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Canberra Today 15°/16° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Macklin / Tax certainty, at least for unicorn farmers

?Super ANOTHER week on tax! Well, sort of. At least unicorn farmers can breathe easy. Treasurer Scott Morrison took them “off the table” after his seminar at the National Press Club drew cries of “waffle, slogans and platitudes” from the opposition.

Robert Macklin
Robert Macklin.

?The unicorns join the rise in the GST in a table-free environment. The table itself is now occupied by a pepper shaker of “negative gearing” and a mustard pot of “superannuation concessions”. And by week’s end both were getting plenty of attention from the participants at the pre-Budget talkfest.

?By May, I suspect, we’ll agree to anything just to end the argument. But it does make a nice change that at last there are genuine policy options in the debate, as opposed to the nasty personal sniping of recent memory.

?NOT so, alas, from the ladies of television where Canberra’s ABC newsreader Virginia Haussegger crossed decorative daggers with Seven’s “Morning” co-host Samantha Armytage. The squeals and taunts over a skit involving an American actress seeking gravitas as an “ambassador” for a UN agency did no one any credit.

INDEED, the media became the (simplistic) message with yet another Fairfax poll showing the Turnbull Government easing slightly to a 52-48 lead over Labor if an election were held today. This produced a spate of “early election” rumours that settled on July as a likely date. And the PM briefed Fairfax on his talks with other countries to take those pesky refugees.

THE so-called “micro parties” took fright as the government moved to end the “gaming” of the Senate voting system through preference swapping. Led by “preference whisperer” Glenn Druery, they’re threatening to rig the votes in Coalition marginal House of Reps seats in Labor’s favour. Let’s hope Shorten and Co have the integrity to resist.

ON happier matters, the Western Sydney Giants’ plans for an $800 million upgrade of Manuka Oval and its village surrounds are truly exciting. The place is presently chaotic when cricket and footy matches are played there. A serious traffic accident is inevitable, to say nothing of the inconvenience to spectators. And the time for a village makeover is long past.

MORE good news that some public servants have been quietly getting their pay packets topped up while others are coming to a reasonable deal. Good for Canberra, and much of the movement due to the eponymous Minister, Michaelia Cash!

THE legal tactic of choice among embattled Catholic priests caught up in the child sexual abuse scandal seems to be that they’re too old or sick (or both) to stand trial or, in Cardinal George Pell’s case, travel to Australia to give evidence at the royal commission. No surprise that Tim Minchin responded with a ribald protest song and that Australians donated more than $130,000 for the victims’ travel to Rome to hear the video evidence up close and personal. If Mohammed won’t come to the mountain…

FINALLY, we hear that Barnaby Joyce will be Acting Prime Minister a little earlier than might have been expected. Malcolm Turnbull has accepted an invitation to the Chinese sponsored Boao Forum for Asia on Hainan Island in early April. Let’s hope he doesn’t leave The Lodge keys in the letterbox.

robert@robertmacklin.com












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Robert Macklin

Robert Macklin

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