Crispin Hull

Productivity: big items left out

The great Australian dream used to be to own your own home. Now it is more like to own somebody else’s home, or more. And last week’s productivity roundtable doesn’t look like doing much about it.

There are two reasons. The first was the sort of the people in the room. And the second was what they did not discuss.

Lehrmann’s lawyer let down by the system

The immediate prurient interest in the latest episode of a case laden with prurient interest was the way Bruce Lehrmann’s legal representative, solicitor Zali Burrows, argued his appeal before the full Federal Court this week.

We must decide what weapons we use where

Over the past week, several security experts in the US have been revealing that the US Administration wants Australia to speak out more clearly about supposed threats posed by China.

That is clearly the view of the Trump Administration, even though it has not declared it.

A powerful subsidy scheme

I have been pushed over the edge – by the Government and the energy companies. The first monthly electricity bill for the new financial year has arrived. After months of zero bills, this one was for $200.

Taxing time for the political system

The Australian political system is about to be stress-tested. The test will not be on some visceral, emotionally charged issue. Rather it will come with a complex and prosaic matter that usually does not excite much attention: company tax.

The test will come with how the system responds to last week’s Productivity Commission report which recommends a change to company tax that so far has only excited accountants and policy nerds.

Passive aggressive warfare in Gaza

The images of starving children coming out of Gaza reminded me of the images of the liberation of the concentration camps at the end of World War II. Victims and perpetrators come in all colours, races and religions. Maybe Shakespeare would have said: “If you starve us, do we not look skeletal”.

In Tel Aviv last week, Jewish people took to the streets holding photographs of children whose starvation is being caused by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netayahu’s illegal waging of an aggressive war and the illegal withholding of food in Gaza. If you offend decency, do we not protest.

Tweaking the tax system

Here are four propositions that show the pub test is an asinine way to determine good policy. None of the propositions would pass the pub test; but all would be good for Australia.

The propositions are: The GST should be increased. It should be applied to fresh food. And education. Donations to charity should not be tax deductible.

PM’s bind over antisemitism

An old adage says a government should never set up an inquiry unless it has a very good idea as to what its findings might be lest it comes back to bite. That was certainly true of last week’s report by the Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism Jillian Segal.

A self-destructive ally

Australia was invaded last week. The invader did a lot of damage, similar to previous invasions over the past couple of decades. The invader took people’s homes; damaged the power grid; wrecked roads and bridges; and destroyed crops. All the things that invaders do.

And the invader will come again and again in greater force, destroying lives and property. The invader, of course, is the more violent weather caused by climate change. The same invader that killed 50 people in Texas last week.

A super reform example

Today brings (without much fanfare) the completion of the greatest policy advance for the prosperity and well-being of Australia and its people since the nation’s inception.

After nearly 33 years, the Keating-inspired Superannuation Guarantee Contribution has reached its original proposed maximum of 12 percent of wages and salaries –the level which will provide dignified retirement for the broad mass of working people.

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