Summary: This week’s episode contains some static in Dave’s audio, we’ll try to have the problem fixed before next week. This week everyone gets a massive gets a massive cut to their power bill that you can bank on totally check your next one, Joe’s making threats, Clive’s giving himself tax cuts, Tony’s stamping his feet, the ATO’s losing its ability to chase tax cheats, Thorpey’s under attack, and most importantly the Australian newspaper is fifty years old everybody party THE FOCUS GROUP The Carbon Price is No More! Australia now with no policy to even achieve the minimum 5% greenhouse gas reduction we’ve signed up to in international agreements. Labor’s brief window of power over - first Tony declares that the ALP, not PUP, was behind his difficulties in the Senate last week, and then… Shockingly, unexpectedly, totally contrary to anything anyone expected, the Govt and Clive Palmer figure out their differences on Palmer’s Amendment (which Miranda calls a “250% company tax” bc she doesn’t understand the difference bw taxes and fines). Despite, as Greg Jericho points out, the scheme’s success in reducing emissions without harming the economy. Weirdly, govt making exceptions for businesses not to pass on carbon tax “savings” to consumers: like the refrigerant costs they based part of their anti-carbon price campaign on. Ben Eltham, in the increasingly excellent New Matilda, points out that what we’ve just seen is a mining billionaire vote to increase his own costs - that the amendments about electricity and gas companies passing on savings will save HIS companies hugely, but they don’t require HIS companies to reduce prices. But the Budget! Joe Hockey cracks it with the Senate, threatening to cut other, unidentified, government spending if senators make good their threats to block billions in budget savings - “It’s not retribution if the choices made by other political parties are so flawed,” he told the ABC… “It is something a lot of the senators need to think carefully about.” Other Libs thank Joe for the own goal. Meanwhile, 25 leading Australian economists (ie not Judith Sloan or Henry Ergas) call bullshit on the “budget emergency”, thus ensuring they’ll never be published in The Australian again. The ABC fires up with hacks like Deloitte rent-a-quote Chris Richardson to tell us how devastated the budget will be if the cuts aren’t passed, without asking him where he was when Tony was ramming his revenue cuts through. The Coalition sacking more than 2000 ATO staff to “save money” will cost budget at least as much as it saved, best case, but up to $1bn since these compliance officers bring in between 1 and 6 times their salaries. The only winners will be corporate tax cheats. New Lib senator James McGrath wants a Triple J flogged off and the ABC punished for “bias” But the Economy! Clive makes a deal with the Coalition to help them water down the financial advice regulations while pretending he’s put some protections in place David Murray’s financial system inquiry releases first report pointing out that Labor’s superannuation system is fundamentally broken, with tax concessions for the rich who don’t need it costing vastly more than any pensions would have, and there not being a sensible low-fee option like other countries have achieved. RBA notices that houses are now so expensive that unless they skyrocket even further, commencing home ownership is now a worse investment than paying rent for the rest of your life. Which the Oz uses as an excuse to call for policies to make housing even less affordable Unemployment hits 6% and Greg Jericho wonders if maybe voters actually care more about unemployment than claims about the budget bottom line Other Libs having a bad week. Propaganda mouthpiece of corrupt brutal
