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Gina Rinehart accuses politicians of being ‘removed from the lives’ of pensioners
Paul Karp
Billionaire Gina Rinehart has accused the government of being out of touch with pensioners after changes to encourage seniors to work she says don’t go far enough.
Rinehart adds her voice to groups including National Seniors Australia and the National Farmers Federation which have called for pensioners’ pay from labour to be subject only to regular income tax, rather than reducing their pension.
At September’s jobs and skills summit, the Albanese government announced a $55m “time-limited” measure to give pensioners a $4,000 income tax credit, about $80 a week, on top of the $7,800 a year they can currently earn before pension payments are reduced.
In a statement Rinehart said the measure would be in place “only for nine months” – the remainder of this tax year – and amounts “to less than half a day of additional work on the basic wage before they are hit with a 50c per $1 penalty (tax) in addition to paying income tax”.
“We are an ageing nation that has a participation rate of mature age workers less than the OECD average,” she said, urging the government to encourage pensioners and veterans to continue working during “an acute worker shortage”.
“Work income should be exempt from assessment with pensioners simply paying income tax like everyone else.
“The extra income tax from their work should be considered as repayment of pension.”
The changes would see pensioners retain the full pension while paying no tax on earnings up to $18,200, and a marginal rate of 19c every $1 for income after that threshold up to $45,000.
Rinehart said it was “very sad to see our politicians so removed from the lives of our pensioners and vets [veterans], when pensioners and too many vets are currently struggling with and facing more rising living costs, including but not only, rising costs of power as coal fired power stations are reduced”.
Following the jobs and skills summit the National Farmers Federation chief executive, Fiona Simson, recognised the “improved flexibility for pensioners wishing to access the workforce” but noted Labor’s proposal “still falls short of calls by the NFF, National Seniors Australia and other business groups”.
Key events
Michael McGowan
New South Wales premier Dominic Perrottet says he has no plans for a cabinet reshuffle even after his former deputy, Stuart Ayres, was cleared of breaching the ministerial code of conduct.
Ayres quit as deputy leader and stood aside from cabinet in August amid concerns about his involvement in the overseas trade commissioner saga which led to the appointment of former deputy premier John Barilaro to a plum New York trade job.
It came after a report by former NSW public service commissioner Graeme Head raised concerns about a series of “interactions” between Ayres and the then head of Investment NSW, Amy Brown, during the hiring process.
After he stood aside, Perrottet commissioned a separate report, by prominent Sydney barrister Bruce McClintock SC, to probe whether Ayres had breached the code. That report, released this week, cleared Ayres of any wrongdoing.
But on Wednesday, Perrottet told media he had no plans to return Ayres to cabinet.
The cabinet that is in place is the cabinet that is in place.
I have no plans [for a reshuffle] at this stage. The cabinet that is in place is the cabinet serving the people of NSW.”
Perrottet said he had not made “any decisions” about whether there would be a reshuffle prior to the election, saying it was “not my focus”.
In his statement released following the report, Ayres took the unusual step of quoting words he attributed to Perrottet during a private conversation after he was given the McClintock report. Ayres said the premier told him it was “an emphatic exoneration”.
Asked on Wednesday whether he used those words, Perrottet said the report “speaks for itself”.
Shiny happy people.
Queen Elizabeth II Park in Sydney will be a place for people to come together. Today NSW Premier @Dom_Perrottet and I announced plans to create a new open space off Macquarie Street commemorating the Queen – a public plaza to be enjoyed by Australians for many years to come. pic.twitter.com/GP6qUV4dgL
— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) September 13, 2022
LNP call for Brisbane’s cross-river rail project to be named after Queen
The Queensland LNP opposition are calling for the cross-river rail, a major infrastructure project Brisbane has waited more than 10 years for, to be named the Elizabeth Line honour of the Queen (it’s finally being built).
They’ve set up a petition. But not one that goes through the Parliament site.
Which prompted this response from the Labor transport minister
Everyone who signs this ‘petition’ should know their data is secretly being harvested directly to the @LNPQLD database, not to the Parliament.
You didn’t tell Queenslanders that did you @DavidCrisafulli?
With the funeral 5 days away, this mining of people’s data is just wrong
— Mark Bailey MP (@MarkBaileyMP) September 13, 2022
Apparently it’s the timing of the data gathering which is the problem.
Just another very normal day in Qldpol.
Dairy giant Norco to sack 170 staff after Lismore ice-cream factory flooded – report
The ABC reports dairy giant and one of Lismore’s major employers, Norco, is laying off 170 staff, another consequence of the Lismore floods.
The government has offered a $35m grant to support Norco – but the co-op says it isn’t enough and will proceed with the sackings.
Scott Morrison wouldn’t confirm how much he was paid for a speaking engagement in South Korea when asked at a press conference, because he said there were “processes” for that.
The process:
Former PM Scott Morrison has updated his register of interests to declare that he received an honorarium from Chosun Ilbo (the Korean newspaper that sponsored the Asian Leadership Conference) + joined the advisory board of the centre-right alliance International Democrat Union pic.twitter.com/2xk02jz8i1
— cammyboo KC (@cameronwilson) September 13, 2022
Labor overhauls Climate Change Authority
Chris Bowen has announced three new members of the Climate Change Authority: Dr Virginia Marshall, Prof Lesley Hughes and Sam Mostyn.
Bowen said:
The Climate Change Authority has a crucial role to play and these three additional members will bring vital skills and experience.
With this expanded membership, the Authority is better placed to oversee emissions reduction efforts and provide government with expert advice.
Marshall is known for her work on Indigenous water rights, which includes national water policy and law reform, climate change, human rights and Indigenous perspectives on the rights to nature/legal personhood.
Hughes has had a distinguished academic career and has provided independent expert advice to government on a range of scientific and policy issues, including at the federal climate commission.
Mostyn is a businesswoman and sustainability adviser with a long history of executive and governance roles, and has served on boards for the Climate Council and the Centre for Policy Development.
Former Pacific leaders call on Australia to take climate change more seriously
Two former Pacific leaders, Anote Tong (former president of Kiribati) and Thomas Esang Remengesau Jr (former president of Palau) are holding a press conference at parliament house in Canberra today, asking for more action on climate change.
The pair, who are members of the leaders group Pacific Elders Voice, will meet with MPs from across the political divide, but will be joined at the press conference by ACT independent senator David Pocock.
From their statement:
Their message for the Australian Government is that climate change is an existential crisis for the Pacific and is already having impacts on their people and environment.
They will be making comment on the Australian Government’s policy positions on climate action, including no new coal and gas, emissions reduction targets, continued development and export of fossil fuels (including with taxpayer subsidies), climate finance, loss and damage and global climate talks (including Australia’s proposal for a joint COP with the Pacific).
Markets tumble in US overnight
Peter Hannam
So much for the blithe confidence that inflation was ebbing and our many asset bubbles could start reflating.
Well, the overnight inflation news from the US was disappointing but the markets decided it was horrific.
On the face of it, US CPI coming in at 8.3% in August compared with a median forecast of 8.1% doesn’t seem like a big miss. But most market guesses were exceeded, and so the reaction was swift and brutal.
A total of 1,300 points was wiped off the Dow, or more than 4%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq became 5% lighter. The ASX is no doubt going to point sharply lower when trading starts here at 10am AEST as investors wonder if the inflation here might be less contained than previously thought.
The dismay is focused on the likelihood now that the Federal Reserve will have to lift US interest rates higher and for longer than expected.
Talk of a “jumbo” rate rise of 1 percentage point next time may prove excessive but increases of 75 basis points at its next two meetings, with a peak rate of 4.3% in early 2023, are now being “fully priced in” by traders, Bloomberg said.
As of yesterday, investors were starting to reduce their predictions of how high the RBA would need to go.
Rather than a 4% peak, they were now looking at more like 3.5% – although still higher than the major commercial banks are expecting something more like 2.6% to 3.35%.
Ahead of today’s expected ASX swoon, investors had been paring their expectations of how far the RBA would raise the cash rate. The 3.5% or so peak by mid-next year is down from 4% expected a week ago. Still, they reckon there’s a 55% chance the rate will go to 2.85% on Oct 4th. pic.twitter.com/P2l7g8oPRb
— Peter Hannam (@p_hannam) September 13, 2022
New Sydney square to be named for Queen Elizabeth II
Michael McGowan is at Anthony Albanese and Dominic Perrottet’s announcement in Sydney; a public square will be named for the Queen in the heart of Macquarie Street.
Queen Elizabeth II Place will be a new public square which will be created as part of the Macquarie Street East precinct revitalisation plans.
“You can let it rip all you like, but we will all deal with the consequences”
Monique Ryan said she was very concerned with the decision to lower the Covid isolation period from seven days to five days because it was against the medical advice, and she is worried the national cabinet will agree to get rid of the isolation period altogether.
We’ve got 287 childcare facilities in Australia dealing with with Covid at the moment, if we just let it rip, it will rip, and more lives will be lost. We’ve got hundreds and hundreds of childcare workers out with Covid at the moment that will increase, we’ve got 60,000 job vacancies in the aged care sector at the moment, that will increase – you can let it rip all you like, but we will all deal with the consequences of that.
Ryan wants a Covid summit to deal with all of these issues, and while she is on the parliamentary committee looking at long Covid, she thinks what it finds could roll into a national response.
Increasingly, it looks just like people affected by long Covid have what is effectively a physical disability. They have persisting symptoms which prevent them from returning to the workplace and from functioning normally in their daily life and the model of care for long Covid in the absence of any proven treatments to date is one of disability care.
So it may very well be that we end up with an increasingly large number of people in our community who have a newly acquired disability that we have to support.
Long Covid stress on economy will increase over time, says Ryan
The Kooyong MP says we “can’t wish” Covid away, and while we are living with it, we just need a new plan, including with how we deal with long Covid:
We need to have a vision and a shared vision for how we’re going to respond to this ongoing stress for our population and for our economy.
We know that it’s going to be with us for a period of time – people are tired, they’re exhausted, they’re sick of Covid and they want it to go away but we can’t just wish it away.
We need to acknowledge that it’s there and formulate a plan for us all to go forward with it.
The reality is that long Covid at the moment is significant and it’s going to be an increasing stress on our economy.
There’s a significant number of people away with long Covid and that will accumulate over time. We don’t have a plan for what to do with those people, or with the ongoing absenteeism just related to acute covid infections
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