February 24, 2018

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LETTERS

Poetry Letters & HumourFebruary 24, 2018

Reply to Lucy Sullivan on family taxation I thank Lucy Sullivan for her comments (January 27, 2018) on my piece, “Reality of family unit must underlie tax system” (News Weekly, Oct-ober 21, 2017). Reform to how the family is taxed is a vitally important issue, especially in the current period of wage stagnation and rapidly rising housing and living costs. Sadly it is one reform not being taken up by Australia’s political and bureaucratic leadership. While I wholeheartedly agree with her that any move towards family-based taxation must recognise the number of persons dependent on that combined income, including both the income earners and their dependents (carers, children, as well as dependent elders), she is incorrect to state that the piece did not outline how families would benefit from…

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Feb242018

EDITORIAL China completes island building in South China Sea

Defence & Security, Foreign AffairsFebruary 24, 2018

The Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI) has published a report showing that China has virtually completed the building of a series of fortified air and naval bases on reclaimed reefs and atolls not far from Indonesia and the Philippines in the South China Sea. Fiery Reef, in the Spratly Islands,just off the Philippines’ coast. Some years ago, China was reported to have begun building islands on top of shallow reefs in the South China Sea, prompting other nations to express deep concern about China’s long-standing claim to sovereignty over the entire South China Sea. The United States has conducted freedom of navigation exercises in the area, and China’s land-building exercises have been condemned by Japan, Indonesia, Taiwan, Vietnam and Malaysia, as well as the Association of South East Asian Nations…

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Feb242018

CANBERRA OBSERVED Greens: wouldn’t know a cowardly act if they did one

Politics, UncategorizedFebruary 24, 2018

Freshly minted New South Wales Liberal Senator Jim Molan could not have asked for a more rapid propulsion into the public consciousness courtesy of a Greens attack on him that has misfired spectacularly. NSW Liberal Senator Jim Molan In his first weeks as a senator, the decorated former major general was accused of variously being a racist, a coward and a war criminal by the Greens, during an extraordinary over-the-top attack that was led by the sole Greens MP in the House of Representatives, Adam Bandt, and party leader Richard Di Natale. Under threat of legal action from Molan and general acknowledgement in the media that the Greens had overreached on their attacks, Bandt was forced into an apology – in fact, two apologies after the first mealy-mouthed one did…

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Feb242018

REDEFINITION OF MARRIAGE Government forms say it is fluid gender marriage

UncategorizedFebruary 24, 2018

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and the Attorney-General’s Department have made it clear that changing the Marriage Act to allow “two people” to marry delivered gender-fluid marriage, not just same-sex marriage. Immediately after the survey result was announced last November, Mr Turnbull made it clear that the marriage amendment bill meant that “two people will…

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