ABC JOBS TO BE CUT

ABC managing director Michelle Guthrie is preparing to slash management jobs at the national broadcaster, Fairfax’s Matthew Knott reports. The plan, which could eventually save $50 million a year, involves cutting layers of management in order to redirect funds towards television and radio content and “further deepen the ABCs push into mobile and digital platforms”. The plan is set to be presented to the ABC board next week, and announced next month.

TAX CHANGES THWARTED AGAIN

In what is a depressingly familiar pattern with the government, changes to capital gains tax concessions are off the table just 24 hours after it was reported the government was considering alterations to help the budget bottom line. Despite this headline in the Australian Financial Review yesterday …

… the Prime Minister said in question time yesterday the government had no plans to change the capital gains tax or negative gearing, and former prime minister Tony Abbott has spoken up (as he loves to do), telling Fairfax “What’s the point of a Coalition government if we fail to encourage risk-takers and innovators, but penalise them with heavier taxes?” Which is how we end up with this headline today:

 

 

CHRISTENSEN BLACKMAILS TURNBULL

Queensland LNP MP George Christensen has told The Daily Telegraph he wrote his resignation letter to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull earlier this week — but he didn’t send it. While Christensen has had many bones to pick with the PM, the issue that prompted a two-and-a-half-page letter was an issue with the sugar industry in his local electorate. The PM will still be on tenterhooks with Christensen, with the article closing ominously:

“He hasn’t finished writing the letter to Turnbull. He hasn’t made up his mind about a move that would impact him only a little but would be disastrous for Malcolm.

He will wait to see whether the issue is resolved for local cane growers and their families.”

SEVEN BOARD MEMBERS IN THE DARK

Three members of the Seven West board had no idea about CEO Tim Worner‘s affair with Amber Harrison and subsequent investigations and payments until the news broke in December last year, The Australian reports today. Seven chair Kerry Stokes didn’t tell the new independent directors when they joined the board in 2015, and the failure to disclose the information is reported to be part of the reason why Sheila McGregor resigned from the board this month. McGregor hasn’t confirmed her reasons for resigning publicly. Jeff Kennett and Michael Mal­one are the other board members who weren’t aware of affair and allegations until December.

WHAT’S ON TODAY

Brisbane: Clive Palmer is back in court today, after yesterday saying his relationship with Evgenia Bednova, a Kyrgyzstan woman he paid $1 million and spent flew on a charter flight to Singapore at a cost of $250,000, was business, not personal.

Sydney: Virgin Australia, Whitehaven Coal and Medibank among companies to report their half-yearly earnings.

Queenstown: Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull will be in New Zealand and hold a bilateral meeting with NZ Prime Minister Bill English. 

Melbourne: Also in important Australia-New Zealand relations, the Southern Stars take on New Zealand in a T20 match this afternoon before Australia plays Sri Lanka tonight at the MCG. 

THE COMMENTARIAT 

Liberals must keep safe while courting the incoherent — David Crowe (The Australian $) “Asked on Wednesday about a One Nation candidate’s claims about “gay mind control” and same-sex marriage, the Prime Minister avoided any comment on the craziness. The caution may have been justified — check your opponent’s claim before you take sides — but it cannot be justified forever.”

A big day in Canberra for business and unions — Tony Boyd (Australian Financial Review $): “Big business and unions had a bad day in Canberra on Thursday with significant losses on separate issues that they regard as being critical to their existence.”

Electricity pricing is confusing – and that’s why they’re using it to mislead us  — Greg Jericho (Guardian Australia): “It’s a weird state of affairs given electricity accounts for just 2% of household annual spending. On average, Australian households spend more each year on take-away food, eating at restaurants, international holidays, domestic holidays, beer, tobacco and a heck of a lot more on rent.”

Why it’s not enough to counter fear of ‘Sharia law’ by insisting Islam is ‘feminist’ — Ruby Hamad (Daily Life): “There is a battle for the soul of Islam. And it is vital that Muslims acknowledge the dangers – and equally vital that the likes of Lambie accept that in this battle liberal Muslims are not the enemy.”

TODAY IN TRUMP

US President Donald Trump has held an extraordinary press conference in which he claimed: “This administration is running like a fine-tuned machine,” and attacked the media. “The press has become so dishonest that if we don’t talk about it, we are doing a tremendous disservice to the American people,” he said. He also addressed allegations about his links with Russia, saying “Russia is fake news”.

The press conference was meant to announce his new nominee for Labor Secretary. Alexander Acosta, after previous nominee Andrew Puzder dropped out, lacking support among Congressional Republicans following revelations he had been accused of domestic violence. If confirmed, Acosta will be Trump’s first Latino cabinet member.

Elsewhere, Trump is expected to pick New York billionaire and Republican donor Stephen Feinberg to head-up a review of the nation’s intelligence services. Recent leaks helped bring down Trump’s national security adviser, and agencies fear the review could curtail their independence.

THE WORLD

For the fifth time this week Pakistan has been shaken by violence, with at least 50 killed by an Islamic State attack. A suicide bomber detonated among Sufi worshipers in the Sindh province, continuing a devastating spate of attacks that began on Monday when a bomb killed 13 people at a rally in Lahore. — Al Jazeera

Baghdad has also suffered a significant blast, with a car bomb killing at least 48 people at a used-car market. Islamic State, again, claimed responsibility. The militant group is on the retreat in the country having lost the eastern portion of Mosul and appears to be retaliating by upping attacks on government and civilian targets. This was the deadliest such incident in Iraq this year. — The Guardian

Hundreds of people have been evacuated as fires burn around the New Zealand city of Christchurch. Several homes have been destroyed, and a helicopter pilot died after his aircraft crashed while fighting blazes. New Zealand’s Prime Minister Bill English has said it is unclear how the blaze stared but that it “looks a bit suspicious”. — BBC

WHAT WE’RE READING 

Anti-Muslim hate groups have tripled with the rise of Trump (Mother Jones): “Between the beginning and end of 2016, the number of anti-Muslim groups increased from 34 to 101 — by far the largest spike since SPLC began tracking the category in 2010.”

The anarchists vs. the Islamic State (Rolling Stone): “Belden had no military experience before joining the YPG. He lived in San Francisco, where he arranged flowers for a living. Before that, he was a self-described lumpenproletariat, a lowlife punk and petty criminal with a heroin habit who started reading Marx and Lenin seriously in rehab.”

‘Drop dead, media!’ Trump fans yelled — then bought the local papers (Washington Post): “Ask people here about their news habits, as I did last week, and you’ll discover that their choices transcend easy categories and inside-the-Beltway perceptions (like, for example, that CNN is for liberals). And you’ll hear, over and over, that what matters most are the news sources that are closest to home.”

The French election is now Marine Le Pen vs a collapsing French establishment (The Spectator): “In short, precisely because of its turbulent political history, France has developed a series of barriers against radical change. A leading sociologist, Michel Crozier, described it in 1970 as a ‘societe bloquee’ — a ‘stalemate society’. Of course, much in France does change: but the price of political stability is that certain fundamental rights and privileges remain untouched.”

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