The BludgerTrack poll aggregate this week records a strong move back to Labor, which partly reflects the Coalition’s soft Newspoll result this week. However, it’s also indicative of how sensitive the model is short-term fluctuations now that it’s using the start of the Turnbull era of year zero, and thus only has a small number of data points. The story on the primary vote is that the Greens have recovered some of the ground they lost over the previous weeks, with the Labor primary vote remaining steady. The difference all this makes to the seat projection is rather modest, with the Coalition dropping two seats in New South Wales and one in Queensland. The leadership ratings from Newspoll give a further boost to Malcolm Turnbull’s already strong net approval rating, but the other indicators are essentially unchanged. Preferred prime minister and Turnbull’s net approval are still being determined through weighted averages of all polling since the leadership change, rather than trend measures.
What’s more:
• The meeting of the New South Wales Liberal Party’s state council on the weekend, chiefly noted for the heckling delivered to the Prime Minister, saw the demise of a proposal for all preselections to be conducted by plebiscites of party members, in place of the current system where the vote is divided between branch delegates and head office. This was despite just such a reform being advocated by a post-election review conducted by a panel headed by John Howard. However, a compromise resolution will see plebiscites conducted in one federal seat before next year’s election, two for the subsequent federal election due in 2019, and two for the next state election, also due in 2019.
• Tom McIlroy of the Canberra Times identifies Christina Hobbs, a United Nations World Food Program program officer, as a possible starter for the Greens’ Senate preselection in the Australian Capital Territory. However, the report also cites a party source saying its resources were likely to be concentrated elsewhere, particularly on “potentially difficult fights in Queensland, NSW and South Australia”.
[ poroti
Posted Sunday, October 18, 2015 at 3:49 pm | Permalink
Greensborough Growler
Stop the “envy” bullshit. Whatever he is worth has never been a problem before. It is his use of a notorious tax haven. There are many places he could have chosen , including Australia but he went for the Caymans.
As Barak Obama said of Ugland House where Turnbull has a number of investments. It is either the world’s largest building or the world’s biggest scam. What a good look for our PM. Oh , right, Barak is envious of Turnbull.
]
Poroti – can you please stop sending realistic, sensible and logical posts about Caymans …. it is muddying the waters too much on here ……
GG
Turnbull is a complete slime for putting his money in the Cayman Islands.
He is a tax-avoiding parasite who lives off the sweat of others while refusing to contribute his share to the community he is supposed to be serving.
I don’t care if people have money, even mega lots of it. I care how they got it, and how they use it when they get it.
Parking it in the Caymans just displays in strobing neon lights what kind of person Malcolm is, and it is not pretty.
Ditto anyone else who does it or to a lessor extent (as they are really just the servants of the moneyed) facilitates others to do it.
poroti
I agree, ideally places like the Caymans wouldn’t exist but until the G20 gets serious about taxation, those places will remain.
zoidy,
Your choice of television programme is noted.
No wonder you are stupid and naïve.
@MB/2000
It’s a matter for us because we are investing in their country, especially with a high ranking politician goes on attacks the poor, low income, and welfare.
You are continuing to ignore the problem of BEPS.
@GG/2004
I don’t watch ACA/FTA or Cable.
Puffy
That might be true if it was proven that Turnbull had not been paying Australian taxes inline with his income, at this stage the information is that he has been paying taxes on his income.
Roger Miller
[ Its like trying to smear Bill Shorten by saying he was in a union.]
The Liberal Party and the likes of The Australian certainly consider it a smear.
puffy,
All you need is love!
zoidy,
No wonder you are stupid and naïve.
poroti@1964
Snap!
Zoidy
No, I just understand that investing is driven by a number of factors and the tax system works in various ways.
Until I am shown Turnbull has been blatantly failing to pay his taxes then I don’t see a big problem.
Can William put GG in the ban hammer.
@MB/2012
It’s not about paying his taxes, it’s the amount of taxes he is paying and why he chose a firm that deals with low taxed countries.
Zoidy
People invest for many reasons, in short, maximise income with minimal cost such as taxation.
zoidy,
You are stupid and naïve
Guardian Australia @GuardianAus 1m1 minute ago
Manus Island asylum seeker on hunger strike says he is close to death http://trib.al/xqtmRkN
TPOF@1937
The basic goal of politics is to implement your policies. Typically best done from the government benches, of course, but not necessarily.
If Labor can shame the government into such changes, that is a win for them, policy wise, and unlikely to do them any harm politically.
MB: How on earth would we ever find any evidence that Turnbull is avoiding/evading taxes when the Cayman Islands will ARREST any ATO officials who turn up. It is basically the taxation badlands – it is beyond the law. An Australian Prime Minister should not be putting his money beyond the law. He should invest where the ATO can properly assess whether he has complied with his taxation obligations.
After some research on the internet, I’ve discovered where GG developed his inimitable posting style:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQFKtI6gn9Y
@MB/2014
And that is why Australia is such a shit hole on economic growth is because we allow people to avoid paying taxes, and allow politicians to attack the welfare, education and health systems.
MB – Oh, and if he his only paying tax on money when it is repatriated to Australia that basically means he is not paying any income tax. He might be paying capital gainst tax – but not income tax. So, if you are right, there is your proof.
TPOF,
LOL.
zoidlord @ 2016
[Manus Island asylum seeker on hunger strike says he is close to death http://trib.al/xqtmRkN%5D
Now that is something we really should be talking about.
JUST ME – Turnbull won’t do anything about strengthening anti-tax haven laws because that would be an admission he shouldn’t have invested there!
zoidlord
Exactly.
Malcolm ‘paying all his taxes’ are just weasel words. There is only one reason why Mal has stashed his dosh in the Caymans, and it doesn’t take much imagination to work that one out.
Kevin
That is a good question, I guess the ATO can get around it by forming a number of assumptions about potential income based on the base minimum required to invest plus the time held against the returns to the fund, then its up to Turnbull to prove that wasn’t his income.
I thought I read somewhere that Australia had some kind of tax information sharing arrangement with the Caymans.
Kevin
I posted before seeing your comment about capital gains growth, that should provide some insight.
@MB/2026
ATO has done shit all on tax avoidance, because liberals pushed them out the window in the federal budget.
K17
[So clarify for me: you think Labor should drop the whole Cayman Island’s issue do you?]
I think they should have tied it to the Liberals lack of gumption in going after tax avoiding companies rather than making it personal.
KEVIN-ONE-SEVEN@1820
This. No way that business want to return to the pre-early 90s levels of industrial dispute.
An historical reminder to all that the big fall in days lost to industrial dispute was under Keating. The job was already done before Howard took office.
Labor should be proudly owning this achievement in any IR debate.
I don’t think anyone has accused Turnbull of not paying the tax due. However, someone hinted this morning (I think) that profits can be reinvested rather than brought back to Australia. It then forms a nice nest egg with which he and Lucy may purchase an annuity when the sum is ‘repatriated’. I’m sure there are other ways of treating this, and arguing about annual tax paid is too simple.
K17,
Are you a forensic accountant. Or, just a gifted amateur with NFI.
Turnbull pays income tax on his wages as PM. You don’t pay income tax on assets. Only on the profit you generate.
Boerwar
Posted Sunday, October 18, 2015 at 1:38 pm | PERMALINK
For the Labor tactics committee:
1. Question for the Prime Minister. How much tax has the Prime Minister avoided using negative gearing?
2. Question for the Prime Minister. How much tax has the Prime Minister avoided using not for profit structures?
3. Question for the Prime Minister. How much tax has the Prime Minister avoided using salary sacrificing?
4. Question for the Prime Minister. How much tax has the Prime Minister avoided using self managed superannuation arrangements?
5. Question for the Prime Minister. Has the Prime Minister at any time used financial instruments to avoid tax? If so, how much tax has the Prime Minster avoided?
6. Question for the Prime Minister. Has the Prime Minister ever received legal or financial advice relating to ways in which the Caymans can be used to avoid tax?
7. Question for the Prime Minister. Does the Prime Minister use a Family Trust structure. If so, how much tax has the Prime Minister avoided using such structure (s).
8. Question for the Prime Minister. Does the Prime Minister use income averaging in his rural investments. If so, how much tax has the Prime Minister avoided using income averaging?
9. Question for the Prime Minister. Does, or has, the Prime Minister use the diesel fuel rebate. If so, how much tax has the Prime Minister avoided?
10. Question for the Prime Minister. Has the Prime Minister ever used an offshore financial entity or holding account or related structure to hold capital and associated income to enable him to delay paying tax in any particular year?
11. For all of the above questions, include…’or an entity in which the Prime Minister has a financial interest’.
12. For all of the above questions, include… ‘and/or Lucy’.
Ask this set of questions and then just watch the kaka hit the fan big time.
——-priceless —- hope some labor insider is reading
Zoidy
The ATO every year pick on certain professional groups which is why you should keep work related expense receipts for up to seven years.
Kevin @ 2021
Snap.
Turnbull says he has investments in a blind trust overseas so as to avoid conflict of interest. It is evident that he has a conflict of interest in the current tax laws as he benefits from them far more than any poor welfare recipient does. Lets ask all politicians with any sort of trust to stand aside on any legislation that involves trusts. That would be amusing.
@GG/2032
You pay less taxes in a less taxed country, so you get more profit in that country.
We are not talking about Australia specifically.
@MB/2034
They haven’t done a good job.
Labor have not identified any law-breaking by MT, nor any form of conflict of interest. But they’ve attacked him anyway b
So now they won’t have a leg to stand on with the Press Gallery when the Libs go on the attack about anything coming out of TURC re Shorten. It’ll be open season big time. Legality or even legality+propriety will be no defence. It’s a massive own goal.
I can only conclude that the NSW Right wants to replace Shorten with Albo.
zoidy,
Are you really that stupid and naïve.
meher,
Albo is a lefty. So, no the NSW Labor RW will not be punting on Albo or Plibersek any time soon.
[So now they won’t have a leg to stand on with the Press Gallery…]
They never have a friggin’ ‘leg to stand on’ with the press gallery.
You have to be naive in the extreme to imagine that it matters to the press gallery what Labor has done in the past if they have an opportunity to slag off Shorten or Labor.
Indeed the whole notion that Labor needs to second guess what a dying and largely irrelevant group of journalists, most of whom are naturally antagonistic to Labor anyway, is one of the most obvious strategic own goals Labor could commit.
In short it’ll be open season on Labor no matter what they do.
[Sydney’s fringes are serving as a dumping ground for asbestos waste as unscrupulous builders and renovators seek to avoid costly and labour-intensive legal disposal.
Truckloads of the deadly fibrous construction material pulled from demolished and renovated buildings are being tipped onto roadsides, bushland, parks and, sometimes, even in the middle of isolated roads]
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/the-sydney-suburbs-serving-as-a-dumping-ground-for-asbestos-waste-20151018-gkbuy7.html#ixzz3otWUXHlD
MB
[I can only conclude that the NSW Right wants to replace Shorten with Albo.]
That was a comment from someone on here a week or two back.
Wasn’t the Shorten/Albo the result of the ballot and locked in?
adrian
[it’ll be open season on Labor no matter what they do.]
In full agreement there.
GG. I was being sarcastic about Dastyari’s role in all this.
It might appeal to the rusted-ons of PB, but it’s a crazy strategy. The attacks on Gillard re Slatergate were vile and loathsome, but at least they involved an allegation that JG had committed some sort of a crime.
What on earth is the allegation here? That MT legally minimises his tax? Like negative gearing or salary sacrifice for super? And 100% of Labor MPs don’t do anything like that.
It’s beyond pathetic and looking more like desperate. And the Press Gallery is calling it for what it is.
Unless Labor has more on MT than this. So where is it?
meher baba
[
Labor have not identified any law-breaking by MT, ]
We DUH ! They never claimed there was any illegality.
mb @ 2038
[So now they won’t have a leg to stand on with the Press Gallery when the Libs go on the attack about anything coming out of TURC re Shorten. It’ll be open season big time. ]
Are you kidding? Since when did the press gallery care about that sort of thing. Shorten is getting more rational defence from right wing business people who get the implications of going after a union for doing deals with employers without a bloody war being fought first.
You only have to look at the way the Age and the ABC set about smearing Shorten based on carefully leaked material from the TURC to know that not going after Turnbull makes no difference. Indeed, whether intended or not, the most significant interplay between the two issues so far has been that the Cayman issue has pretty much drowned out the prejudicial evidence being dragged out in the TURC this week.
In any case, the two issues are not comparable except to the extent that you could argue that Shorten’s union history makes him more amenable to supporting union-friendly laws and Turnbull’s investment history makes him more amenable to supporting tax shelter and tax haven laws.
confessions@1995
This, from Dictionary.com, might help you overcome your confusion and obfuscation.
[holding neither of two opposing positions:
If you take an agnostic view of technology, then it becomes clear that your decisions to implement one solution or another should be driven by need.]
Yes, there are other definitions there, but that is the best one in the circumstances as the theological or philosophical ones are hardly appropriate.
adrian@2041: Laura Tingle, Barrie Cassidy and Dennis Atkins are at the left end of the Gallery spectrum, and none of them seem to be too impressed.
[What on earth is the allegation here? That MT legally minimises his tax? Like negative gearing or salary sacrifice for super? And 100% of Labor MPs don’t do anything like that.]
Been pointed out many times what the question is. Too bad that you chose to ignore it.