Karl Morris 🇦🇺 🇺🇦

This is deeply concerning. Treasury published an $88,000 error in its own capital-gains-tax example and it reportedly took outside tax professionals and Financial Review journalists to expose it. Treasury has since admitted the mistake and said the document will be corrected. These are the same people helping design increasingly complex tax laws that Australians, accountants and businesses will be legally required to follow. When even Treasury cannot correctly apply the rules in its own worked example, perhaps the problem is not the taxpayer, the problem is rushed, needlessly complicated legislation. Australia needs simpler taxation, proper consultation and a government that values competence over ideological tax grabs.

THEY TOOK $55 MILLION FROM GOVERNMENT. THEY GAVE $6 MILLION TO THE PARTIES. Every organisation that campaigns seriously at an Australian election has to register with the Electoral Commission and lodge a return. That return has a field most people have never heard of: discretionary benefits. It means money received from government where somebody made a decision to give it. A grant, not an entitlement. I read that field for every registered campaigner, then checked which of them also paid money to political parties. Nine organisations appear on both sides. Between them they declared $55,082,856 in discretionary government money. They paid $6,038,249 to political parties. And they spent $10,399,220 campaigning at elections. Master Builders Australia took $5,012,810 from government and gave $472,850 to the parties, $446,400 of it to Labor. The Minerals Council of Australia took $3,699,199 and gave $1,239,585, $605,575 to Labor, $482,010 to the Liberals. The Mining and Energy Union took $366,677 and gave $3,789,500, nearly all of it to Labor. The Business Council took $1,285,835 and gave $152,100, weighted to the Liberals. The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry took $1,856,586 and gave $266,000, split almost evenly. And it is not one side. The Australian Automobile Association took $22,906,367 and paid four different parties. The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation, $14,331,187. Universities Australia, $5,385,195. The Australian Conservation Foundation, $239,000. Employer groups. Unions. Miners. Motorists. Universities. Conservationists. Nobody’s team is clean. The fair reading, and it is a real one. These grants are almost always for delivering something — road safety programs, nursing education, skills training, research. The organisations are lawful, the payments are lawful, the donations are declared, and none of it is hidden. It is all in their own returns, which is how I found it. But sit with the shape of it. Governments hand out grants at their discretion. The organisations receiving them pay money to the parties that form governments, and spend more again telling you how to vote. Every one of them discloses both halves. Nobody puts the two columns side by side. Cold hard facts. Sourced. Corrected when wrong. What’s your thoughts…? Peter Lyndon-James 🇦🇺 Sources: Australian Electoral Commission Transparency Register — Significant Third Party Returns, Discretionary Benefits and Electoral Expenditure fields; Detailed Receipts dataset, 126,044 records, payments from those entities to registered political parties. Discretionary benefits totals: Australian Automobile Association $22,906,367; Australian Nursing & Midwifery Federation $14,331,187; Universities Australia $5,385,195; Master Builders Australia $5,012,810; Minerals Council of Australia $3,699,199; Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry $1,856,586; Business Council of Australia $1,285,835; Mining and Energy Union $366,677; Australian Conservation Foundation $239,000.

Deputy Premier Ben Carroll has informed Jacinta Allan he will be nominating for the leadership, as the Premier refuses to stand down and is threatening to force a six-week leadership campaign. #It is understood a cross-factional delegation of Left and Right MPs – which included ministers Anthony Carbines, Gabrielle Williams, Ingrid Stitt, Lizzie Blandthorn, Luba Grigorovitch and Colin Books, visited the Premier before a cabinet meeting on Monday morning and asked her to resign. Ms Allan refused to do so, and then asked for the ministers’ resignations – which they have refused to provide. The delegation then went to Mr Carroll and urged him to challenge Ms Allan. #Mr Carroll then told the Premier he would be a candidate for the leadership. #Premier Jacinta Allan has written to the state secretary of the Labor Party telling him to prepare for a leadership election, in a significant escalation designed to threaten the plotters to back down. A leadership ballot, as required under party rules if there is more than one candidate, would take up to six weeks. #Both Ms Allan and Deputy Premier Ben Carroll would have to stand aside from their duties if they were the two candidates. In a letter to state secretary Steve Staikos on Monday morning, Ms Allan said she was writing in relation to “media speculation regarding the leadership of the state parliamentary Labor Party”. “I am writing to request that you ensure Victorian Labor is prepared to conduct an election for the leadership of the state parliamentary Labor Party in the event an election is required,” she wrote. “As you are aware, party rules require the state secretary to provide administrative support to ensure the effective conduct of a ballot of all eligible party members. “I also wish to formally notify you of my intention to be a candidate for the leadership of the state parliamentary Labor Party in the event that an election is required.”

The most terrifying picture this week. Dan Andrews advising Albo, world’s highest CGT tax man, how to raid your $4.5 trillion of superannuation savings to spend on more crap such as $200 bn Cheltenham Boxhill white elephant rail loop.

New insolvency figures have revealed almost 48,000 Australian businesses have entered insolvency since Labor came to office as rising costs continue to push operators to breaking point. skynews.com.au/australia-new…

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