by Alan Thornhill
Consumer confidence is rising.
This is reflected in the ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence rose 0.7 per cent to 113.7 in the week ending September 28.
This followed volatility earlier in the year and some stabilisation in recent weeks.
Australian families are now more confident about their current circumstances, but still concerned about the economic outlook.
The bank’s Chief Economist, Warren Hogan, said these developments remain consistent with the bank’s view that household spending will grow moderately this year.
by Alan Thornhill
The government and opposition traded blows over corporate tax avoidance in Parliament today.
The Opposition Leader, Bill Shorten, asked the Prime Minister, Tony Abbott what the government would do about a report which said that profit shifting – and other forms of corporate tax avoidance – are cutting tax revenues by $8.4 billion a year.
Mr Abbott responded by asking what Labor had been doing about this issue, during its six years in government.
He said it was being hypocritical, in raising the matter now.
This debate dominated much of question time in parliament today.
Mr Abbott said Labor, itself, had drawn up a bill to attack a research and development scheme, costing revenue more than $1 billion a year.
But it had not put that into law.
And now, when the government wanted to proceed with that measure, it found that the opposition is opposing it.
The Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, said today that young Australians should be either earning or learning.
He was speaking at question time in parliament, in defence of his government’s budget decision to make young, unemployed Australians wait six months for the dole.
Mr Abbott had been asked about a report of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights chaired by Liberal Senator Dean Smith.
The report found that both that proposals to deny young people income support for six months of every year, and to lift the age of eligibility for the Newstart Allowance from 22 to 25 years, breach Australia’s human rights obligations.
The Federal government introduced both measures, as part of its May budget.
But they have been blocked in the Senate, which the government does not control.
Mr Abbott said that he respects Senator Smith’s opinions, but that he disagrees with him.
The Prime Minister was supported later, by his Minister for Social Security, Kevin Andrews.
Mr Andrews said “this is a very good policy.”
He asked if the opposition was saying that a person under 30, who has no parenting duties, who is not a disadvantaged job seeker, that person should be on welfare, rather than work, we disagree.
“We disagree because we believe that young people, under the age of 30, who are not working full time, should be earning or learning.
“That’s what they should be doing,” Mr Andrews said.
by Alan Thornhill
The Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, told Federal parliament today that police raids across Melbourne today were directed at terrorism financing.
Mr Abbott said some 100 Victorian and Federal police had taken part in the raids in Seabrook, Kealba, Meadow Heights, Broadmeadows and Flemington.
Police said the raids followed an eight month investigation, which started with a tip from the FBI.
Mr Abbott said his government would not tolerate Australians funding terrorism.
“Anyone who actively supports terrorism is putting Australian lives at risk,” the Prime Ministrer.
A 23 year old Seabrook man was arrested during the raids, for allegedly providing $12,000 to a US citizen fighting in Syria.
Mr Abbott said Australia would co-operate with campaigns against terrorism both at home and abroad.
“Our intention is to disrupt and degrade the intentions of the ISIL death cult here and abroad,” Mr Abbott said.
by Alan Thornhill
Labor says that while the government is going after “pensioners, students and the unemployed” it has been giving big business “extra tax breaks.”
The Shadow Assistant Treasurer, Andrew Leigh, made the comment in an ABC radio interview today.
“It’s certainly been an issue that I’ve been banging on about since I took over the job of Shadow Assistant Treasurer, Mr Leigh said.
“I think it’s absolutely fundamental.
“This is partly an issue of equity.
“This government is prepared to go after pensioners, students and the unemployed, so it’s a bit rich when it starts giving extra tax breaks to multinationals.
“But it’s also an issue of efficiency.
“If you want to have a good tax system, then it needs to have as broad a base as possible, and multinational profit shifting is effectively eroding the tax base,” Mr Leigh said.
A report by the church and union based Tax Justice Network, this week, concluded that big companies had avoided paying some $80 billion in tax, between 2004 and 2013, through dodges such as profit shifting.
The Treasurer, Joe Hockey, responded by declaring that the Federal government has been active in curbing such practices.
But Mr Leigh challenged that.
He said: “One of the things that Labor did last year, in our final year in office, was for Wayne Swan and David Bradbury to sit down and put together a multi-billion dollar package of measures to crack down on multinational profit shifting.
“What was disappointing to me was that when the Coalition came to office, they didn’t say ‘well, what’s the next thing we can do beyond this?’
“Instead, they began to wind it back.
“So they shrunk the size of that package by $1 billion, effectively losing $1 billion of revenue which went back to multinationals in the form of extra tax breaks.”
by Alan Thornhill
There was good economic news on two fronts today.
Retail sales – on-line – are rising.
And more businesses are managing to pay their bills on time.
The National Australia Bank reports that on-line sales in Australia rose by 0.7 per cent in August, to be 8.3 per cent higher than the level reached 12 months earlier.
It also noted that Australians had spent $15.7 billion making on-line purchases in the 12 months to the end of August.
Meanwhile Dun & Bradstreet’s Trade Payments Analysis shows that there has been a sharp fall in the time Australian businesses are taking to pay their bills.
Those delays had jumped to a three-year high during the first quarter of this year.
Dun & Bradstreet reported that 47.3 per cent of invoices were paid within a 30-day period during Q2 2014.
It said this was an increase from 42.9 per cent in the previous quarter and just 38.5 per cent at the same time last year.
by Alan Thornhill
The Federal government is backing a new campaign promoting pay equity for women.
The campaign was launched today by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency.
And Senator Michaelia Cash, the Minister Assisting the Prime Minister in matters related to women, described the campaign as “ground breaking.”
She said it would encourage business to take real action to ensure that women and men who are doing work of equal or comparable value are paid the same amount.
“The first step for employers and managers in addressing this issue is to seriously consider pay equity within their own organisations,” Senator Cash said.
Improving Australia’s gender pay gap is a complex matter and cannot be addressed by Government alone,” she added.
“We must all work together to ensure we achieve gender equality,” Senator Cash said.
by Alan Thornhill
A new – parliamentary committee – report says the government’s plan to impose a six month delay on unemployment benefits for young people is a breach of Australia’s human rights obligations.
The Treasurer, Joe Hockey, who introduced the plan in his May budget, has defended it saying the government believes young people should either be working or studying.
And the Education Minister, Christopher Pyne, has said that youth unemployment rates – averaging 12 per cent – are “no crisis.”
The plan – to impose a six month delay on dole payments for unemployed youth – is one of several measures that has been blocked in the Senate.
So the report, by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights, is a major embarrassment for the government.
The welfare lobby has seized upon its findings.
The Australian Council of Social Service and the Australian Youth Affairs Coalition issued a joint statement, welcoming the report.
They described its findings as ” …a final indictment on the flawed legislation which should now be dismissed by the Senate.”
“The Senate should today reject any compromise deal which would deprive young people of income support for any period, whether it is one or six months,” ACOSS CEO Dr Cassandra Goldie said.
“As the joint committee found in its report, the Government has failed to explain how young people are expected to survive, let along participate, with no income”, she added.
Leo Fieldgrass, the National Director of the Australian Youth Affairs Coalition said: “The proposed changes to income support will push young Australians into poverty and increase youth homelessness.
“With youth unemployment rates at sky-high levels, punishing young people for not having jobs is inconceivable,” Dr Fieldgrass added.
Mr Pyne was speaking on the ABC television program Q&A.