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Chalmers introduces CGT and tax offset bill
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, is introducing his bill that will change the CGT discount, negative gearing and establish the working Australian tax offset and instant tax deduction.
Despite widespread criticism over a lack of carveouts for key industries – like the startup sector – Chalmers is introducing the broad bill first while the government continues to consult.
This bill delivers on three objectives. It cuts taxes for every Australian worker – again, and again. It makes it easier for people to buy their first home. And it better aligns the tax treatment of labour income and asset income.
The opposition has promised to vote against the bill – which we know the government will use to say that the Coalition votes against tax cuts – and has promised to repeal the changes if elected.
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Amanda Meade
Hugh Marks repeatedly asked if Simon Robinson is the new director of ABC news
ABC managing director Hugh Marks has been asked twice to confirm a report in Guardian Australia that Simon Robinson has been appointed news director of the ABC.
Marks said the ABC did not leak the story to Guardian Australia and that it was a result of “good journalism”.
I assume that speculation has led to someone trying to get the jump on the announcement. So, [it was] good journalism.
Earlier senator Mehreen Faruqi asked Marks if the news report was true but he declined to confirm or deny.
[Is] Simon Robinson from Reuters being appointed as the news director of the ABC?
Marks declined to confirm the reports.
When an appointment is ready to be made, we will make that appointment, and I expect to make one in the near future.
Faruqi said the news is out now “so you could just tell us now”.
Marks responded:
I’m not prone to making announcements in Senate estimates proceedings. I prefer to make announcements in the appropriate way.
Marks was then asked by Senator Sarah Henderson if the story in Guardian Australia was accurate and he said he won’t confirm or deny.
Henderson asked if the ABC had “briefed out” the appointment of Robinson.
Marks said he did not authorise any leak to Guardian Australia but there was widespread speculation about the Stevens replacement as soon as it was announced yesterday.
Henderson repeatedly asked if the ABC had leaked the story, claiming it was obvious.
Did you ask anyone, or authorise for anyone to brief this story out? Do you know whether anyone within the organisation briefed this out?
Marks said he did not authorise it and an announcement would be made on Friday.
Josh Butler
Cocaine, ketamine use increasing, ABF says
The Australian Border Force is detecting more drugs - including a large growth in cocaine and ketamine - illegal tobacco and child abuse material, its commissioner has told Senate estimates.
The ABF’s Gavan Reynolds told a hearing this morning that they’d detected an “upward trend in the consumption of illegal drugs”, including seizing 14 tonnes of illicit drugs in the last year.
He said that included 20 tonnes of cocaine seized offshore, potentially on its way to Australia, while cocaine seized at the Australian border was up 23% oon the previous year. ABF also seized more than 1900 kilograms of ketamine, up from around 500kg the previous year.
Reynolds also spoke of an “alarming increase in child abuse material” being found at the border.
He said ABF officers had found 122 individuals with child abuse material across 226 devices - up form 102 people last year. Those detections had led to 54 arrests and 30 instances of a child at risk being identified and removed from harm due to material found at border.
An illicit tobacco operation had seized nearly 1000 tonnes of tobacco, and 4 million vapes.
Taylor says he’ll ‘talk with anyone’ to block CGT changes
The opposition leader, Angus Taylor, says he’ll talk to anyone to block the government’s changes to the CGT discount and negative gearing – including the Greens.
Taylor was holding a doorstop – once again outside Parliament House – and said he hadn’t yet seen the legislation. He’ll be able to now that it’s been introduced in the House.
We’ll talk with anyone. We’re talking with anyone who’s prepared, and I call on all my parliamentary colleagues right now, talking to them, come and work with us to fight these toxic taxes.
It’s aspiration and ambition that fuels our communities, our economy, the taxes that get paid that pay for our schools and our roads and hospitals, and Labor has declared war on these people.
The Greens also said they hadn’t seen the legislation earlier this morning and haven’t yet decided whether they will support the bill or push for amendments.
Amanda Meade
Hugh Marks says Kim Williams comment was not ideal
The ABC managing director, Hugh Marks, has distanced himself from comments made by the ABC chair, Kim Williams, who called Benjamin Netanyahu an “aberrant creature”.
A Senate estimates hearing heard that Williams told the Age what he thought of the Israeli prime minister.
I think he is an aberrant creature … I think he’s frankly an aberrant creature in the history of Israel.
Marks told Senate estimates the comment was “less than desired or ideal” and did not represent the ABC position.
I think when those comments were made, senator, I think the ABC was very clear that they represented comments by Mr Williams and not are reflective of the ABC.
I think Mr Williams regrets making them, whether he said it in the article at the time, it’s not an indicator to our staff in any way to change their behaviour in compliance of the codes and standards that we abide to in the work that we do.
‘This bill presents a choice’: Chalmers
Ending his address to the House, Jim Chalmers throws down the gauntlet to the opposition, challenging them to pass the reforms (they have already said that they won’t).
Chalmers says the bill “presents a choice” on cutting taxes and helping first home buyers.
We can easily guess the government will use the Coalition’s opposition to the bill to accuse them of voting for higher taxes.
Chalmers says:
This bill presents a choice. A choice between cutting income taxes for Australian workers, or keeping them higher. Standing with first home buyers, or locking more Australians out of the market.
This is about making a difference, not just marking time. It’s about taking the hard road of reform, not the path of least resistance. It’s about making the right decisions, even when they are politically contentious.
‘One part helps fund the other’ Chalmers defends grouping budget bill
Jim Chalmers says that the four elements of the bill – CGT, negative gearing, the tax cut, and instant tax deduction – have been grouped together because “one part helps fund the other”.
He also leaves the door open to changes – with further legislation to iron out all the details of the tax reforms.
Speaking in the House, Chalmers says that governments for too long have “turned a blind eye to a broken status quo”.
We are presenting these elements in one Bill not just because they are related, but because one part helps fund the other.
This is the first tranche of legislation to implement the very significant tax reform package announced in the Budget. There will be further legislation on specific implementation details and other parts of our tax reform package.
He adds – as his other colleagues have done in the media this morning – that legislating reforms in tranches is “standard approach”.
Amanda Meade
Hugh Marks signals big change is coming to the ABC
The ABC managing director, Hugh Marks, has strongly suggested the ABC is about to head into a period of upheaval on the back of the appointment of a new news director.
Justin Stevens resigned yesterday as ABC director of news after four years in the role, citing personal and professional reasons.
Asked at Senate estimates about the departure of Stevens, Marks indicated it was time for a new approach.
He said the future is rapidly changing and the traditional ways of working at the ABC had to change.
It is an opportunity for us to move forward and look at a refreshed and rejuvenated output as we work out what you know the future of the ABC is.
Marks took credit for being quick to accept an error had been made in ABC news and moving fast to correct it.
I think, in my tenure, I would suggest that we have got a lot better at that when it comes to the allegation of bias in the organisation.
We don’t accept the notion that there is systemic bias within the ABC. In fact, the evidence of complaint processes and the like would suggest that’s not proven.
Chalmers introduces CGT and tax offset bill
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, is introducing his bill that will change the CGT discount, negative gearing and establish the working Australian tax offset and instant tax deduction.
Despite widespread criticism over a lack of carveouts for key industries – like the startup sector – Chalmers is introducing the broad bill first while the government continues to consult.
This bill delivers on three objectives. It cuts taxes for every Australian worker – again, and again. It makes it easier for people to buy their first home. And it better aligns the tax treatment of labour income and asset income.
The opposition has promised to vote against the bill – which we know the government will use to say that the Coalition votes against tax cuts – and has promised to repeal the changes if elected.
Amanda Meade
Sarah Henderson claims ABC news director ‘encouraged to resign’
ABC managing director Hugh Marks has not pushed back on a suggestion by senator Sarah Henderson that news director Justin Stevens was “encouraged to resign”.
Stevens resigned yesterday as ABC director of news after four years in the role, citing personal and professional reasons.
“It does very much look like he was pushed,” Henderson said to Marks at Senate estimates:
He was encouraged to resign. He was on the chopping block, I think it’s well known within and outside the ABC, and so I would ask you, what is going to change after the Justin Stevens era?
Henderson claimed “there were too many instances where Mr Stevens made the wrong judgment”.
Marks did not defend Stevens. He said the future is rapidly changing.
We need to say what has served us in the past may not serve us well in the future, and this applies to all of our divisions.
Finetuning will appear in subsequent tax bills, Plibersek says
The government will soon introduce its (somewhat controversial) bill that will include changes to the capital gains tax discount, negative gearing, the tax offset and instant tax deductions for workers.
It’s had to defend the approach of introducing the broad bill now while promising to “finetune” the details later, which it says is normal, and was done for example when the Howard government introduced the GST.
Cabinet minister Tanya Plibersek tells Sky News:
Where there is finetuning to be done, as the treasurer said from the beginning … they’ll appear in subsequent tax bills.
She’s asked why the government is tying all four pieces of reform together – two parts that increase taxes, and two parts that lower taxes for workers.
She says that the opposition should support both the spending and revenue raising measures:
To pay for tax cuts, you have to make changes in other parts of the tax system. You can’t go into parliament and say yes we support all the spending measures but we don’t support any of the things that raise revenue over time. Our tax package is broadly revenue neutral.
Jonathan Barrett
Complaints against ATO rise 127%
Complaints against the Australian Taxation Office have surged 127% over the past year, according to a new ombudsman’s report, amid the agency adopting tougher debt collection practices.
The report found that complaints about hardship have increased substantially over the past 12 months and that the ATO had in some cases failed to consider individual circumstances, leading to unfair outcomes.
The tax ombudsman, Ruth Owen, said the “dramatic rise” in complaints was caused by the ATO’s increased focus on debt collection as well as improving awareness and willingness by the community to lodge complaints.
In 31% of complaints about penalties and interest, we helped to achieve tax debt reductions or removal of interest for our customers.
Debt issues are the most common reason people lodge a complaint, according to the report. In 67% of cases, the ATO’s actions were found to be reasonable.
The report comes during a period of heightened scrutiny on the ATO after it fined a 97-year-old Brisbane woman $1,650 because she had not “prioritised her tax obligations” even after the agency was advised her husband, who managed their financial affairs, had recently died.
The ATO reversed its penalty after the issue was made public.
The ATO has said it is improving how it supports taxpayers by ensuring its approach reflects the expectations of the community.
