GREENS’ ROBIN HOOD REFORMS
Greens leader Adam Bandt is set to present his “Robin Hood reforms” to the National Press Club later today. The AAP reports the party plans to increase taxes on corporations and use the money to fund cost of living relief. “Big corporations across the economy have squeezed hundreds of billions of dollars out of the public since the end of the pandemic — too much of it tax-free. Enough is enough,” Bandt will say.
The policy is an updated version of the one the Greens took into the last federal election, AAP says, with a 40% tax on corporations’ “excess profits” planned to raise $296 billion over a decade. Another $111 billion would apparently be raised by revising the petroleum resource rent tax and forcing offshore gas and oil companies to pay royalties. Finally, the package would see a 40% tax on the “super profits” of mining projects, other than those involved in nickel or lithium mining.
The Australian adds Bandt will tell his audience in Canberra: “The aim is simple. To make the big corporations and billionaires pay their fair share of tax to make life better for everyone. This new Big Corporations Tax would apply to both Australian corporations, and multinational corporations operating in Australia.” The paper says it understands the Greens leader is preparing other taxes in an attempt “to split Labor’s left flank” as polling shows the party, and the independents, could hold the balance of power at the next federal election (due by May next year, as we’re all very used to hearing).
On that theme, The Australian also quotes the Greens saying its demands for a ban on new coal and gas projects would factor heavily into any discussions on guaranteeing supply: “If the polls are right, Australia is headed for a shared-power Parliament after the next election. The Greens will be pushing for no new coal and gas in a shared-power Parliament,” Bandt said.
All of which makes for an interesting backdrop to Workplace Minister Murray Watt telling The Sydney Morning Herald: “I’m never surprised to see Max Chandler-Mather grandstanding in front of a crowd. It’s what he lives for,” after the Greens MP spoke at a rally in support of the CFMEU in Brisbane yesterday.
Tens of thousands of people across the country marched in protest against the federal government’s forced administration of the construction arm of the union. The ABC reports Chandler-Mather told those gathered in Brisbane: “This is an attack not just on construction workers but on every worker in this country because Labor has set a dangerous precedent. What they have done is handed every future Labor or Liberal government a blueprint on how to seize control of any trade union or civil society association they don’t like and crush it, and that is disgraceful.” On 7.30 later in the evening he defended being at the rally.
The rhetoric over the government’s action against the CFMEU remained heightened throughout yesterday with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese telling reporters: “If there is unprotected industrial action, then there are consequences for that”, the Daily Mail reported. AAP reports this morning unions have hit out against “misleading and baseless threats” after the Fair Work Ombudsman warned those who failed to turn up to work or left without permission could be in breach of workplace laws.
Meanwhile, the AFR reports sacked CFMEU leaders have vowed to campaign for the “absolute destruction” of the Labor Party, with ousted CFMEU Queensland leader Michael Ravbar set to start fundraising for a High Court challenge to the administration.
INTERNATIONAL STUDENT CAP
The ABC has been leading this morning with the reaction to the federal government’s plan to cap international student numbers from next year. The broadcaster says Education Minister Jason Clare’s announcement yesterday of a proposed limit of 270,000 new international enrolments in 2025 has resulted in “uproar from prestigious urban universities but cautious optimism from their regional and suburban competitors”.
The Australian says the proposal will prevent 22,000 international students from studying at the nation’s wealthiest universities next year, costing them $1 billion in revenue. The paper quotes Clare as saying he is willing to listen to criticism of the plans though, saying: “I do think that there are ways that we can improve this bill, and when it comes before the Senate there will be an opportunity to do that, based on the feedback from universities.”
However, the Group of Eight, a collection of some of Australia’s largest institutions, has urged the Senate “in the strongest possible terms to not allow the government to bully it into passing legislation”, the ABC highlighted. Smaller universities stand to gain more international students under the cap system, the broadcaster said.
With the government attracting strong responses left, right and centre to its planned policies, The Sydney Morning Herald reports the auditor-general has “opened the door to probe public investment of almost $1 billion in a quantum computing firm”, following the headline-grabbing announcement earlier this year of the investment in PsiQuantum as part of the Future Made in Australia policy.
Elsewhere, the ABC and AAP highlight this morning the stats showing women and those in lower-paid jobs are being worst hit by the growing issue of employers not paying workers their compulsory superannuation payments.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE…
It might not be “lighter” per se if you’re not a fan of heights or roller coasters or being trapped, but yesterday 13 people found themselves stuck on the Vortex ride at Sea World on the Gold Coast for an hour and a half.
The thrill-seekers spent 90 minutes suspended on the ride after a “sensor communication fault”, Guardian Australia reports. A park spokesperson said during the incident those stuck were “safe and in good spirits”, news.com.au said.
The Queensland ambulance service was on hand when rescue occurred on Tuesday afternoon and the fire department was also on call, although they were not needed.
The site’s on-site nurse also provided welfare checks as people exited the ride “in an abundance of caution”, Sea World claimed.
Just last week, people were stuck on a different Sea World ride, the Leviathan, for an hour after a sensor was activated.
Say What?
The guns have fallen silent. The stars have aligned. The great wait is over. Come see. It will not be televised.
Oasis
On Tuesday, the Gallagher brothers confirmed what had been trailed since the weekend and announced Oasis will be reuniting in 2025. The band will play a series of gigs in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland next year with tickets going on sale this Saturday. The Guardian reports squabbling siblings Noel, 57, and Liam, 51 could be in line to make as much as £50 million (A$100m) each from the initial 14-date reunion.
CRIKEY RECAP
If there’s a fourth economy in place, it’s not quite as straightforward as Chalmers suggests. It’s an economy in recovery mode from three decades of neoliberalism, with both sides of politics no longer content to keep government on the sidelines while free markets and large corporations do what they like. It’s an economy that is, and will be for decades yet, characterised by constant growth in the health and caring workforce — a workforce that will depend heavily on immigration because Australia, like other Western economies and China, is going to start running out of workers, shifting bargaining power away from employers, who until recently have enjoyed a three-decade-long increase in power under neoliberalism. And despite the transition to renewables, it’s going to be an economy routinely affected by the higher costs inflicted by the climate emergency, which won’t be halted while governments like Chalmers’ are devoted to expanding fossil fuel exports.
If Hawke and Keating indeed ushered in Australia’s third economy, attesting to the role individual politicians can play in major transformations, the fourth economy is one that will proceed driven by demography, climate and the seething discontent neoliberalism generated. Individual politicians like Dutton — or Trump — will try to exploit that discontent with tribalism and racism, but in the end it’s not about individual politicians.
The Albanese government’s long-gestating aviation white paper, finally delivered on Monday, is a disappointing win for the Qantas-Virgin duopoly and a slap in the face for airline passengers.
That’s despite positive headlines, presumably won due to the government leaking the document to mainstream media. Take this from Guardian Australia: “New Australian aviation ombudsman could force airlines to pay cash compensation for delayed flights.”
Note: could. The Albanese government’s document, ominously subtitled “Towards 2050”, is big on promises and possibilities, but falls short on substance and any immediate action to improve competition and the sagging customer experience.
Last week, as part of Senator Linda Reynolds’ defamation action against her former staffer Brittany Higgins, hundreds of texts were tendered between news.com.au political editor Samantha Maiden and David Sharaz, now Higgins’ husband. They detailed some of the discussions that would lead to one of the most consequential political stories of the past decade after Higgins went public with her allegations that she was raped by fellow Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann at Parliament House.
This tranche of texts is just the latest release of material across more than a dozen court cases and inquiries into the matter. Together they have collectively revealed reams of private correspondence, including more than 1,000 text messages offering unprecedented insight into how the media operates. In nine texts, here is the story behind the stories.
READ ALL ABOUT IT
New mpox strain is changing fast; African scientists are ‘working blind’ to respond (Reuters)
Ukraine to present ‘victory plan’ to US — Zelensky (BBC)
Israeli Bedouin kidnapped by Hamas on 7 October reunited with his family (The Guardian)
Trump plans to put Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard on transition team (The New York Times) ($)
Ungovernable France needs to learn culture of compromise (The Financial Times) ($)
THE COMMENTARIAT
Australians should be angry about Coles’ latest billion-dollar profit. But don’t blame the cost of living — John Quiggin (Guardian Australia): The latest massive $1.1 billion profit reported by Coles will doubtless produce a new round of hand-wringing about the “cost of living”. Governments will produce initiatives aimed at capping or reducing prices. Pundits will use a variety of measures to argue as to whether such measures are inflationary. Then there will be debates about whether splitting up Coles and Woolworths into smaller chains would enhance competition. And the Reserve Bank will be encouraged to push even harder to return inflation to its target range.
But these responses, focused on the cost of goods, miss the point. Coles and Woolworths have increased their margins, yes — but prices for groceries have increased broadly in line with other goods. The real driver of supermarket profits is their ability to drive down the prices they pay to suppliers.
But the input that matters here is labour and it is here that the supermarkets are making big gains at the expense of their workers. Across the board, wages have failed to keep pace with prices over the last five years or more.
At least for the supermarkets, this won’t change any time soon.
In the US, political opponents are swapping values. In Australia, it’s all kind of up for grabs — Annabel Crabb (ABC): And the world we live in is changing hugely, rapidly, confusingly. Conflicts abound. Tyrants proliferate. Certain global companies function more like nation-states than commercial entities; they are based nowhere, and cannot be held accountable even though they reach directly into our lives and those of our children. COVID has taught governments around the world that they can’t expect to rely on international supply lines of anything; recent years have brought an international wave of protectionism and populism, not assisted by the decline of the World Trade Organisation, once the global enforcer of free trade and now not much more than a suggestion box.
All of this is a lot of upheaval to handle at once. And in Australia, it’s led to some counterintuitive political behaviour, which presumably contributes to the demonstrable loss of faith in mainstream politics. Labor — the party that opened the Australian economy to the world — doling out tax breaks to big business to accelerate green energy? The Coalition — the party of small government — fancying a crack at building publicly owned nuclear reactors?
