Australian budget

By Leith van Onselen Throughout this term of Government, the Coalition has maintained the lie that ‘ordinary’ ‘middle’ Australians are the primary beneficiaries of negative gearing and that unwinding the tax break would represent a direct attack on them.

By Leith van Onselen Last month, the ACT Government signed the $710 million contract to build a 12-kilometre light rail line connecting Gungahlin in the north and Civic, thus locking taxpayers in to paying for the project.

By Leith van Onselen Just two months ago, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull threw a high speed rail (HSR) hail Mary, declaring that the Government would commit to building a very fast train network that would eventually run all the way from Melbourne to Brisbane.

The Australia Institute’s chief economist, Richard Denniss, has continued his commendable campaign against the Turnbull Government’s announced cutting of the company tax rate from 30% to 25% over a decade, demolishing the purported “trickle-down” benefits to lower paid workers.

By Leith van Onselen Australia’s group of eight elite universities has called on the Government to rein-in the demand-driven university system, claiming that it has been an expensive failure.

Cross-posted from The Conversation: Whichever party wins the 2 July election, changes to the Higher Education Loan Programme (HELP) scheme are on their way.

By Leith van Onselen It sure does seem like the Turnbull Government has picked a loser by announcing that it would cut the company tax rate from 30% to 25% over a decade, with the overwhelming majority of voters appearing strongly opposed to the move.

By Leith van Onselen Last night, ABC’s The Business ran a disturbing segment (above) explaining how global oil giant, Chevron, avoids paying Australian taxes on its Gorgon LNG project, depriving Australia’s governments of billions of dollars in taxes.

By Leith van Onselen Today the rent seekers are out in force at the AFR: A coalition of business groups has launched a blistering attack on Labor and Green opponents of corporate tax cuts, warning they are increasingly demonising employers of 80 per cent of all workers.

Cross-posted from The Conversation: Labor has unveiled a $3 billion child care policy, proposing to lift the annual cap on the Child Care Rebate from $7,500 to $10,000 per child and increase the Child Care Benefit by 15% starting January 1, 2017.

By Leith van Onselen Export volumes might be booming, but falling commodity prices has meant that the Queensland Budget is facing a $3 billion hit to royalty revenues.

By Leith van Onselen Academics have questioned the Turnbull Government’s tax cuts for higher income earners, arguing that they are poorly directed if the Coalition’s goal is to support jobs and growth.

By Leith van Onselen The Business Council of Australia (BCA) has launched a stinging attack on Labor’s opposition to a company tax cut, labelling it as a “dangerous” attack on the economy.

By Leith van Onselen In a clear pitch for the family vote, Labor has announced that, if elected, it would significantly boost the childcare rebate and raise to cap at a cost of $3 billion to the Budget.

By Lindsay David, cross-posted from Australia: Boom to Bust Blog: As the election campaign drags on and desperation slowly sets in, the gloves are slowly coming off with the LNP and Labor advocating they are the better economic manager than each other.

By Leith van Onselen The Centre for Policy Development (CPD) has produced a new report entitled Uneven Playing Field: The State of Australia’s Schools, which projects that under current policy settings, mid-range private school students are on track to receive $1,000 more in taxpayer funding than average public school students by 2020.

By Leith van Onselen The Turnbull Government continues to spruik its planned $48.2 billion cut to the company tax rate to 25% over a decade, running the line that it will boost business investment, Australian jobs, and growth.

The 12 month Singapore and Chinese futures markets for iron ore both crashed to new lows yesterday.