Today in The Australian

After a week of taxation claim and counterclaim, 10 propositions are essentially uncontested.

First, Labor’s elimination of the full reimbursement of imputation credits will replace a system where dividends received by Australian residents are taxed at their personal income tax rates by one in which all dividends are taxed at no less than 30 per cent, even if that rate is well above the rate which would apply to any other taxable income that taxpayer might receive.

Today in The Australian

When imputation credits were made fully reimbursable, Labor wasn’t merely supportive — it was positively gushing.

Calling attention to the benefits full reimbursement would provide to a “low-income person who earns a little investment income”, Peter Cook, Labor’s then deputy leader in the Senate, claimed paternity for the policy, which Labor had taken to the previous election.

Today in The Australian


Bill Shorten has a plan for dealing with union thuggery: he will make it legal. Addressing members of the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union last October at Queensland’s Oaky North coalmine, where CFMEU protesters allegedly threatened to rape the children of non-striking workers, the Opposition Leader promised to tear up Australia’s industrial relations law.

Today in The Australian

The god of long reports makes sure no one reads them. Having released its 600-page draft report on competition in the Australian financial system, the Productivity Commission would do well to keep the candles at that god’s shrine burning

Today in The Australian

With Australians settling back into work after the summer break, last week’s release of the latest estimates of productivity growth suggests we are still struggling to increase the efficiency with which we use the nation’s resources.

Today in The Australian

With the politics of envy in full swing, it is worth remembering that the millions who came to these shores since the First Fleet arrived 230 years ago were driven not by the prospect of living at other people’s expense but by the aspiration to forge a better life for themselves and their children.