Election Christmas comes but once every three years. And this year, thanks to some naughty little Senate Elves who wouldn’t do what Santa Turnbull wanted, Election Christmas has come early!! Hooray!! For a brief – but extremely long – two month period, the fine Citizens of Australia no longer have to worry about the age of entitlement being over, or
Read more
Amidst the noise of politicians talking about their plans for economic growth this week, the announcement that Australia’s Leading Economic Index has hit an all time low has gone largely unreported. The Westpac Leading Economic Index – which has been running since 1985 – is widely considered to be one of the best predictors of Australia’s economic growth. It is released monthly, and put
Read more
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Treasurer Scott Morrison were out in force today, continuing to ridicule Labor’s plan for a Royal Commission into the Banking and Financial Services Sector and announcing further details of their own plan – to restore the funding previously cut from ASIC by the LNP through a ‘user-pays’ model. More significantly, Turnbull and Morrison are proposing that the
Read more
As the campaign for a Australia’s Federal election on July 2nd kicked off in earnest this week, we’ve been hearing two key messages from the LNP: Message one: We need to save the Construction sector Message two: Leave the Banking and Financial Services sector alone Both these messages are unpopular with around two thirds of Australians – making them strange choices to open a
Read more
While the government scrambles to look for ways to increase revenue and cut spending, one group of sacred cows who seem largely unperturbed by these ongoing discussions are Australia’s largest companies. That might be because around one in three of them pays no tax at all. And for those that do pay tax, there is talk of cutting the corporate tax rate in the future. It
Read more
I hate Huntsman Spiders. Correction – I am terrified of them. It doesn’t matter that I know they can’t kill me. They are a HYUGE, brown, hairy spider – and when I see one, my heart starts to race, the Adrenalin starts pumping and all I can think of is that it must die. IMMEDIATELY. OK, maybe they aren’t hairy
Read more
They said it would never happen. From comedians to serious commentators, Donald Trump may have been leading in the polls – but when it came down to it, they said that the American people wouldn’t actually vote for him. But that was 2015, and following some actual real voting over the last month, the narrative has now shifted from ‘they aren’t going to elect him‘
Read more
“The operation of any electoral system, any voting system, should be to clearly and transparently translate the wish of the voter into a parliamentary result.” .. .so said Malcolm Turnbull yesterday as he introduced legislation into parliament aimed at curtailing the potential of independent or micro-party senators to achieve election by stealth – solely through the distribution of preferences. Nick Xenophon – one
Read more
Progressive Conversation 