Crispin Hull

Taxing time for the political system

The Australian political system is about to be stress-tested. The test will not be on some visceral, emotionally charged issue. Rather it will come with a complex and prosaic matter that usually does not excite much attention: company tax.

The test will come with how the system responds to last week’s Productivity Commission report which recommends a change to company tax that so far has only excited accountants and policy nerds.

Passive aggressive warfare in Gaza

The images of starving children coming out of Gaza reminded me of the images of the liberation of the concentration camps at the end of World War II. Victims and perpetrators come in all colours, races and religions. Maybe Shakespeare would have said: “If you starve us, do we not look skeletal”.

In Tel Aviv last week, Jewish people took to the streets holding photographs of children whose starvation is being caused by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netayahu’s illegal waging of an aggressive war and the illegal withholding of food in Gaza. If you offend decency, do we not protest.

Tweaking the tax system

Here are four propositions that show the pub test is an asinine way to determine good policy. None of the propositions would pass the pub test; but all would be good for Australia.

The propositions are: The GST should be increased. It should be applied to fresh food. And education. Donations to charity should not be tax deductible.

PM’s bind over antisemitism

An old adage says a government should never set up an inquiry unless it has a very good idea as to what its findings might be lest it comes back to bite. That was certainly true of last week’s report by the Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism Jillian Segal.

A self-destructive ally

Australia was invaded last week. The invader did a lot of damage, similar to previous invasions over the past couple of decades. The invader took people’s homes; damaged the power grid; wrecked roads and bridges; and destroyed crops. All the things that invaders do.

And the invader will come again and again in greater force, destroying lives and property. The invader, of course, is the more violent weather caused by climate change. The same invader that killed 50 people in Texas last week.

A super reform example

Today brings (without much fanfare) the completion of the greatest policy advance for the prosperity and well-being of Australia and its people since the nation’s inception.

After nearly 33 years, the Keating-inspired Superannuation Guarantee Contribution has reached its original proposed maximum of 12 percent of wages and salaries –the level which will provide dignified retirement for the broad mass of working people.

Four dumb things we should fix

Australia now faces four blindingly obvious national pitfalls which, if not met full on, will cause us to tumble into something resembling what Paul Keating called a banana republic.

Keating’s was a good wake-up call which worked at the time, and we need another one. The four pitfalls that need an urgent re-calibration are as follows.

The solution is bleeding obvious

On 2 March this year I wrote on these pages: “Bulk-billing GPs have borne the brunt of the Coalition’s stealth attack on Medicare. They should have a very substantial catch-up, and in a way that makes bulk-billing pretty much universal. It would happen more quickly if the Government did not just give more to bulk-billing GPs but also reduced the payment to those who do not.

Curbing super excesses

The Government is going to find itself in a bind when it re-introduces the changes to superannuation tax which failed to get through the Senate before the last election.

When the new senators take their seats on 1 July, Labor will no longer need any of the independent or minor party senators to get its legislation passed. If it gets support from either the Greens or the Coalition, it can get its Bills through.

Liberal woes also instructive for Labor

There has been a fair amount of picking over the entrails of the Liberal Party after the election, including a lot of gazing at the navel. It has been localised and introspective. A broader historical view might be more instructive for the Liberal Party and, indeed, for Labor and the Greens.

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