Newspoll has registered another 50/50 polling result: Voter confidence in Malcolm Turnbull’s performance has tumbled to a five-month low and dissatisfaction with the Prime Minister has reached the highest level since he seized the leadership from Tony Abbott in September. The latest Newspoll, taken exclusively for The Australian, also shows that despite stronger than expected
From The Australian: Rallying Liberal Party members in Tasmania, Mr Abbott said the next parliament needed a Coalition government to continue “the vital task of budget repair”. “It’s not easy, it never is, but it has to be done,” the former prime minister said. …“What the Turnbull government offers in Canberra is prudent, frugal government
Cross posted from Michelle Grattan at The Conversation: Politics has its own purgatory, as Malcolm Turnbull and Tony Abbott might have reflected when they sat on the same table at the Howard government’s 20th anniversary dinner on Wednesday. After a day when their animosity had been on shocking display, here they were together, unable to
By Leith van Onselen Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbott has launched a fresh scare campaign against Labor’s negative gearing policy, arguing that it would crush business investment. From The Canberra Times: The Prime Minister said Labor’s policy is actually a plan to end tax deductability on all business expenses against ordinary income, including margin loans used
Here is why. Abbott and Hockey had a vision It was the wrong vision but it still had internal logic. Hockey’s “End of Entitlement” thesis was clearly articulated. It led to an application of these values in Budget policy. It was horribly misapplied, yes, did not understand the economy under management and the polity rejected
From the Labor-aligned McKell Institute 50 economists trash Turnbott’s negative gearing lies: Between 29 February and 2 March 2016, The McKell Institute surveyed 51 of Australia’s leading and most respected economists to gauge their opinions on negative gearing policy. Respondents were asked to nominate whether they strongly agreed, agreed, were uncertain, disagreed, strongly disagreed, or
From the AFR: The government’s assault on Labor’s negative gearing tax has suffered an embarrassing setback with the authors of a damning report saying it was written late last year and had nothing to do with Labor’s policy released just a month ago. Just hours after Treasurer Scott Morrison used the findings to slam Labor’s policy for driving up rents
The Coalition is at war with itself, from the AFR: Tensions between the Abbott and Turnbull camps have again been inflamed with the Prime Minister saying the Defence Department and the Australian Federal Police will investigate the leak of sensitive national security document published in newspapers on Wednesday. The Australian‘s Foreign Editor Greg Sheridan reported that
It may seem boring but it is the case that roughly half of the Australian Public Service is currently engaged in negotiations over new workplace agreements. The Department of Human Service, ATO and Defence (about half the APS – or about 75k punters) have voted down agreements in the last 3 months, the latter joining them today.
By Leith van Onselen Australian Treasurer, Scott Morrison, who has deep ties to the Property Council of Australia, gave another poor performance in Question Time yesterday whereby he once again attacked Labor’s proposed property tax reforms because they would harm ordinary “mums and dads”: Here’s a sample of what Morrison said: “Those teachers, those nurses,
Will the real prime minister stand up please, from The Australian: Malcolm Turnbull is leaving room to retreat on a controversial change to negative gearing in the face of backbench fears and a warning shot from Tony Abbott about the government’s economic direction. …The Australian understands the Prime Minister has been considering the move over
From Essential:
Bring it on, from the AFR: Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott has raised the temperature inside the Coalition over tax reform by calling on Malcolm Turnbull to make tough decisions to cut spending if he wanted to fund tax cuts. Mr Abbott, who as prime minister opposed tinkering with superannuation, negative gearing and the GST, told Tuesday’s weekly Coalition
Tony Abbott’s campaign to return to the prime ministership came into the open at The Australian over the weekend with the Chief Loon writing: The first law of governing is that you can’t spend what you can’t raise through taxes and borrowings; and the second law is that today’s borrowings have to be paid for —
Man, it is bizarre: Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has warned Coalition MPs engaged in public disunity over the future of negative gearing that they could further imperil the government. Risking a revolt from government MPs who want negative gearing kept in its current form, Malcolm Turnbull is pushing ahead with the idea of capping
If you have any doubts about what’s tearing Malcolm Turnbott in twain then put those to rest. We have a backbench revolt of loon ponders actively pursuing private policy objectives, Tony Abbott himself blathering constantly about the wars he wants fought and now this from card-carrying Abbott loyalist Maurice Newman at The Australian: When Malcolm
Will negative gearing reform smash house prices and the economy as Prime Minister Turnbott says it will? Let’s look to the evidence. In the mid-1980s negative gearing was repealed for two years from June ’85 to Sep ’87, I’ve marked this period on the chart: Prices did fall, yes, but you could hardly call it a
From The Australian: Malcolm Turnbull is being urged to rule out changes to negative gearing on investment properties as Coalition MPs use the Prime Minister’s own words to warn of a damaging impact on the economy if the tax breaks are cut. “I think we should have an unequivocal position,” a Liberal MP told The
Just how much pressure is the Turnbott under from his sudden policy mentor Tony Abbott? Judging by this, a lot: One of former prime minister Tony Abbott’s biggest supporters will be named chair of Parliament’s powerful security and intelligence committee by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. Tasmanian MP Andrew Nikolic, an arch conservative MP with hawkish
Oh yeh, Turnbott has lost control of the agenda alright, from Ross Gittins: …When Turnbull displaced Tony Abbott five months ago I, like many others, dared to hope his ascension represented a new beginning for Australian politics…The eternal emphasis on attaining and retaining power, rather than on using that power to make Australia a better
Cripes, the compass has gone completely out the window, from the Canberra Times: Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has ordered a review into a controversial school education program aimed at promoting acceptance of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (LGBTI) students. The Safe Schools teaching manual, introduced by the previous Labor government, has been attacked in recent
Not that that will surprise anyone but here it is: Labor’s negative gearing reform proposal is economically responsible and fair Labor’s reform proposal for negative gearing is well founded in fairness and economics. But like most reforms, particularly ones which remove a well-entrenched and significant market distortion, there are likely to be some consequences for
You idiots: A spokesman for the Prime Minister then told The Australian Financial Review that Mr Turnbull was still open to tightening the tax deduction for losses on negatively geared investment, and reducing the capital gains tax discount for investors, but not by as much as Labor. Pressed what the government’s position was on Tuesday morning,
I didn’t think it possible a few months ago but the stunning ineptitude of the Tony Turnbull Government, as well as the toxic influence of a compromised RBA and Treasury on its policies, has opened an opportunity for Labor to re-enter power. Bill Shorten can win and here is how: the ALP currently has a developing policy platform with
From Roy Morgan: In mid-February L-NP support is 52.5% cf. ALP 47.5% (both unchanged) on a two-party preferred basis. If a Federal Election were held now the L-NP would win. Primary support for the L-NP is 43.5% (unchanged) with ALP at 29.5% (up 0.5%). Support for the Greens is down 1% to 15%, Nick Xenophon
The Coalition has the yips, from The Australian: Malcolm Turnbull’s authority on delivering promised economic leadership and Scott Morrison’s ability to introduce tax reforms are under extreme pressure from Coalition backbenchers emboldened by the retreat from raising the GST. Fuelled by polling figures MPs say show the opposition’s negative gearing policy is hurting Labor, Coalition
Tony Turnbull has torn free of its monstrous chrysalis in a spray of fetid ooze as it scuttles towards your face for an early election: JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, can I ask you about negative gearing? Is the government open to any potential changes similar to what Labor are suggesting? PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, well thank you. The Labor Party’s negative gearing
From The Australian: Based on preference flows from the last election, the Coalition and Labor are tied in two-party terms at 50 per cent each. …The poll of 1807 voters taken from Thursday to Sunday found 47 per cent in favour of Labor’s negative-gearing plan, with 31 per cent opposed and 22 per cent undecided.
From Domainfax: Malcolm Turnbull’s ascendant Coalition government is moving closer to calling an early election, even as strategists warn of a backlash from voters that could cost it 10 or more seats. The negative voter reaction is considered “containable” and is being factored in to considerations, with private polling suggesting voters will stick with Mr
By Leith van Onselen New Trade Minister, Steve Ciobo, has attacked US Democratic front-runner, Hillary Clinton, for opposing the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal, accusing Ms Clinton of running a union-backed misinformation campaign against the pact. From The AFR: “I’m not surprised that the trade union movement and, of course, the political arm of the
