Three new polls this week, from Newspoll, Morgan and Essential Research, have made as little difference to the BludgerTrack poll aggregate as one poll did last week, although Labor does at least make a gain on the seat projection in New South Wales. Things are a little more interesting on the leadership ratings, thanks to a new set of numbers from Newspoll (which has only one more poll to go in its present form, not two as I intimated in the previous post). This finds Tony Abbott overtaking Bill Shorten on net approval to add to the preferred prime minister lead he opened up a few weeks ago, and which he continues to consolidate. The improvement in Abbott’s standing since the nadir of the Prince Philip knighthood has been quite remarkable, although his net rating of minus 11.8% is by no means anything to write home about.
[I wonder if Hockey’s wife shows the revenue that she receives from the taxpayer via Hockey as a rental income in her tax returns?]
She will show the rental received from Hockey in her tax returns. Otherwise she is illegally evading tax. But that amount could be low – say $30 a night. It is not illegal to undercharge rent and does not impact on the rental status of the property (which is the key determinant of whether the property can be negatively geared) as tax law assumes that a landlord would be aiming to get the highest rent possible to reduce their losses or increase their profits.
In regard to the travel allowance though, because the allowance has been determined by a tribunal, it does not need to be declared as income as it is assumed to be all spent. That means that any excess can legally be banked by Hockey without declaring it to the taxman or paying tax on it.
Nice lurk if you can get it.
[Next Monday on #4corners “THE END OF COAL?”: With the price of coal plummeting, is Australia backing a loser?]
Yes. Big time. 🙁
Oops Joe O Brien just said the Oppositions Christopher Pyne
Manchurian candidate??
Brendan O Connor presser
TPOF
I should think there will be a bucket full of commissions of investigation for the ALP to choose from once the Coalition are finally voted out.
Markjs at 3445
We were in Germany last year where they have swathes of them & we thought the same thing.
My suggested Royal Commission into Renewable Energy should look closely at the astroturfing of ‘Winf Farm Syndrome’. It has all the credibility of UFOs but it’s apparently taken in the PM, the Treasurer and others in the Cabinet. I speculate that there would be some interesting links – lift a rock and see what scurries out.
From the Age article linked above, has Tony Abbott let the cat (or at least ‘a’ cat) out of the bag?
[Prime Minister Tony Abbott has described wind farms as “visually awful” and boasted slashing the Renewable Energy Target will restrict growth in the industry.]
http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/awful-and-noisy-tony-abbott-slams-wind-farms-during-interview-with-alan-jones-20150611-ghl7m0
[The strategy of this government is to carry out so many abuses of power in so many different areas to so many people that there is no big one to coalesce anger around.]
I agree 100% with that. It’s the “Whirling Dervish” writ large.
The best financial position for the Hockeys is probably for him to pay $1 rent per night on their Canberra house (to show it is a legitimate rental) and to pocket the tax free allowance.
Fortunately he has to pay ACT land tax as the house is rented.
It would be interesting to find out how much rural assistance he has collected on the FNQ property he is selling.
[Bushfire Bill
Posted Thursday, June 11, 2015 at 12:21 pm | PERMALINK
The strategy of this government is to carry out so many abuses of power in so many different areas to so many people that there is no big one to coalesce anger around.
I agree 100% with that. It’s the “Whirling Dervish” writ large.]
Yep. But occasionally something happens such as Hockey’s words re get better paid job to buy house manages to cut through everything else. Too bloody funny
Holland is nearly 100% powered by windfarms ; onshore and offshore. Building out centuries of use of wind power for dyke management and grinding grains.
By rights, the Dutch should be paranoid nut cases, physical and mental shells of people cowering in their own homes.
Guess what? They’re not.
The cafe explosion that occurred in Cairns. Current status
[ABC News 24 retweeted
Kerrin Binnie
28m28 minutes ago
Kerrin Binnie @kerrinbinnie
#Ravenshoe update:
-20 still in hospitals
-8 critical
-Driver critical in Cairns
-By end of day 8 people in Royal Bris @abcnews]
[Fortunately he has to pay ACT land tax as the house is rented]
Which, on his or his wife’s income, is rebated by 50% from the tax man. I get between 30% and zero from the tax man on the land tax that I pay.
So, if he is charged $3000 per annum land tax, he only pays $1500. If I am charged the same, I will pay $2,100 because my gross income is much lower than his. Very logical – if my gross income is lower, I should pay more out of my own pocket.
Of course, being in Forrest, he is more likely to be paying $20k or more land tax gross – it is the most valuable suburb in Canberra and offers the highest capital growth over the years. That means that for a $20k land tax bill, the tax man kicks in $10k!
[The ABS said on Thursday that the improvement on April was “driven by increases in part-time employment for females (up 29,800) and full-time employment for males (up 15,900)”. ]
http://www.theage.com.au/business/the-economy/unemployment-rate-unexpectedly-drops-to-6-per-cent-20150611-ghl3nt
If TA is worried about paying off his mortgage, he could do a deal with his mate Gerry Harvey to sleep for free at Harvey Norman or Domayne in Fyshwick until the Lodge is ready. He could have a different bed every night. What an advertising scoop for Gerry!
Waleed Aly
[For years, both main parties have wanted house prices to keep rising. But alarm over a generation of young people never owning their own home is creating the first cracks in the housing consensus.]
http://www.theage.com.au/comment/house–prices-is-the-ground-beginning-to-shift-at-last-20150611-ghla0f
Journalists should not be asking about Bill Shorten’s need to ‘clear his name’ and anyone asked should say flatly that there’s nothing to clear.
Abbott is trying to smear the Opposition Leader with guilt by association with an AWU official against whom allegations have been made that he might have compromised the interests of members. As if anyone in the Coalition, let alone their business mate backers and funders, care about a fair deal for workers, especially unionists.
And what’s this crap about Shorten needing to front the Union Witchhunt (sorry, Royal Commission). The Commission will call him if they see a need and Bill Shorten will appear (in fact, I don’t think that he would have any choice). Meanwhile, if Tony Abbott has any information regarding criminal activities, he should hand it to the Police.
(P.S. Pyne just came on ABC24 so I snapped him off).
Woolworths to close Broadmeadows distribution centre in Melbourne by 2018. 700+ jobs to go.
A new centre is to be opened somewhere in Melbourne’s SE suburbs in the future…
vic
[The Reject PM
52m52 minutes ago
The Reject PM @geeksrulz
Heard @FergusonNews on radio saying Gillard reluctant to do #KillingSeason. Condition was no #GetGillard ABC journos @leighsales @CUhlmann]
I would bet money that it is!
Someone the other day mentioned that there was to be a movie made about Gillard and they had to drop it through lack of interest.
P.S. Just looking at the TV schedule. TVS has a show ‘Yappy Hour TV’. Maybe Pyne’s on TVS as well.
mtbw
Sorry i dont the correlation between Gillard not wanting tobe interviewed by those ABC journos and a movie?
Steve777
Shorten challenged Abbott to a town hall debate when asked about workers conditions etc
vic
The point is that Gillard wants to control everything.
Mtbw
I think the point is you have no clue
vic
I understand that you are a fan of Gillard but the words of that tweet above about her not wanting those two journos tell it all.
I find this interesting;
[we observe a statistically significant drop in GDP growth of 0.37% for Australia three and one quarters after an El Niño]
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/2015/wp1589.pdf
Abbott on the Jones show:
[Mr Abbott replied the location of wind farms was primarily a state government issue but said he agreed they could cause health problems.
“Well Alan look, I do take your point about the potential health impact of these things,” Mr Abbott said.
“When I’ve been up close to these wind farms, there’s no doubt, not only are they visually awful, they make a lot of noise.
“What we did recently in the Senate was reduce, Alan, reduce, capital R-E-D-U-C-E the number of these things that we are going to get in the future,” he said.
“Now I would frankly have liked to have reduced the number a lot more.”
“Good, well you’re the boss!” Jones interrupted.
“But we got the best deal with could out of the Senate and if we hadn’t had a deal Alan, we would have been stuck with even more of these things,” Mr Abbott continued.
“This particular policy was a policy that was put in place in the late days of the Howard government, knowing what we know now, I don’t think we would have gone down this path in this way.
“But at the time we though it was the right way forward. Sometimes you’ve got to deal with the situation that you’ve got rather than the ideal. What we’ve managed to do through this, admittedly imperfect…is reduce the growth rate of this particular sector as much as the current Senate would allow us to do.”]
http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/awful-and-noisy-tony-abbott-slams-wind-farms-during-interview-with-alan-jones-20150611-ghl7m0
Mtbw
It might surprise you to know that I am a fan of no politician past or present.. Much of a muchness for me
According to Waleed:
“If you’re a high-income earner, you have a choice: you can either pay half your earnings in tax,”
When did he morph into Joe Hockey?
Mtbw
I should add that Sarah Ferguson is a much more thorough and professional journo than Toolman and sales put together and I can see why Gillard wouldnt want to waste her time with them. I wouldnt either
Victoria and MTBW
You are in the wrong playground. Please take yourself off to the Killing Time thread pronto on this subject.
NOW!
TPOF
Oops is that thread still open. 😀
[A baby was sent to the Australian-run detention centre on Nauru in defiance of advice given to the immigration department, Guardian Australia has learned.
Last week the immigration department began its first transfer of an infant born into detention in Australia – a five-month-old girl known as baby Asha – to Nauru, despite widespread concerns about the adequacy of conditions at the centre.
But high-level department sources have told Guardian Australia that several weeks ago Save the Children, which is contracted to provide welfare services on the island, conducted a detailed risk assessment for the planned transfer of up to 10 babies to area 9 of regional processing centre 3 at the Nauru detention centre.
The risk assessment outlined that the transfer of babies back to that part of the centre would be potentially catastrophic and recommended the transfer not occur.
Incident reports have previously detailed the presence of rats and mice in area 9, and recent pictures of the area obtained by Guardian Australia show the compound remains in poor conditions.
But the immigration department disputed the assessment and requested that it be changed, Guardian Australia was told. Instead it opted to rely on a Transfield risk assessment that outlines a slightly lower level of risk.
Following this, the first baby was sent to Nauru last week with more transfers imminent. The infant child has now developed gastroenteritis, while both parents are being monitored heavily due to concerns about their wellbeing. ]
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/11/immigration-department-defied-advice-not-to-transfer-babies-back-to-nauru
[Please take yourself off to the Killing Time thread pronto on this subject.]
toot sweet
Clarke & Dawe is brilliant today..
Here’s a sneak preview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJcxDpRFrJs
When will the cross-benchers realise that they cannot trust the Coalition.
[The group of infants facing removal back to Nauru with their families were all born in Australia after 4 December 2014. This date represents a cutoff point as part of a “one-off deal” made by then immigration minister Scott Morrison with crossbench senator Ricky Muir to pass the federal government’s temporary protection visa legislation.]
Shellbell #3431 – try the corporations power. Not the way it was when I was a law school, but the way it is now.
Vic @ 3482
I don’t think thread normally gets closed off. We just move on because nobody looks at older threads.
The KT thread will remain open for the next two weeks I expect.
I apologise for the peremptory direction. I am in the process of training an 8 week old puppy my wife acquired two days ago. I have never had a dog before, although we have looked after an adolescent one for three months – the owner did the training. As well as the usual problems of puppy training I am also trying to socialise him with three cats (and vice versa) each of whom have quite different personalities.
So I am feeling very peremptory ATM.
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/poll/2015/jun/11/poll-visually-awful-windfarm-coal-mine
Votes so far in this poll are, as expected, coalmines are ugly 98%; windfarms are ugly 2%.
I’m sure that if the RWNJs venture into the ‘lefty’ Guardian, they will support Tony.
TPOF
Do tell – what breed or mixture is your puppy?
[3487
Marrickville Mauler
Posted Thursday, June 11, 2015 at 1:19 pm | PERMALINK
Shellbell #3431 – try the corporations power. Not the way it was when I was a law school, but the way it is now.]
Or the Foreign Affairs power. Surely retraining soon to be redundant coal workers is in the Kyoto Protocol?
If not, Greg Hunt can take it to Paris in November for the new global agreement.
Re the Shorten crap being dredged up by the Dyson Star Chamber (ESJ apparently admires British ‘law’ as administered by Henry VIII and Thomas Cromwell).
Yesterday, when Captain Chaos was being asked about Joe Eleventy’s life advice to aspiring house owners, he trotted out the usual push off line about not being a commentator and then launched into the vile smear campaign against Bill Shorten that he has set up to distract the masses from his attempts to destroy this nation.
It made me wonder why no interviewer – now or ever – will ask Captain Chaos why he is so willing to spread smear and innuendo without prompting, based on a single piece of uncertain and uncorroborated testimony at his own dirt digging tribunal, yet accept without demur only a second before that he is not a commentator and therefore cannot possibly respond to any uncomfortable question going to his government’s mismanagement of our economy.
Lizzie
It’s a moodle – although the mother is a moodle and the father is a toy poodle, so he 3/4 poodle and 1/4 maltese. Gorgeous little fat thing with stumpy legs and already a huge attachment. He’s actually my wife’s dog and I’m trying to manage his relationship with my blue burmese (who is top cat in the house).
Liberals have been background ink PHIL Coorey
[While some of Mr Hockey’s colleagues believed his comments had been over-analysed or blown out of proportion, others were in no doubt he had gaffed again, and said the government could not afford to carry him into an election year.
One senior MP said Mr Abbott should wait until the parliament rose for the winter and replace Mr Hockey with Social Services Minister Scott Morrison.
“There’s nothing malevolent about Joe, he’s a good bloke; but his preferred mode of debate is stream-of-consciousness,” the MP said. “In this climate, when were being accused of lacking empathy and we’re using a budget to try and make up on fairness, we can’t afford this.”
He said Mr Hockey, whether with his comments on housing or last year’s statement about poor people not driving cars, was a valuable source of material for the ALP’s election campaign.]
http://bit.ly/1QpxYL5
Good piece without all the usual sloganeering on the SSM debate.
http://www.theage.com.au/comment/mother-father-child-the-best-formula-so-far-20150610-ghke7s.html
And not to forget the Death Cult…
They are coming after you and me, according to Tony
[The Islamic State has spread its tentacles beyond the borders of Syria and Iraq and has become a global terror movement whose ultimate aim was “universal dominion”.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has opened a regional summit on terrosim with an urgent warning on the long term ambitions of the Islamic State, also known as ISIL, or Da’ish.
Addressing a room full of ministers and delegates from around the region, Mr Abbott said ISIL’s reach now extended well beyond the Syrian-Iraq conflict.
ISIL, Mr Abbott said, now had outposts in Libya, Afghanistan and the Horn of Africa, and was seeking to expand its violent ideology into South Asia and beyond.
“We have all seen on our screen the beheadings, the crucifixion, the mass executions and the sexual slavery that the Da’ish death cult has inflicted mostly on Muslims in the Middle East,” Mr Abbott said.
“That is what the death cult has in store for everyone if it has its way.”]
[
Latika M Bourke @latikambourke
Getting a lot of reader emails and FB messages furious with PM over wind farms…much more than I normally receive on an issue.
]
There can’t be too many people left in the country that Abbott and Hockey haven’t pissed off this week.
I’ve been surprised at the number of people I’ve talked too this week that have brought up Hockeys home buyer comments. They are really angry too, not just the normal annoyance with a politician.
TPOF
Puppies are so much fun. 🙂
Sigh.
This government’s secretive and authoritarian tendencies became apparent a year and a half ago, starting with Morrison and boats.
Back then, as part of a long term plan to contrast and differentiate themselves from the Liberals, Labor could have started constructing a platform of open and accountable government, supported by their own example of using Rudd’s (then) proposed reforms as a starting point for ongoing reform of the party.
If they had taken the initiative to do so, they would have neutralised much of their own baggage, and they would have had their position prepared and narrative framed, ready and in place *before* the Coalition antics, and used those antics to reinforce their contrasting narrative.
Instead, Labor has passively waited to react. That means they are almost always behind. Now there’s always some excuse or other as to why Labor can’t be more active. There’s always some current event they have to pay more attention to, or don’t want to distract from.
I can’t see these excuses as anything but a clear sign of a party that has ceded the initiative to their opponent(s).
There have been some late improvements. Labor acted before the budget. They took some initiative on SSM. There is still time to construct a platform that differentiates their governing style, using themselves as an example with the Labor conference coming up.
Assuming of course, they don’t keep making excuses to put things off as they always do. When will it ever be the right time? There’s always some reason why *now* isn’t.
TPOF
Good luck 🙂 I had a blue Burmese once. She used to jump up and turn door handles so that she could move from room to room. With the events of today I am now convinced that she had more character and wisdom than Tony Abbott. Perhaps he was trying to distract voters from Hockey’s gaffe!