Crikey Worm: the fight is on over Turnbull’s tax cuts

TAX SLASH

New analysis by the independent Parliamentary Budget Office shows that the Coalition’s personal income tax package will cost $24 billion a year by the end of the ten-year plan, and amount to the largest income tax cut in Australian history.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that the costings, commissioned by the Greens, outline the second and third stages of the income tax cut package after the Coalition repeatedly refused requests to outline year-on-year costings.

While Labor has indicated support for stages of the package targeting lower income workers, both the ALP and Greens will likely use today’s Senate committee inquiry to scrutinise the third and final stage of the package. This stage would increase the threshold for the 45% tax rate from $180,000 to $200,000, apply a single flat-tax rate of 32.5% to all taxpayers between $41,000 and $200,000, and cost $41.6 billion by 2028-29.

WINTER IS COMING

SA Health will reopen a 25-bed ward at the Hampstead Rehabilitation Centre next month following significant and increasing overcrowding in the state’s hospitals.

The ABC reports that the ward will cater to patients requiring treatment between emergency care and home, and will be required as Adelaide heads towards winter flu season. The city has reportedly experienced an increase in overcrowding for years now, leading to more rescheduled elective surgeries, home care, and diverting of city patients to country hospitals.

In other SA hospital news, a building featuring a “super lobby”, suspended rooftop gardens and a central “performance lab” has won an international design competition ($) for a new cultural institution at the Old Royal Adelaide Hospital.

BALI NINE MEMBER DIES

Vietnamese-Australian and “Bali Nine” member Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen has died in a Jakarta hospital.

The ABC reports that Nguyen, who was serving a life sentence for participating in a plan to smuggle more than eight kilograms of heroin from Bali to Australia in 2005, was moved to a Jakarta hospital several weeks ago and died from stomach cancer last night.

[free_worm]

THEY REALLY SAID THAT?

Police will exclude any person from the venue that the drug dog indicates has or who has recently had drugs on them, regardless of whether drugs are located.

NSW Police’s Peter Thurtell

The South West Metropolitan Region Commander, Assistant Commissioner explains that sniffer dogs will have absolute, if ill-defined, power at this weekend’s Above and Beyond music festival in Sydney. Without a requirement for actual evidence, eviction will presumably take place on the condition that dogs at least look at punters weird.

CRIKEY QUICKIE: THE BEST OF YESTERDAY

Media’s obsession with symptoms, not the disease, is failing AustraliaBernard Keane

“Closing The Gap only gets attention once a year. The rest of the year, issues around Indigenous health, or educational attainment, or mortality, are more likely to be reported opportunistically in terms of crisis. The refresh process receives minimal attention, despite the efforts of good journalists like The Australian’s Stephen Fitzpatrick to explore the problems with that process. Barnaby Joyce completely obliterated the one chance for a detailed debate about Closing The Gap to dominate the political space.”

Razer: for its own good, the ABC needs criticsHelen Razer

“Last week, Crikey published review of a reality program new to ABC TV. Critique of this critique was, inevitably, various: some considered it unkind; others considered it too generous and wanting in colourful curses. Notwithstanding their view of this entertainment, Crikey readers wrote, both publicly and privately, to discuss the merits of openly discussing the merits of the ABC.”

Inside New Caledonia’s long fight to independenceCatherine Wilson

“Noumea was peaceful when French President Emmanuel Macron arrived for his first official visit last month. But in the early afternoon, cries echoed down the streets as about 20 indigenous Kanaks wielding banners marched through Place des Cocotiers, a park ringed by boutiques and cafes.”

READ ALL ABOUT IT

Terror suspects slapped with strict gun ban

Cabinet papers relating to the $4.4 billion new train rollout will be made public ($)

‘He’s a monster’: Warminda child sex victim’s 40-year fight for justice

Queensland woman charged with riding horse to bottle shop while four times over legal limit

Bass Strait cable returns to service after 10-week outage ($)

Darwin ‘bus surfers’ slammed for ‘reckless’, ‘disturbing’ behaviour ($)

Conservatives’ powerful emerging Senate bloc could prove pivotal for the government

Former Australian heads of Deutsche Bank, Citi, charged with cartel conduct

Harvey Weinstein pleads not guilty to rape, criminal sex act charges

WHAT’S ON TODAY

Canberra

• Trade Minister Steven Ciobo will address the National Press Club and is expected to discuss China and the US.

• The Select Committee on Political Influence of Donations is expected to table their report.

• Senate committee will hold an inquiry into the government’s personal income tax cuts.

• Treasurer Scott Morrison is expected to hold a presser on national accounts.

Melbourne

• Nearly 2000 NSW and Queensland fans are expected to arrive for tonight’s opening State of Origin clash at the MCG. A State of Origin themed P&O cruise will also dock in Melbourne with former rugby league greats Benny Elias, Geoff Toovey, Scott Prince, Petero Civoniceva and Bill Harrigan onboard, as well as a giant cane toad and cockroach fighting each other on the bow.

• Shrine Governor Lieutenant Colonel Don Reid will host an annual wreath laying service commemorating the Allied landings in Normandy France on June 6 1944 aka “D-Day”.

• Menulog and Shannon Noll will be handing out free burgers across Melbourne.

• Opening night for Queen Victoria Market’s Winter Night Market will feature more than 30 global street food and drink stalls, 55 specialty and artisan stores, and live performances.

• Former AFL player Nick Stevens is expected to appear at a committal over perjury charges.

• The Australian Ballet will run a full dress rehearsal for The Merry Widow ahead of tomorrow’s opening night.

Sydney

• The Sydney Film Festival will open with the Australian premiere of New Zealand film The Breaker Upperers, with actor Celia Pacquola and director-writer-actors Jackie van Beek and Madeleine Sami to attend.

• Materials scientist and engineer Professor Veena Sahajwalla will host a NSW Science & Research Breakfast Seminar “Green Microfactories: Products from Waste” at NSW Parliament House.

• Tony Abbott and Alan Jones will launch Kevin Donnelly’s new book How Political Correctness is Destroying Australia.

Brisbane

• The 50th Queensland Caravan, Camping & Touring Supershow will see Caravanning Queensland and Top Parks attempt a Guinness World Records attempt for the world’s largest caravan built from LEGO.

• Safer Together’s Rig Site Safety Working Group and DrillSafe will host an event discussing safety innovations and incidents across the industry.

• Little Tokyo Two will host an “Ability Think Tank” for people living with a disability to talk with other customers, providers, inventors, entrepreneurs and investors to find better market solutions and products.

Cairns, Queensland

• Robbie and Bob Katter will speak at a “Boot Brisbane” public forum to discuss the creation of a separate North Queensland state.

Adelaide

• Siemens will announce Australia’s largest advanced software grant to the University of South Australia at the new Museum of Discovery, along with CEO and Chairman Jeff Connolly, UniSA Vice Chancellor David Lloyd, Minister for the Defence Industry Christopher Pyne and Premier of South Australia Steven Marshall. 

Kununurra, Northern Territory

• Day one of PATCHES’ two-day “Positive Connections” program, an event dedicated to making sense of and effectively engaging with people presenting with a diagnosis of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder.

Perth

• CORE Innovation Hub’s “Meet the Innovator” series will feature June guest Rebbecca Kerr, the General Manager of Technology for Roy Hill.

• The Dementia Foundation for Spark of Life will hold an evening seminar for families, carers and community members on caring for people with dementia.

Hobart

• Destination Southern Tasmania and Tourism Tasmania will host the 2018 Tassie Cruise Exchange, a business-to-business event with representatives from eight major cruise lines and shore excursion operators set to meet Tasmanian operators.

Alice Springs, Northern Territory

• NT Shelter will host a two-part professional development workshop, “Domestic & Family Violence, Trauma-Informed Care & Homelessness”.

Darwin

• The Department of Trade, Business and Innovation will hold a grant writing workshop for small businesses.

San Jose, US

• Ruby league player Jarryd Hayne will appear at a hearing for a rape lawsuit.

THE COMMENTARIAT

Reconciliation – The new safe word — Daniel James (IndigenousX): “National Reconciliation Week has just finished. It’s a week that is becoming more and more dubious in the eyes of many. The week is bookended by two nationally significant dates, May 27 the date of the successful 1967 Referendum and June 3 when we celebrate the historic High Court decision that overturned the lie that is Terra Nullius, known as the Mabo decision. Two historic events that have a special place in the hearts and minds of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people everywhere, and deserve to be distinguished in our calendars. However, what has increasingly crept in over recent years, mainly since the apology, is a general air of malaise.”

Australia hitting ‘peak banking bad’ — Jeff Morris (The Sydney Morning Herald): “In many ways the Austrac case, which has seen the Commonwealth Bank hit with a record-setting $700 million fine, is a microcosm of all that has been going wrong in our banking industry for the past two decades. While a computer programming glitch may be the immediate cause and a convenient scapegoat, the fact that it could happen at all, let alone go unchecked until more than 53,700 breaches of the CBA’s anti-money laundering obligations had occurred, speaks eloquently of deeper causes.”

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