Economy

Turnbull’s problem is he comes to the fray politically weakened thanks to his one-seat majority. It denies him clout in dealing with the hostile senate. ‘They can’t really govern,’ is the conclusion of one Liberal veteran. It’s certainly not in Shorten’s interest to make life easy for Turnbull, to just let go through everything the government bowls up.

American Express is the archetypal multinational tax avoider. It conducts ‘related party transactions’ with other Amex entities in a tax haven. Via these transactions, profits are siphoned offshore before tax can be paid. It produces very low profits, or losses, in Australia. This is typical of multinationals – the less they make in profit here, the less they pay in tax. The standard corporate tax rate in Jersey is zero and the rate for financial services companies is 10 per cent. The corporate rate in Australia is 30 per cent.

Right now the Reserve Bank could provide us all with cheap, basic “exchange settlement accounts” enabling us to make payments to each other as we do today using our banks’ online facilities. It would be faster – instant, instead of 24 hours or more – cheaper and safer than the electronic cobweb connecting banks today. The central bank could also lend to people and businesses that provide super-safe collateral. They could fund your home up to, say, 65 per cent of its value, or 45 per cent for prime business real estate.

A government-commissioned committee found that Adani destroyed dozens of hectares of protected mangroves vital to local water purification. It dredged the ocean, flattened sand dunes and blocked waterways to build India’s biggest cargo port, which supplies coal to its Mundra power station, one of the largest of its kind in the world. Groundwater was left saline, a local village was flooded, and fish populations were devastated, with tragic consequences for local communities that depend on fishing and farming for their livelihoods. This was not an isolated incident.

Chris Richardson, Partner at Deloitte Access Economics, explains how even when economic reports show Australia in good shape, people can feel as though things are getting worse.

The green light was given for the first online census, to outsource it and to extend the length of time for names and addresses to be held. All without serious explanation or adequate planning. The government even left the Australian Bureau of Statistics leaderless for a year and substantially cut its budget.

The significance of the industry to the economy is in freefall, and it has happened in spite of huge increases in coal export volumes ... We’re left with an industry of much less value doing far more harm.

If business is miffed that the Coalition is going softly on tax cuts, they’re not showing it. But on the Coalition’s own timeline, it’s not at all certain they’ll be in power long enough to deliver the whole plan.

This budget was more than an opportunity missed, it was a wilful blind eye to an emerging central economic reality.

Turnbull’s big effort to refloat the Liberal vote in South Australia may work. Much will depend on how forgiving the threatened car industry workers and their families are.