Crispin Hull

Biased grants likely to be unconstitutional

The Liberal Party’s reputation as the party of fiscal rectitude and guardian of the tax-paters’ hard-earned money took a battering with this month’s revelations about the distribution of $2.8 billion across 11 federal grants schemes in the three years straddling the 2019 election.

The 11 schemes which all permitted ministerial discretion showed that the money overwhelmingly went to Liberal marginal electorates and virtually none went to safe Labor electorates.

Aside from the ethical and economic questions, there is a good argument that many, if not all, of the grants are unconstitutional and unlawful. More of that anon.

Fear of China drives needless arms build-up

It is easy to be fearful about China: that it is grabbing territory in the South China Sea; that it is building a vast navy and new nuclear missile platforms; that it iscapable of cyber attacks that can bring down infrastructure in the West; that it will soon overtake the US both economically and militarily and dominate the world.

Worse, it is on the verge of invading democratic Taiwan. As a result of all this fear, governments in the West – especially Australia, Britain and the US – have engaged in a massive arms build-up with the aim of projecting naval power across the world now and in the future.

Tax changes needed to meet inequality

The need for major tax changes in the face of growing inequality has been obvious for some time, but this week’s Productivity Commission report on wealth transfers adds to the case.

The commission reported that more than $120 billion was transferred in inheritances and gifts in 2018. Of that 90 per cent was in inheritances. It has doubled since 2002 and it keeps growing, adding to inequality.

Three freedoms to make religion Bill unnecessary

The past fortnight’s “debate” on religious freedom has a subtle irony about it. Australian law at present makes it unlawful to discriminate against people when dealing with them in the public sphere on a range of attributes.

These attributes are basically what “God” or “Fate” or the vicissitudes of life gave people over which they have virtually no control: gender, sexuality, disability, skin colour, age. But the religious freedom Bill is going to make it unlawful to discriminate against people for belief in a human-made construct: religion.

EVs: more tax avoidance for the well-off

This week I took the first step towards setting up a tax-avoidance scheme. It is perfectly legal and practically foolproof. It only relies on the continued foolishness of the Federal Government – which is pretty much guaranteed these days.

The step was to put an order in for an electric car. That included a test drive along Australia’s most spectacular road: the Captain Cook Highway north of Cairns – the Coral Sea and the reef on the right and rainforest or cane fields to the left.

Litany of economic mismanagement

Yet again the Coalition says it has the best economic-management credentials and yet again opinion polls show that voters put the Coalition ahead of Labor on economic management. It is a rusted-on myth. Trouble is, when you chisel away the rust, there is no metal underneath.

Since 2013 the Coalition has engaged in a litany of economic mismanagement and misuse of public money.

Preference system hurting Coalition

The trend away from the major parties continued unabated this month. This week Greens leader Adam Bandt announced the Greens would target 10 safe Labor seats in the cities and push for an end to coal mining by the end of the decade.

Meanwhile, the “Voices Of” movement of independents has 30 independents standing in mainly safe Liberal seats in the cities on platforms mainly of stronger integrity and climate laws, more compassion for refugees and smarter economic policies. They are gaining more financial support by the day.

Macron: it was personal, that was the point

There on the slim pamphlet cobbled together at the last minute by Prime Minister Scott Morrison before the Glasgow climate conference were the words: “The Australian Way”.

It was a glossy, catchy phrase appropriated by Scotty from Marketing. But we have seen the phrase before – for a long time it was the name of the monthly in-flight Qantas magazine.

Climate: smoke and mirrors, for now

Prime Minister Scott Morrison used both of his favourite methods of deception in announcing his net-zero policy this week: smoke AND mirrors. The smoke hides and the mirror deflects.

He has been roundly condemned by academics; business; think tanks and journalists. But it was still masterful – a brilliant conjuring performance. You can abbreviate that to “con job”.

Back to rotten politics as usual

Several events in the past week neatly illustrate what is rotten in the state of Australian politics and policy-making.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has told an Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry event that he was considering increasing immigration. And the chamber itself called for a nearly doubling of the skilled migrant intake to 200,000.

Notice how business gets the Treasurer’s ear and they speak to each other. Business wants high immigration because it provides a pool of cheap labour and generally weakens labour’s bargaining power.

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