Australian Politics

Well, the first thing to remember is that Australia’s rare system of “dividend imputation” (franking credits) makes our story very different to most other countries. Because the Australian shareholders in an Australian company get a tax credit for their share of the company tax their company paid, they don’t have to care what the rate of company tax is. So it’s really only the foreign shareholders in Australian companies who end up paying company tax. Thus, if we were to cut our company tax rate from 30 per cent to 20 per cent, it’s really only foreign shareholders who’d benefit.

Archive/non-paywall link.

Heads from all branches of Australia’s military and intelligence services have gathered together to celebrate the astronomical successes they’ve had in protecting the country from uni students with watermelon insignias.

A spokesperson for the Department of Home Affairs said the tactic had been “incredibly effective” at ensuring the nation remained safe from anyone holding a placard with glitter glue on it.

Defending its decision to approve an extension of Glencore’s Ulan thermal coal mine, the Albanese Government today confirmed that gaslighting remains “the single most reliable energy source available to Australians”.

With the Government continuing to approve coal mines, despite an election platform of environmental responsibility, industry analysts have projected that 80% of Australia’s energy mix could be provided by gaslighting by 2030.

In short:

Members of Katter's Australian Party (KAP) have distanced themselves from a suspected neo-Nazi who was front and centre at an anti-immigration rally in Townsville.

Four KAP politicians, including federal MP Bob Katter and state MP and party leader Robbie Katter, were pictured with the man on Sunday.

KAP maintains its members attended the rally to "reaffirm Australian values" and give voice to concerned community members.

In assuming all respondents have a religion, the framing of the question produces acquiescence bias that inflates data — by as much as 11 points, according to a number of surveys — in favour of religious affiliation.

Sharing because this shit needs to see the light of day along with everyone implicated.

Shockingly Trump is showing no commitment to using soft power to maintain alliances. This administration can only accelerate the loss of the US status as global hegemon as living under the US umbrella no longer feels secure if it can plausibly be whipped away for short term transactional gain

Recently in Adelaide, the Australia-US leadership “dialogue” between the business, bureaucratic and media elite of the two countries met for the 33rd time since its inception in 1992 ... But this year, no-one from the Trump administration attended the “dialogue”. Americans were thin on the ground ... The “dialogue” appears to be dead, at least for the Trump years.

A recent visit from an American official advised Canberra that the Pentagon had told Seoul that it did not regard Kim as a problem for the United States!

In his undoubted zeal for a summit with Xi and an apparent win in his trade war with China, it is reasonable to surmise that Trump surely may make Putin-like concessions to China even if it undermines the security of Taiwan.

“I’m just going to try and do the best I can,” [Lehrmann's barrister] assured the court, before describing her client as “pretty much … a national joke” and “probably Australia’s most hated man”.

Burrows added that she was representing Lehrmann because, he “couldn’t afford” the barrister he “really wanted”.

The long, long public saga of Lehrmann has always co-mingled tragedy and farce. This week, it careened fully, decisively into farce. Here are the highlights of the lowlights.

Benjamin Netanyahu has launched an extraordinary broadside against Anthony Albanese, labelling Australia’s prime minister “weak” in a social media post, hours after local Jewish groups called for calm in diplomatic relations.

“History will remember Albanese for what he is: A weak politician who betrayed Israel and abandoned Australia’s Jews,” read a post on X from the account of Israel’s prime minister, on Tuesday evening Australian time.