentration of resources in the hands of the wealthy, whose decisions are based primarily on what will deliver them the most profit, rather than what is in the interests of workers. For the wealthy parasites, labour and resources are simply a means to enrich themselves.

Of this there is no doubt: there is an abundance of labour and resources and plenty of work to be done. This is the surplus. It should be under the control of the people who actually do the work, not the millionaires and their politician friends.

There Is A Huge Surplus – In The Hands Of The Super Rich

It has been reported to Wixxyleaks that the wedding has been postponed, however it is not known for how long as yet, or even if it is permanently postponed.

Over the last couple of weeks, there were rumours circulating that Kathy Jackson was indeed wearing white, however not in a bridal sense. The rumours that came from various circles were that Jackson was in a psychiatric facility undergoing treatment.

I did not share these rumours, as last time Jackson was alleged to be in psychiatric care the flowers that were sent to her by her union branch were apparently returned by the hospital because, they said, she wasn’t a patient. Fair to say, I am sceptical.

I cannot confirm the rumour regarding the psychiatric facility, however sources allege Jackson is on heavy medication.

Kathy’s only official role currently is as the National Secretary of the HSU, and she has not shown up for any meetings since July last year. She is currently on extended leave from her HSU role — quite extended it would seem.

As for Craig Thomson, it has emerged that Thomson plans to stand in the next Federal election as an Independent.

Thomson is clearly confident that he will be cleared in court come June, or else he would not be running at all.

Questions raised by Senator George Brandis over his standing while awaiting an appearance in criminal court to answer charges are utterly ridiculous. The election is in September, while the court appearance is in June. Last time that I checked, June came before September, so voters will have around three months to make up their mind after Thomson’s court appearance. My tip would be that if he is found guilty, he won’t be standing, so the fuss will be for nothing.

Also seemingly ridiculous are reports that Thomson did not decide to run as an Independent himself and that the ALP would not endorse him.

Thomson has been an Independent for many months now and if Labor wanted a different candidate they would have pre-selected well before now, I would have thought. Instead, there is still no Labor candidate for the seat of Dobell. I think that tells the real story.

As usual, I will keep you posted as to the goings on in Jacksonville, as there is always something of interest going on.

I should also add, in all sincerity, that if Kathy Jackson is indeed unwell, I wish her a speedy recovery and hope she feels better soon.

(Disclosure: Peter Wicks is a Labor Party member and a former NSW ALP candidate. Catch up on the full Jacksonville saga by clicking here.)

http://www.independentaustralia.net/2013/politics/jacksonville-49-time-inside/

Activist comedian, Rod Quantock, promises you’ll be “apoplectic with fear” (or just plain “scared shitless”) as he takes you with him through the gates of hell into the catastrophic world of runaway global warming.

ALBERT EINSTEIN said:

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former.

Time has shown that Einstein was right to be sceptical about the universe — it has limits and bounds in space and time.

And science, that pinnacle of rationality, measures the pulse of the planet. The prognosis – we are about to open the gates of hell and throw our children through them. It’s the climate, you see, we’re changing it, and as far as the climate is concerned a change is as good as a holocaust.

But before we go any further, take a moment to complete the following questionnaire.

I, (insert name)

a) don’t expect to be alive in 2050; or

b) do expect to be alive in 2050.

If you answered a) you’re a winner! You have lived a full, happy, healthy life in the best of all possible carbon-fuelled worlds. In your wake, a decades-long trail of ecological devastation and carbon dioxide emissions. But hey, you won’t be around when the CO₂ really hits the fan, so jackpot, you win! If you don’t know want to know what happens when the CO₂ really hits the fan, and believe me, you don’t, stop reading now. Spare yourself the torments of pitiless despair and remorseless guilt and watch a kitten on YouTube.

We’ll give you a minute.

---

If you’re still reading, why don’t you join those who answered b) and follow me?

Okay, here we are. Make yourselves comfortable; tea, coffee and Nembutal are over there. Right, well let’s not beat around the bushfires — the climate is changing. The science has been in for decades, and not just any science, it’s every science: physics, chemistry, biology, geology, palaeontology, microbiology, meteorology and a hundred other mutually informed ologies all know we are changing the climate, how we are changing it and how fast we are changing it. (It’s really fast!)

The symptoms of our rising fever are evident everywhere — the hottest day, the hottest month, the hottest year, the hottest decade, the longest drought, the worst floods, the worst fires, the worst storms, the highest rate of species extinction. And all these symptoms will increase in fury, sweeping away the livelihoods and lives of millions. Hunger, disease and resource wars will take millions more.

....

(Deputy editor’s note: we at IA pride ourselves on publishing stories mainstream media reject! Rod’s blistering wake-up call was passed up by The Age with the comment: “about time someone told it like it is but we have no space”!)

read more: http://www.independentaustralia.net/2013//humour/rod-quantock-global-warmings-just-not-funny/

Note: Here at YD, we've been on the case of global warming since 2005.... Gus has personally been on the case since 1979.

Finance Minister Penny Wong says the Opposition leader cannot be trusted.

"I think when it comes to nasty surprises, he made clear last night that his game plan is all about nasty surprises," Senator Wong told AM.

She seized on the Coalition's promise to conduct a comprehensive audit of all government spending if it wins the election in September.

"A commission of audit is nothing more than a commission for cuts, and he made clear last night where he would want to go, where Liberals always go, which is to hit working Australians," she said.

"That's what Liberals do, and that's what he made clear last night. And he will go further should he become prime minister."

Superannuation Minister Bill Shorten says the Opposition's plan to save $1.1 billion per year by delaying a planned increase in superannuation contributions will hurt low income workers the most.

"I worked out last night, that if you're a 30-year-old, earning average full-time wages, man or woman, the delay in the superannuation, if in fact they ever increase it at all, is going to cost you $20,000 by the time you retire," he told ABC News 24.

"Tony Abbott is going to make sure that the age pension will have to go up, and not enough people will have enough money to retire on."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-05-17/abbott-accused-of-hiding-cuts-until-after-election/4695820

Anyone, who believes Tony Abbott, has a "common sense deficiency" and a "reality bypass"... Tony Abbott lies and throws burley in the pond to catch fish... YOU.

He'll cook you on his BBQ with many sauces — from draconian Industrial Relations to stupid Health policy — and you will be lucky if you still have a job...

Ross Jones presents Independent Australia’s highly affordable response to Opposition Leader Tony Abbott’s budget reply.

I JUST listened to Tones’ budget reply.

The first thing that struck me was his voice. Like NRL caller Ray Warren, who always sounds like an ocker turning on a posh accent for his prospective mother-in-law, Tones was clearly putting it on.

Sugar-coated by this sentence:

‘My three children are still in the education system, and Margie, my wife, works in community-based childcare so my family knows something of the financial pressures on nearly every Australian household.’

Apart from the limos and the lunch stuff.

And who the hell are the ‘forgotten families of Australia’? Is it me? And who has forgotten me? Is it government? I don’t think so. Not Treasury that’s for sure.

According to the Tonester, he’d like to provide and ‘alternative budget, but instead he’d really prefer to set out an ‘alternative vision’. Sort of like Carlos Castenada. In a suit.

Tones also ventured he would observe the

‘…first maxim of good government; namely to do no avoidable harm.’

Let’s have a little look at that sentence. I can see three problems: Do; No avoidable; Harm.

It wasn’t me: I couldn’t help it; what? It’s for the common good.

I love this bit:

‘The smart way to improve the environment is not to impose a new tax on the way every Australian lives and works but to reduce emissions via common sense environmental improvements that every one can support; by planting more trees on otherwise marginal land, by boosting the carbon content of soil into an input into the production of stock feed and bio-diesel.’

Where do you start? Who wrote this crap?

I heard Cory Bernadi on the radio the other day alleging subscribers to his twitter feed were attracted by his ‘common sense’. It’s code for ‘if you don’t agree with me you are stupid’. It’s an insult. It’s also an out.

And Tones’ environmental centrepiece:

‘…planting trees on marginal land.’

Well, it’s marginal.

Has Tones ever been to rural Australia? Apart from in a sleeper cab. When the sheep die, plant a tree.  It’ll be fine.

And how, exactly, do you boost the carbon content of soil? Put the coal back? Defrack?

And then Tones is going to turn this carbon-enriched dirt into cattle feed! That’s up there with temporal deity stuff. We will feed the cows! And, as it turns out, under the Coalition, the same dirt can power your Hyundai.

Far out.

‘As thing stand’, alleges Tone, ‘we have a Parliament that can’t make decisions people respect’, like NDIS, and worse, ‘a prime minister who looks like she is not up to the job.’

You wish. Yet another case of Abbott projection.

http://www.independentaustralia.net/2013/politics/tony-abbotts-cut-price-budget-reply/

Pope Francis has called on world leaders to end the "cult of money" and to do more for the poor, in his first major speech on the financial crisis.

Free market economics had created a tyranny, in which people were valued only by their ability to consume, the pontiff told diplomats in the Vatican.

"Money has to serve, not to rule," he said, urging ethical financial reforms.

Meanwhile, the Vatican's own bank announced it would publish its annual report for the first time.

The Institute for Works of Religion, which has been at the centre of various financial scandals in recent years, is to hire an external accountancy firm to ensure it meets international standards against money laundering.

The bank would launch a website and publish its annual report in an effort to increase transparency, new president Ernst Freyberg said.

The institute is considered one of the world's most secretive banks.

Pope Francis said life had become worse for people in both rich and poor countries, the BBC's David Willey in Rome reports.

In a biblical reference, the pontiff said the "worship of the golden calf" of old had found a new and heartless image in the current cult of money.

He added that reforms were urgently needed as poverty was becoming more and more evident.

People struggled to live, and frequently in an undignified way, under the dictatorship of an economy which lacked any real human goal, Pope Francis said.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22551125