Tips and rumours

More malfeasance from the banks (keep an eye on the upcoming commission)?  The roller-coaster around company tax cuts takes another turn, and Keneally drags The Australian.

From the Crikey grapevine, the latest tips and rumours …

Pushing the boast out. Anyone paying a scintilla of attention to the events of the royal commission into banking couldn’t help but feel a combination of legitimate shock, as well as shock at your lack of shock. It’s as bad as you suspected. And it’s getting worse. A tipster tells us a particularly galling story of a bank worker “boasting about how they had changed the payment due date on credit accounts by a day, thus reaping a small fortune in fines”. We’re sure yet more stories of this nature will be uncovered when the next round of hearings commences on May 21.

Tax cuts? Saul good, man. It can be tricky following the tax cut debate. This week Crikey reported that Marco Rubio criticised the Trump tax cuts, saying they’d done nothing for American workers. The following day, Politico reported that Rubio had “walked back” his criticism. But then, Rubio tweeted that he not merely hadn’t “walked back” his comments, he had “doubled down” (two political cliches for the price of one there). So what’s his position? He explains in a series of tweets: there are a lot of net positives in tax reform, he had no problem with cutting the corporate tax rate, but not for multinationals — instead, that part of the tax cut should have gone to “working families”.

Meantime, one of Australia’s most respected economists, Saul Eslake, has weighed in with a speech in Canberra last night. Eslake believes the government’s wage growth forecasts are “barely credible” and it should be using its revenue windfall to ensure the return to surplus isn’t undermined by weak wage growth, rather than spending it. And he believes the argument for company tax cuts is “quite weak”, arguing that dividend imputation cruels the theory that lower company tax will increase investment. Worse, he can’t find any evidence that company tax cuts produce the benefits claimed for them:

“More generally, as I set out to find evidence to support the standard theoretical proposition as to the effects of cutting company tax rates, I have struggled to find any that I can regard as persuasive. And so, it would seem, has the government. They’ve certainly not been able to point to any contemporary or recent examples of where cuts in company tax have produced the results suggested by economic theory.”

Seems like there’s a compelling course of action for the Business Council, and its media cheerleaders: better call Saul.

ME ME ME. With all the understandable recent focus on the big banks, it’s worth remembering its not always a picnic at the smaller operators either. A tipster received a letter yesterday from ME bank, warning of a raise on the interest on their home loan. They give three reasons: 

“Rising US interest rates have pushed up short-term interest rates in Australia, increasing our funding costs. Also we must continue to transition our funding mix to ensure the requirements of the Net Stable Funding Ratio (a new banking regulation designed to strengthen banks) will be met — also increasing our funding costs. At the same time, industry reforms and increasing regulatory obligations are increasing our compliance costs.”

We’ve been warned about the possible effects of a jump in US interests rates, but as far as the tipster is concerned, “customers are paying for poor planning, and poor practices by the banks”

Kristina Keneally’s Kartoon Klapback. Yesterday The Australian answered the question, what’s worse than employing a bigoted cartoonist? The answer is a bigoted cartoonist with no talent. Say what you want about Bill Leak, you got the gag instantly, even if it was appalling and unfunny much of the time. Thursday’s effort from Rod Clements depicts Labor senator Kristina Keneally as the “wicked witch of the left” (because she’s a high profile woman, you see) sending out tweets and saying “fly my pretties fly”. A diminutive bloke next to her (we’re guessing it’s supposed to be former NSW Labor Senator Sam Dastyari) says “monkeys would have been better” and if anyone can explain to Ms Tips what the actual joke is supposed to be, the comments section is right there.

Keneally, for her part, took to Twitter to respond in a way that was both funnier and more coherent than the cartoon, but also far more gracious than the situation required. Her retort claimed she would never wear a such a shapeless black dress, a line one can imagine being delivered while distractedly filing one’s nails.

Keneally’s time in the media, specifically Sky News seems to have paid off, in giving her a freewheeling, relaxed approach to her social media. Praps she’s the new Dasher in more ways than one? 

*Heard anything that might interest Crikey? Send your tips to boss@crikey.com.au, use our guaranteed anonymous form or other ways to leak to us securely