Latest news with #ParliamentHouse
Yahoo
18 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Treasurer's huge call on tax changes
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has announced his ambition for economic and tax reform, and while he remains tight lipped about what's on the table, he has ruled out two key changes. Speaking to the National Press Club on Wednesday, the Treasurer announced the government will hold a productivity roundtable from August 19 to 21 for the purpose of seeking ideas for reform from business, unions, civil society and experts. The gathering will be capped at 25 people and held in Parliament House's Cabinet room. 'Obviously there are some things that governments, sensible, middle of the road, centrist governments like ours don't consider,' Mr Chalmers told The Conversation's Michelle Grattan. 'We don't consider inheritance taxes, we don't consider changing the arrangements for the family home, those sorts of things.' Mr Chalmers said he believes limiting the narrative to 'ruling things in or ruling things out' has a 'corrosive impact' on policy debate, but conceded to ruling out the historically controversial taxes. Inheritance tax is a tax you pay on assets inherited when you are the beneficiary of a will. While inheritance taxes used to be common in most states, by 1981 all Australian states had abolished them. The GST was another key tax eyed for the roundtable. Mr Chalmers has historically opposed lifting the GST but is facing increasing pressure from the states to do just that. The GST has remained at 10 per cent for 23 years. 'You know that historically I've had a view about the GST,' Mr Chalmers told the Press Club. 'I think it's hard to adequately compensate people. I think often an increase in the GST is spent 3 or 4 times over by the time people are finished with all of the things that they want to do with it.' Mr Chalmers said he hadn't changed his view on GST and he won't walk away from it but stressed he's open to hearing ideas on the issue at the roundtable. 'I've, for a decade or more, had a view about the GST,' he told The Conversation. 'I repeated that view at the Press Club because I thought that was the honest thing to do, but what I'm going to genuinely try and do, whether it's in this policy area or in other policy areas, is to not limit what people might bring to the table.' Two years ago, Mr Chalmers warned that raising the GST would likely not fix federal budget issues since even though the tax was collected by the federal government before it was distributed back to the states. 'From my point of view, there are distributional issues with the GST in particular. Every cent goes to the state and territory governments, so it wouldn't be an opportunity necessarily, at least not directly, to repair the Commonwealth budget,' he said. One thing that will remain in play though is the government's pledged superannuation changes, that would increase tax on investment returns, including interest, dividends or capital gains, on balances above $3 million. 'What we're looking for here is not an opportunity at the roundtable to cancel policies that we've got a mandate for; we're looking for the next round of ideas,' he said. 'I suspect people will come either to the roundtable itself or to the big discussion that surrounds it with very strong views, and not unanimous views about superannuation. 'But our priority is to pass the changes that we announced, really some time ago, that we've taken to an election now, and that's how we intend to proceed.' Mr Chalmers said the idea of extending the capital gains tax on superannuation balances to other areas had not been considered 'even for a second'. Sign in to access your portfolio
News.com.au
18 hours ago
- Business
- News.com.au
Treasurer Jim Chalmers rules out two key tax reforms
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has announced his ambition for economic and tax reform, and while he remains tight lipped about what's on the table, he has ruled out two key changes. Speaking to the National Press Club on Wednesday, the Treasurer announced the government will hold a productivity roundtable from August 19 to 21 for the purpose of seeking ideas for reform from business, unions, civil society and experts. The gathering will be capped at 25 people and held in Parliament House's Cabinet room. 'Obviously there are some things that governments, sensible, middle of the road, centrist governments like ours don't consider,' Mr Chalmers told The Conversation's Michelle Grattan. 'We don't consider inheritance taxes, we don't consider changing the arrangements for the family home, those sorts of things.' Mr Chalmers said he believes limiting the narrative to 'ruling things in or ruling things out' has a 'corrosive impact' on policy debate, but conceded to ruling out the historically controversial taxes. Inheritance tax is a tax you pay on assets inherited when you are the beneficiary of a will. While inheritance taxes used to be common in most states, by 1981 all Australian states had abolished them. The GST was another key tax eyed for the roundtable. Mr Chalmers has historically opposed lifting the GST but is facing increasing pressure from the states to do just that. The GST has remained at 10 per cent for 23 years. 'You know that historically I've had a view about the GST,' Mr Chalmers told the Press Club. 'I think it's hard to adequately compensate people. I think often an increase in the GST is spent 3 or 4 times over by the time people are finished with all of the things that they want to do with it.' Mr Chalmers said he hadn't changed his view on GST and he won't walk away from it but stressed he's open to hearing ideas on the issue at the roundtable. 'I've, for a decade or more, had a view about the GST,' he told The Conversation. 'I repeated that view at the Press Club because I thought that was the honest thing to do, but what I'm going to genuinely try and do, whether it's in this policy area or in other policy areas, is to not limit what people might bring to the table.' Two years ago, Mr Chalmers warned that raising the GST would likely not fix federal budget issues since even though the tax was collected by the federal government before it was distributed back to the states. 'From my point of view, there are distributional issues with the GST in particular. Every cent goes to the state and territory governments, so it wouldn't be an opportunity necessarily, at least not directly, to repair the Commonwealth budget,' he said. One thing that will remain in play though is the government's pledged superannuation changes, that would increase tax on investment returns, including interest, dividends or capital gains, on balances above $3 million. 'What we're looking for here is not an opportunity at the roundtable to cancel policies that we've got a mandate for; we're looking for the next round of ideas,' he said. 'I suspect people will come either to the roundtable itself or to the big discussion that surrounds it with very strong views, and not unanimous views about superannuation. 'But our priority is to pass the changes that we announced, really some time ago, that we've taken to an election now, and that's how we intend to proceed.' Mr Chalmers said the idea of extending the capital gains tax on superannuation balances to other areas had not been considered 'even for a second'.
Time of India
20 hours ago
- Politics
- Time of India
Delhi MP Bidhuri highlights Modi govt's 11 yrs: Major development plans in pipeline
New Delhi: South Delhi MP Ramvir Singh Bidhuri said south Delhi had benefited the most from Modi govt as the national highway from Delhi to Vadodara would soon become the lifeline of the area. The construction of this new six-lane road, passing through Badarpur, is on at a cost of Rs 7,000 crore. The construction of a flyover at Meethapur Chowk and new bridges on Agra Canal and Gurgaon Canal near Meethapur Chowk has provided great relief to the people passing through south Delhi, he said. He was holding a press briefing on 11 years of Modi govt. He said the national highway from Delhi to Mumbai would soon be ready, which will be a major gift to the people of Delhi. The Delhi to Meerut Expressway, the national highway from Akshardham to Dehradun, an alternative route to Haridwar, the new Parliament House and Kartavya Path, the National War Memorial, the National Police War Memorial, Bharat Mandapam Convention Centre at Pragati Maidan, 2,000 electric buses to Delhi under FAME, and the Pragati Maidan Tunnel are among projects funded by Modi govt, he said. To combat pollution in Delhi, the world's largest eco park was built on 885 acres in Badarpur. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like What She Did Mid-Air Left Passengers Speechless medalmerit Learn More Undo There are many other achievements like Bharat Vandana Park, a world-class golf course and sports complex, Bansera Park, on 137 acres, which have changed the lives of the people of Delhi, he said. He mentioned that under chief minister Rekha Gupta, BJP govt set records of work in just 100 days, fulfilling the promise of Prime Minister Modi. She implemented the Ayushman Bharat Yojana in the first cabinet meeting by increasing the amount to Rs 10 lakh. Apart from this, a provision of Rs 5,100 crore was made in the budget for the Mahila Samridhi Yojna, which would soon be implemented. "Eligible women are being selected for this, and soon this scheme will also be implemented. Cleaning of the Yamuna is a project which the BJP govt resolved and promised to complete in three years," he said.
ABC News
a day ago
- Politics
- ABC News
Albanese talks with Europeans, Liberals overhaul committee
Welcome back to your weekly federal politics update, where Brett Worthington gets you up to speed on the happenings from Parliament House. The whole thing has the whiff of a reality TV dating show. Will they meet? Won't they meet? Will there be chemistry? Will there be a blow-up and then an awkward scene where the two need to sit in neighbouring arm chairs and try their best to say nice things about the other. Likely, it's just how the reality TV star-turned US president likes it. Such is the omnipresent nature of Donald Trump's second presidency that he manages to loom over everything, even when he's not even in the room, as was the case at the G7 summit when he took his (nuclear) football and went home early. Barely a week has gone past in the last seven months without Prime Minister Anthony Albanese being asked when he would meet with Trump in person. Speaking ahead of his scheduled meeting, he made clear he'd been putting in the preparation work, doing all the stretches needed to walk onto the field with Trump. At the same moment he was saying that, Trump's press secretary was drafting a message that she'd send out six minutes after the PM's press conference ended, announcing the US president was leaving the G7 summit to go home. There was no shortage of pontificating about whether or not it was a snub of the Australian prime minister (said by people seemingly forgetting that the Middle East was literally on fire). Sure, Albanese's desire to talk AUKUS submarines and tariffs are important. But in the case of the boats, they're not arriving for decades. More pressing is the prospect of bunker-busting bombs being dropped over Iran, which could fundamentally reshape what the looming decades look like. To view a meeting of world leaders through the prism of Trump also seemingly ignores the reshaping the world is currently going through. When Albanese travelled to South America for meetings with world leaders late last year, there was questioning about who might step into the void as world leader should Trump pursue an isolationist agenda. The thinking was that the Europeans were diminished figures and China's Xi Jinping sensed an opportunity. Fast-forward to today and suddenly the Europeans are back in play, eager to fill any void Trump might leave behind. With Trump gone, Albanese started talks with the Europeans to forge closer defence ties, while also using his time in Canada to deepen his relationship with the leaders of Britain and NATO. But there are clear signs that Albanese wants to lance the boil and meet with Trump (if for no other reason than to end the questions about when the two will meet). To do that, it could see Albanese make an unexpected trip to Europe next week to meet Trump on the sidelines of a NATO meeting in The Hague. Before he set flight for North America, Albanese announced he'd be bringing Camelot to Canberra, summoning knights from the business, union, government and civil sectors for a roundtable meeting on productivity. Falling to Jim Chalmers to fill in the details, the treasurer used a a National Press Club address on Wednesday to issue a clarion call to the two dozen groups that will be invited to the August roundtable. Chalmers pointed to Labor's landslide victory as a signal that the government needed to be bold and to build beyond the slate of commitments it took to voters, including on taxation. He said he expected those who attend the roundtable to put their vested interest aside and work towards achieving practical outcomes. He vowed to put aside his own political ideology and expected others to do the same in pursuit of consensus. The treasurer also took aim at the assembled media, deriding the "rule-in-rule-out game" as having a cancerous effect on public discourse. The treasurer broke with his prepared speech to pay tribute to his new departmental secretary Jenny Wilkinson, who last week became the first woman to lead the Treasury. He then went on to call out the head of the Productivity Commission, Danielle Wood, the Reserve Bank, Michele Bullock and the chair of the competition watchdog the ACCC, Gina Cass-Gottlieb. "It is a source of considerable pride in our government that we have women leading the Reserve Bank, the Productivity Commission, the Treasury, in each of those cases, for the first time in the history of those economic institutions," he said. There's never been a female federal treasurer. That's something Chalmers might change should he rise to PM one day. Murray Watt has fast developed a reputation of the man the prime minister turns to when he has a troublesome issue to resolve. First, he phased out live sheep exports as agriculture minister. Then as workplace relations minister, he phased out CFMEU officials from the embattled union, a move the High Court this week deemed was constitutional. The Queenslander now finds himself with the daunting task of trying to pass an overhaul of environmental laws that somehow manages to reach consensus between business and environmental groups. His predecessor Tanya Plibersek was working towards the same goal before Albanese brought a stop to that to appease WA Labor concerns before the state and federal elections. Two successive governments have failed to update the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act since it was written in 1999. Environmentalists want a "climate trigger" in the legislation so it could be used to block projects based on their climate impact. Business groups argue that would add complexity to an approval process that they already think is too burdensome. Speaking after a meeting with stakeholders on Thursday, Watt said they'd agreed to an 18 month timeline to land the new laws. He said there was no other option, with the current laws failing to do enough to protect the environment, while also resulting in approvals taking too long. Until recently, Alan Stockdale's greatest sin in Liberal ranks was for coming from south of the Murray River. That a Victorian had been called in to run the NSW division as part of a federal takeover goes a long way to explaining the state the party found itself in. Desperate times (not nominating candidates for elections), call for desperate actions. That said, Stockdale's days were always going to be numbered after he told the NSW Liberal Women's Council that women were "sufficiently assertive" and the party might need to "protect men's involvement". Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie, a fellow Victorian, was quick to suggest Stockdale would do well to reflect on the "shocking" comments over a whiskey with the old boys at the men's only Melbourne Club. As it turns out, he'll have plenty of time to do just that. Speaking after a Liberal Party federal executive meeting, Ley announced the intervention in the NSW division would continue for another nine months. She thanked Stockdale and fellow Victorian Richard Alston before announcing their services would no longer be required, calling in former NSW premier Nick Greiner to take over the intervention. That wasn't the end of the call ups to help the party. On the same day, Ley announced former state minister Pru Goward and federal minister Nick Minchin would conduct an autopsy into the Liberal's disastrous federal campaign. The review will examine the Liberal's historically low primary vote, its performance among key voter demographics and the long-term challenge posed by teal independents. After the May election, there were no shortage of Liberals bemoaning the number of election reviews that have been left to collect dust on shelves. With their future survival at stake, they're hoping this one might actually get put into action.
ABC News
4 days ago
- Politics
- ABC News
A notorious $20,000 desk in parliament's storage is out of retirement. But who has it?
A $20,000 custom desk built for a senior public servant working in Parliament House that had been mothballed in storage is now out of retirement. But it remains a mystery who is using the now-infamous desk. Senator Jane Hume uncovered the sit-stand desk during questioning of the Department of Parliamentary Services, which was part of a larger $56,000 upgrade to the office of the then-deputy secretary of that department. Senator Hume had been told in responses to her questioning in Senate estimates that the desk was verbally commissioned in July 2021 at the request of then-secretary Rob Stefanic for his then-deputy Cate Saunders, who have both since ended their employment at parliament. The brush box solid timber desk with brass fittings has "bespoke solution" cable runs concealed in its legs, and custom metal brackets fixing the timber to a height-adjustable frame, and has been described by the now-department boss as "beautiful". Senator Hume made an example of the desk when criticising public service "waste" as part of the Coalition's back-to-office orders for public servants, labelling it an example of how bureaucrats did not "respect the Australian taxpayer". "That $20,000 desk is now in storage. Having been wasteful, they now treat that waste as if it has no value. I bet the taxpayer who paid for it — any one of you — would disagree," Senator Hume said in March. But the Department of Parliamentary Services has since confirmed to Senator Hume that the desk is back in action. It just won't say who is using it. "The desk will be used by a staff member at Parliament House," a Department of Parliamentary Services spokesperson said in a statement. The nature of Mr Stefanic's and Ms Saunders' working relationship came under intense scrutiny last term, after Mr Stefanic told senators he had disclosed a conflict of interest with Ms Saunders to the head of the public service related to "perceptions of a close relationship" with his then-deputy. Mr Stefanic last year flatly denied during Senate estimates questioning that he had ever been in a romantic relationship with Ms Saunders. Ms Saunders retired in 2023, and received a $315,000 exit package on her departure, while Mr Stefanic was sacked in December after the Senate president and House of Representatives speaker jointly determined they had lost confidence in him. The National Anti-Corruption Commission is investigating the $315,000 exit package decision, and in October raided DPS offices in relation to an investigation. In a list handed to Senator Hume, the department also confirmed the value of 891 other pieces of furniture that remain in Parliament House storage. Among them are 18 leather waste paper bins, each worth $130, a $2,700 TV studio desk, cocktail cabinets each worth $2,980, dozens of lounge chairs, coffee tables and more to the tune of $1.5 million. But prior to its withdrawal from storage, the $20,000 desk appears to have been the single highest-value item stored in that facility. Jaala Hinchcliffe, who replaced Mr Stefanic as DPS secretary, previously said it was a "beautiful" desk and the in-house team had "done amazing work on it" as a manufacturing and restoration opportunity. The department also provided an update on a second $35,000 "prototype" sit-stand desk that further raised eyebrows among senators. That desk was reportedly commissioned to investigate a replacement for the original desks used by parliamentarians, with a number of MPs reportedly making requests for sit-stand desks. The department said in March the desk was being designed as a solution that would maintain the "dignity" of parliament offices, after Senator Hume and Senator Richard Colbeck questioned why existing sit-stand technologies could not be used. But Ms Hinchcliffe openly told senators in March the department was questioning the decisions that led to the $35,000 prototype, and was working through issues in its capital works program. In a response to Senator Colbeck, the department admitted that there were $1,000 "returns" available for the current desks that allowed "a smaller surface area" to be used as sit-stand, and that a small number of these were already in use in some parliament offices. It said $23,464 had been spent on the design work for the custom-made sit-stand desk, and another $11,895 on its construction. The department said in March no MPs had yet received versions of the desk, but said access would be granted to MPs and senators to "have a look" at the desk.
