Australian politics (auspol) headlines for Tuesday 20 June 2017.

Hi all and welcome to the Auspol headlines for Tuesday 20 June 2017.   

 The Senate are about to pass law that's a protection racket for whinging billionaire retailers like Harvey Norman: The Turnbull Coalition is attempting to trick the Australian public with a big new tax on online shopping that will do nothing to address high retail prices. Under new laws slated to come into effect from July 1, overseas businesses with an annual turnover of $75,000 or more will be required to register with the ATO to collect GST on all goods sold, including purchases under the current low value threshold of $1000.  

In his speech to Parliament, Treasurer Scott Morrison said the changes “are about ensuring that Australian businesses, particularly small retailers, do not continue to be unfairly disadvantaged by the current GST exemption that applies to imports of low-value goods”. But in a submission to a Senate inquiry into the changes, RMIT economists Sinclair Davidson and Chris Berg have highlighted the “absurdity” of the move, saying it will “raise very little revenue and will be expensive and complex to administer”.   “The elimination of the low-value threshold for the GST constitutes a new tax on inbound internet trade — that is, it will function as a tariff imposed on Australian consumers,” they write. “While masqueraded as a tax integrity measure, this tax is clearly intended to operate as a form of protectionism.”  Link

 Rebel Wilson has landed a blow on the relentlessly aggressive media, Opinion: Wilson’s defamation case, and the publicity around it and its determination by court victory rather than a settlement superficially indicate a transformational moment in Australian celebrity culture. Rebel Wilson won a defamation case against the German media group Bauer –Wilson had gone to court against the multinational over its claims, published in the Australian magazine Woman’s Day, that Wilson was a “serial liar”. Over three weeks of hearings and six appearances at the supreme court of Victoria, Wilson testified that Bauer’s anonymously sourced accusations that she had fabricated her age, name and life story had cost her a part in no lesser work of cinematic art than Kung Fu Panda Part 3.  Link

 Online Shoppers to be hit with GST next year: The Federal Government's plan to sting online shoppers with the GST looks set to come to fruition 12 months later than it would have liked. The Coalition and Labor have agreed to a plan to apply the GST to imported products worth less than $1000 from 1 July 2018. Online shoppers searching for bargains from overseas are a primary target, with many arguing the explosion of online shopping was not foreseen when the GST was first developed. Harvey Norman chairman, Gerry Harvey, has lobbied for the GST to be extended to overseas purchases for many years. He argued today's change, delaying implementation for a year,  was the result of clever lobbying by overseas internet retailers.  Link

 Liberal associated fundraising body Cormack Foundation is bankrolling two Senate crossbench Parties: The Turnbull Coalition has only a 1 seat majority and the wealthy fundraising body linked to the Liberal Party has quietly begun bankrolling the organisations behind two of the Coalition's biggest crossbench supporters in the finely balanced Senate, Family First and the Liberal Democrats. The Cormack Foundation has donated more than $40 million to the Liberal Party over the last 18 years – including more than $3 million in 2015-16 – making it one of the party's biggest benefactors. 

The foundation has eight listed shareholders, who are also the company's directors. They include Rupert Murdoch's brother-in-law John Calvert-Jones, former Reserve Bank board member and Business Council of Australia president Hugh Morgan and former ANZ chairman Charles Goode. But Greens democracy spokesperson Lee Rhiannon said it was extraordinary the Liberals' biggest donor was also funding rival political parties, "The Cormack Foundation returns shows a financial link between the Liberals, Liberal Democrats and Family First that could imply a consolidation of political co-operation between these parties.”   Link

 Reserve Bank Chief urges Workers to rise up and ask for pay rises:  Philip Lowe says economy is being held back by low wage growth and that staff should have confidence to ask for higher pay. The governor of the Reserve Bank has called on workers to start demanding large pay rises from their bosses. In a remarkable statement for a central bank chief, Philip Lowe said Australia’s economy was suffering a “crisis” in wage growth, and workers ought to realise the relatively low unemployment rate meant they could start asking for a larger share of the nation’s economic pie. 

The trend underemployment rate, which is a quarterly measure of employed persons wanting more hours, increased from 8.7% to a historical high of 8.8% between February and May 2017.  Under-employment has now risen for the six consecutive quarters. Combining the 5.7% trend unemployment rate with the 8.8% trend underemployment rate, the underutilisation rate remained at 14.5% in May. Philip Lowe said that “This distinction between part-time and full-time employment is old fashioned – there are a lot of people who work part-time who actually want to work part-time.” Lowe's comments come at time when the share of national income to workers is falling and is close to a 50 year low.  Link

And that is today's auspol headlines, thanks for reading!