The national teachers union has accused the Prime Minister of abrogating his responsibility to public schools by suggesting the states take responsibility for funding them.

Key points:

• Turnbull says proposed tax changes could help raise funds for public schools
• AED criticises plan as "betrayal" against parents, students in state school system
• States have mixed opinions on plan, want more explanation

Malcolm Turnbull raised the idea as part of a broader plan for the states to collect a portion of income tax directly.

The proposal, which doesn't include any hard numbers, has received a lukewarm reception from the states ahead of Friday's Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting.

The Prime Minister originally raised the proposal as a way for the states to directly fund hospitals, and this morning he said it was also possible to make a "very powerful case" for the states to take over full responsibility for public school funding.

"They (states) would then have the responsibility for state schools, which are the schools that they manage, they have the resources as well," he said.

The Australian Education Union has blasted the proposal and is particularly incensed by Mr Turnbull's confirmation the Federal Government would continue to fund private and independent schools regardless.

The union's deputy president Maurie Mulheron described the move as a "betrayal" for parents and students in the state school system.

"The PM is abrogating that responsibility and rejecting a model that has already addressed those concerns," he said.

"This is a return to the bad old days where the Commonwealth gave money to private schools and the states were left to try to find money for the state system."

read more: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-03-31/turnbull-betraying-state-school-students-with-funding-proposal/7288496

What a jumbled mess. ("PM's tax revolution meets resistance from premiers", March 31) Apparently Mr Turnbull thinks that the states existed before the Commonwealth of Australia. What existed was a set of British colonies which had the sense to come together to form the nation of Australia. Those former colonies, now states, prior to the changes made by the Curtin government in the dire circumstances we faced in World War II raised income tax. Now Turnbull throws a muddled spanner in the works, suggesting that a small part of the existing federally gathered tax arrangements can be taken over again by the states and used for whatever purpose they decide. I shake my head – either we have federal leadership for the good of the whole country including the management of our tax arrangements and the needed budgeting processes or we ditch the whole idea and break apart.

Anne Finnane Marlee

A great idea from the federal government; let the states take back the taxing powers they conceded to the Feds during wartime. Through the states we will be able to determine all pensions, the rate of the dole, how much the military gets and what the national parliament is able to do. Certainly a great step forward for our nation as we move onwards to the 1850s.

David Evans Boorowa

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When Malcolm Turnbull usurped the Liberal party leadership it looked like an end to dysfunction but it has got to the point where "Malcolm and Scott" make "Tony and Joe" look like "masters of the universe". How quickly the tide has turned against Turnbull. The Treasurer did not know the day his own budget was to be delivered. Then the Prime Minister and his Treasurer contradicted each other as to the rights of premiers to raise taxes.Do they talk to each other? Malcolm's musings smack of the captain's pick syndrome that he said he was so averse to.

Chris McKimm Karangi

Having the states raise their own income tax supplement and change it as they need over time seems a perfectly reasonable proposal. The problem, of course, is what it has always been. The states love spending money but hate having to raise it. They would much rather whinge and blame the Feds for their fiscal woes (and hope their voters do so too).

Steve McCann Lane Cove

We thought Tony Abbott was living in the past but Malcolm Turnbull has turned the clock back to 1942.

Robyn Lewis Raglan

So Turnbull makes a "courageous" statement about changes to taxation in Penrith. The last time a PM made an announcement in Penrith, was the night before the last election. We shouldn't have to remind you Mal, as to what happened to him.

Peter Lloyd Asquith

Mark Twain was amused by our colonial railway system and in particular by the clever way no two adjoining states shared a common gauge. He would be greatly entertained by Prime Minister Turnbull's "grown-up " approach to taxation reform. Mark my words, Malcolm's next proposal will be the re-establishment of the NSW Defence Force and in particular the Royal NSW Navy.

Lawrie Fahy Randwick

If Julia Gillard's carbon tax was going to wipe Whyalla off the map, what will Malcolm Turnbull's latest states tax "reform" do to South Australia and Tasmania?

Tony Powell MacMasters Beach

I now understand the ingenuity of Malcolm Turnbull's "lean mean" proposal. He wants Australia to become more like the European Union. Our states will retain the same currency but they will have more freedom to compete. And, in the fullness of time, Tasmania will become our new Greece. Simple economic Darwinism really.

Inge Close Manly

So Malcolm, federal and state taxes. If I work in WA and live in NSW, who do I pay my taxes to? And do I pay twice for my accountant to do my income tax return? Details please.

Louise Brown Wandella

All I can say is, dear God, please, bring back Tony Abbott. At least he had no ideas.

Nick Parsons Lithgow

Prime Minister Turnbull may have inadvertently stumbled on how to ease congestion in Sydney and lower house prices if he gives the Baird government the power to set income tax rates.

Bob Senkewitz North Rocks

This proposal by Turnbull is similar to Greg Chappell's underarm bowling directive. It's the end of him.

Ron White Wentworth Falls

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/comment/smh-letters/turnbull-tax-idea-dismantles-federation-20160331-gnuv9q.html#ixzz44WUXXtrd
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As many people say, get rid of the States and keep the local and Federal governments (when this latter one is not run by stupid accountants with no understanding of economy whatsoever...)

 

The only arrow left in Turnbull’s bow apparently is an idea that for the past 70 years has been classed as unworkable.  While that in itself is not a reason to look at it, there is a huge potential for some vague plan such as this to be suggested in the lead up to an election then changed significantly (to make it workable) over the election period.  When the plan is eventually converted to a practical policy by the time the election has passed, the government has been re-elected and claim they discussed it prior to the election so they have a ‘mandate’ to implement.  The problem with the ‘mandate’ is that the policy bears at best a passing resemblance to the original plan.

Then there is the logic.

If the income tax take in Australia is $100billion, it is $100billion regardless of who gets the cash.  Unlike the magic pudding, if the states get 10% of the $100billion pudding, it doesn’t increase the total available for distribution; it just means that the federal government has to live with the remaining $90billion.  Sooner or later the state and federal revenue requirements will rise causing income tax rates to go up (potentially by different amounts in different states) causing the flaws of a scheme Bernie Madoff would have been proud of to be realised, despite the concept being ‘withdrawn; at the COAG meeting held on April 1.

Given even government departments charge surcharges for payments by credit cards, how long do you think it would be before some bright spark in Treasury came up with the idea of introducing the inevitable ‘postage and handling fee’?

In addition it is clearly more difficult to operate a health and school network where there are smaller groups of people or they are located a greater distance apart.  Coincidentally, the states and territories that face these problems are smaller in population or earn less so if the income tax is distributed according to the ratio of tax received – those states and territories have to provide more with less.

Turnbull claims that the smaller and more decentralised states will be looked after.  Does this mean there will be some adjustments made to the ratio used to pay out the states proportion of income tax?  If so, other states might again be held hostage by one state using the argument for special distribution of the income tax revenue - in a similar way to that attempted by Western Australia (under threat of leaving the federation) in regard to GST when the mining boom petered out.

It would seem that most of the state Premiers are not as gullible as Turnbull hoped, as they are resisting the concept plan.

http://www.tpsextra.com.au/post/2016/04/02/malcolm-s-magic-pudding

 

See toon at top...

 

 

• 'This is not a one-off announcement'

Innovation "is an absolutely critical theme of our administration," says Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull as he unveils the National Innovation and Science Agenda at the CSIRO. 

The policy suite, including incentives for start-ups, research and collaboration, might have been worthy and necessary, but as a key plank in the Coalition's re-election pitch, there is growing consensus it was a failure. The view inside and outside party ranks is that the PM's excitement was not shared by voters, particularly in marginal suburban and regional seats.

Perhaps the disaffection was best summed up by Liberal MP Andrew Hastie, who was first elected to the seat of Canning in Western Australian just days after Turnbull seized the prime ministership. "Canning isn't going to be the next Silicon Valley," he complained to his local newspaper the Mandurah Mail after the campaign. "A lot of what we were campaigning on nationally just wasn't resonating with everyday Australians."

read more:

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/how-malcolm-turnbu...

 

If you are in the realm of innovation like I am, you would know that the innovation programme was created by a bunch of bureaucrats who decided on what "innovation" was and created sets of criteria that basically eliminated "innovation" out of the innovators. The hoops and jumps are designed so only the average accountant doing tax return would get pass the traps.

And we all know how the Turnbullshit has decimated the CSIRO