Finance minister ‘not looking’ at negative gearing changes, inquiry hears
Paul Karp
In the Senate cost-of-living inquiry, Matt Canavan probed what work the treasury is doing on negative gearing, attempting to uncover whether there is any work going on to reform the controversial tax deduction.
The treasury secretary, Steven Kennedy, said:
I talk to the treasurer about every part of the tax system. The tax expenditure statement, released last week shows the distributional features of all parts of system, including negative gearing.
Canavan asked if there was work on any changes, Kennedy declined to answer, which Canavan suggested meant there probably was. Katy Gallagher, the finance minister, rejected the claim.
Gallagher said:
It’s not something we’re looking at, it’s not something we’re working on. It’s not something before the parliament.
Canavan noted that that’s what the government said before its changes to stage three.
Key events
Victoria police are sending additional detectives and expanding the search area for missing Ballarat women Samantha Murphy after she was last seen leaving home to go for a run six days ago.
Detectives encouraged community members to continue helping in the search for Murphy.
In a press conference a short time ago, police said:
We look through that Eureka and state Forest area and today we’re focusing on the Buninyong area.
We are now in day six of the operation. We have covered a lot of areas so far so we’re just expanding search area.
Asked whether specialists relating to mine shafts or dams were involved, police said:
It’s all part of our search at the moment. We have had Victoria Police search and rescue squad involved in the search from day one. It is a challenging area and terrain within the area of the search operation … there were a lot of unused mines throughout that area as well and some thick and rugged bush.
Police said Murphy had her phone with her when she disappeared and are engaging with telecommunications technicians, but said they haven’t yet received information from the experts on her movement after she left home on Sunday morning. Police are also investigating Murphy’s movements in the lead up to her disappearance.
Police said:
We do hold significant concerns in relation to her welfare, particularly as the days go on.
Arson attack detectives investigate another tobacco shop blaze
A suspicious blaze at a tobacco shop in Melbourne’s south-east is being investigated by detectives probing a wider conflict linked to a gang war, AAP reports.
The shop on Glenhuntly Road in Caulfield went up in flames at 2.30am on Friday.
Police believed the offenders drove a stolen vehicle into the front window and set the shop alight before fleeing in another vehicle.
No one was injured but the business and a nearby apartment was damaged.
It is being treated as a targeted attack, and Taskforce Lunar detectives will look at any possible links to other recent fires, Victoria Police said in a statement.
The taskforce is investigating more than 30 arson attacks believed to be linked to an ongoing conflict between organised crime groups and outlaw motorcycle gangs over illegal tobacco.
Police have previously said criminals are demanding regular payments from shop owners and ordering lower-level criminals to carry out firebombings.
Earlier we brought you news of the 4.3 magnitude earthquake in Victoria that hit the state’s Gippsland region, 135km south-east of Melbourne, at 12.49am today.
Here’s more on this story here:
ABC’s house committee condemns ‘abhorrent’ incidents of racism towards its Jewish and Arab journalists
The ABC’s house committee has condemned increased incidents of racism targeting its Jewish and Arab journalists, including a “flood” of online remarks inciting violence against them, and a “worrying number of Islamophobic and antisemitic acts in the real world”.
In a statement, it said:
The ABC House Committee is aware of increased incidents of racism targeting Jewish and Arab ABC journalists. In the last fortnight, there has been a flood of online remarks inciting violence against them, and a worrying number of Islamophobic and antisemitic acts in the real world. We support absolutely the democratic right to protest but condemn antisemitic and Islamophobic comments.
The House Committee rejects any and all attempts to target ABC journalists on the basis of their faith and ethnicity.
To use the Israel-Gaza conflict as a means to vilify Australian Arabs or Jews is abhorrent.
The ABC House Committee stands in solidarity with all ABC staff who have a connection to the conflict and condemns absolutely all forms of racism stemming from it.
Our society can be, and should be, better than that.
To our workmates, if you’re feeling unsafe and unprotected at work, please reach out to your local House Committee rep or organiser, we’ve got your back.
Henry Belot
Regulator expands investigation of PwC Australia with nine inquiries under way
A government regulator has broadened its inquiry into the consultancy firm PwC Australia and confirmed the existence of “nine current investigations”.
The Tax Practitioner Board’s chair, Peter de Dure, said three investigations were “well advanced” and would hopefully assist six other investigations into the firm’s conduct:
We have compiled a lot of information and our team is working through that and we intend to pursue those investigations in the ordinary course of the year. I don’t want to talk about the exact timeframes for the purposes of protecting the probity of the investigation.
The allegations being investigated are not known.
The TPB’s inquiries into PwC Australia began after the ATO raised concerns a former partner had shared confidential information about future tax laws with colleagues, who shopped it to international clients.
Jonathan Barrett
Bullock encourages young women to study economics
Australia’s first female central bank governor has encouraged young women to consider a career in economics, after describing the subject as “fun”.
The RBA governor, Michele Bullock, told a parliamentary committee in Canberra today:
All I’d say to young women is it’s really good fun and don’t be off-put by what you might think might be a challenging subject.
It’s a challenging subject, but it is a fun subject and economics gives you insights into everyday life that I think is valuable for everyone.
Bullock was responding to a question from Labor’s Alicia Payne, a member of the House of Representatives economics committee.
Finance minister ‘not looking’ at negative gearing changes, inquiry hears
Paul Karp
In the Senate cost-of-living inquiry, Matt Canavan probed what work the treasury is doing on negative gearing, attempting to uncover whether there is any work going on to reform the controversial tax deduction.
The treasury secretary, Steven Kennedy, said:
I talk to the treasurer about every part of the tax system. The tax expenditure statement, released last week shows the distributional features of all parts of system, including negative gearing.
Canavan asked if there was work on any changes, Kennedy declined to answer, which Canavan suggested meant there probably was. Katy Gallagher, the finance minister, rejected the claim.
Gallagher said:
It’s not something we’re looking at, it’s not something we’re working on. It’s not something before the parliament.
Canavan noted that that’s what the government said before its changes to stage three.
Melissa Davey
Victoria to hold inquiry into tobacco and e-cigarette controls
Unlike other Australian jurisdictions, Victoria doesn’t have a licensing system for the sale of tobacco and e-cigarettes, a gap which will now be examined by Victorian vaping and tobacco control inquiry.
Because no licence is needed to sell tobacco products in Victoria, it is difficult to determine where products are stored and sold, or to enforce laws on sellers.
The Victorian parliamentary inquiry is now seeking input from the public about the effectiveness of efforts to prevent and reduce the harm of tobacco use and vaping.
Committee chair Sarah Connolly said the inquiry would examine if more could be done to minimise harm, such as introducing a licensing scheme. But the inquiry will also examine the financial, health, social and environmental effects of tobacco and vape use.
The causes and consequences of the illicit tobacco and e-cigarette industry in Victoria, and how it affects the state’s justice system, will also come under scrutiny.
Connolly said:
Our Committee will conduct public hearings so we can listen directly to the relevant authorities and experts.
We’re also looking at holding a youth roundtable, similar to what we did for our 2023 inquiry into liquor and gambling.
Caitlin Cassidy
Experts lash classroom disruption review for ‘overly simplistic’ findings
Education experts have lashed out at the findings of a Senate inquiry into disruption in Australian classrooms.
The final report recommended another review into declining academic performance, after floating the idea of a “national behaviour curriculum”.
Dr Katrina Barker, associate professor for education and work at Western Sydney University, said assuming teachers could effectively apply evidence-based approaches in classrooms was an “overly simplistic view” of how challenging behaviour should be addressed:
Teachers need additional support, achieved through collaboration with their colleagues, school leaders, the students themselves, and parents, as well as allied healthcare professionals. This collaborative effort is essential for identifying the underlying reasons and motivations behind challenging behaviour.
Dr Erin Leif, a senior lecturer in the faculty of education at Monash University, said the report fell short in recommending strategies to establish supportive school systems.
The committee’s recommendations emphasise the importance of enhancing teacher professional development and national initiatives for school reform. Yet, the successful implementation of evidence-based teaching and behaviour management practices requires a robust and supportive school environment.
Here’s some background to this issue from an earlier take from experts on what needs to be done:
‘People just don’t vanish into thin air’: search for missing Ballarat woman Samantha Murphy enters sixth day
Samantha Murphy’s family and community are growing increasingly desperate as the search for the Ballarat woman enters its sixth day.
About 40 local police were expected on the ground again in the regional Victorian city on Friday, hopeful of finding any sign of 51-year-old.
Murphy – known to family and friends as a mentally and physically strong woman – was last seen leaving her Eureka Street home in Ballarat East about 7am on Sunday to go for a run.
Search crews have canvassed a large area of Ballarat looking for the mother-of-three, with the State Emergency Service and Country Fire Authority personnel helping police comb the city’s east, the Canadian Forest area and Mount Helen in recent days.
More on this story here:
Jonathan Barrett
Bullock refuses to rule out further rate hikes
While mortgage holders will be hopeful the interest rate hiking cycle is over, the RBA governor, Michele Bullock, has not ruled out further increases.
“At this stage, the board hasn’t ruled out a further increase in interest rates, but neither has it ruled it in,” Bullock told a parliamentary committee today.
The RBA left its interest rate unchanged at 4.35% earlier this week, and some central bank watchers are anticipating there will be rate cuts this year.
Bullock said the RBA wants the inflation rate back to about 2.5%, describing the current 4.1% as “not good enough”.
‘Not the Australia I want to see’: PM on reports of Jewish people moving in Melbourne due to ‘antisemitic attacks’
Anthony Albanese was on 3AW a short time ago, where he was asked about reports in the Herald Sun that suggest Jewish communities in Melbourne’s inner north are moving due to “antisemitic attacks”.
Albanese said:
I have not seen a rise in social disharmony like I’ve seen in recent times.
Now, people have very strong views about the conflict in the Middle East, but we don’t want to bring conflict here and one element of that has been the rising antisemitism.
Albanese then said he was “shocked” by comments made by Newtown MP Jenny Leong, who referred to the “tentacles” of the “Jewish lobby” and its influence across Australia.
Leong has apologised and said she did not intend to reference an antisemitic cartoon depicting Jews as an octopus when she made the comments at the Palestine Justice Movement forum in Sydney in December, where the boycott movement against Israel was being discussed.
Albanese said:
That should not be ever used and spoken about, an inappropriate intervention is the way that it was put by members of the Jewish community.
The Jewish community have a very proud history of standing up against racism in all its forms, both here in Melbourne, but everywhere. They’ve taken the experience of antisemitism and broadened it out to very much reach out to opposition to racism in all its forms. And it is tragic that people feel that they have to consider … moving from their local communities, that’s completely unacceptable, and it’s not the Australia I want to see.
The great thing about our country is we can be a microcosm for the world and by and large we are. We’re a peaceful country. We live in harmony. The great thing is that people, whether they be Catholic or Jewish, or Hindu, or Buddhist or Muslim, live side by side and are enriched by the diversity … And that’s a sort of Australia that I want to see.
Bullock says ‘no material impact’ on inflation from Labor’s tax cuts
Jonathan Barrett
The RBA governor, Michele Bullock, is not concerned about any potential impact of the stage-three tax cuts, recently redesigned by Labor, on inflation.
Bullock told the parliamentary committee the tax plan would not affect the central bank’s forecasts.
“The point with the stage-three tax cuts is that they’re staying within the fiscal envelope, it’s a redistribution, and we don’t see that that’s going to have any material impact at all on inflation or our forecasts,” Bullock said.
Jonathan Barrett
RBA to ask public for input on $5 note redesign
The Reserve Bank will be taking public feedback on a redesign of the $5 note during March and April.
The RBA governor, Michele Bullock, told a parliamentary committee today the bank wants to “honour and celebrate the culture and history of First Nations peoples” on a new design.
Bullock said:
As a first step in determining the design we will be asking members of the public over the course of March and April to share with us what they think should be on our $5 banknote.
In recent weeks, we’ve also begun visiting First Nations community organisations in key regional and remote locations across Australia and the Torres Strait, and we’re doing that to engage with local communities about the theme nomination process.
Jonathan Barrett
Bullock says Australia needs to take ‘narrow path’
The RBA governor, Michele Bullock, borrowed a phrase from her predecessor, telling the parliamentary committee in Canberra that the central bank needed to take the “narrow path”.
This refers to the policy of achieving the maximum level of employment consistent with low and stable inflation.
While Australia’s inflation rate has retreated to a two-year low at 4.1%, it remains well above the 2% to 3% band the RBA targets.
“This is the balancing act that the board is focusing on,” Bullock said.
“We’re trying to bring inflation back to target without slowing the economy more than necessary on demand, or risking high inflation for longer.”
Bullock, the former deputy, replaced Philip Lowe to become Australia’s first female central bank governor last year. This is her first appearance at the House of Representatives economics committee.
Henry Belot
‘Frustrated’ ATO accuses PwC of ‘hiding’ report used to clear its partners of wrongdoing
The Australian Tax Office has still not received a report by the law firm Linklaters, which was cited by PwC global’s executive last year to clear its international partners of any wrongdoing.
The ATO and Australian senators are seeking the report to establish whether international partners were involved in monetising confidential Treasury information about future multinational tax laws.
The chair of that inquiry, Liberal senator Richard Colbeck, wrote to US and UK oversight committees last year asking for help to obtain the report, which has not been provided by the firm.
PwC Australia partners will appear before the inquiry later this morning.
The ATO’s second commissioner, Jeremy Hirschorn, has told the inquiry he has not seen the report and accused PwC of hiding it.
I think it’s fair to say that we share the frustrations of this committee that an organisation, which claims to be cooperative, is deliberately hiding behind the difference between their local firm and the international firm.
It would be preferable if that was [provided] in a spirit of true cooperation.
