Morning mail: Morrison's tax plan labelled 'regressive'
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Version 0 of 1. Good morning, this is Eleanor Ainge Roy bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Thursday 10 May. Top stories High earners will benefit much more from the Coalition’s tax changes, according to analysis by a leading thinktank. Someone on $200,000 a year earns five times more than someone on $40,000 but their future tax break will be more than 16 times higher, the Australia Institute claims. As the two major parties lock horns on the tax plans before what promise to be five crucial byelections across four states next month, the research shows that the changes will radically alter Australia’s progressive income tax system. “It is clear that the actual result of this tax cut is to hand billions of dollars to high-income Australians and make Australia’s tax system more regressive,” said an AI economist, Matt Grudnoff. Sign up to receive the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning Some crossbenchers, including the South Australian senator Tim Storer and the Victorian Derryn Hinch, have rejected Scott Morrison’s demand that the tax package be considered quickly. Storer has also expressed concerns about flattening the income tax scales, saying the proposal is regressive and may be unaffordable. The EU is scrambling to arrange a crisis meeting with Iran after Donald Trump pulled out of the nuclear agreement, as the Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, said Europe had a “very limited opportunity” to save the deal. The EU has vowed to take steps to protect firms from any US sanctions after Trump warned that he would seek to hit European businesses that continued to trade with Tehran. Tehran had complained in recent weeks that the EU had gone too far to appease Trump but it appears Europe is uniting to protect the deal, even if it means putting its member states on an economic collision course with the US. The Greens will announce today that they will reintroduce a bill to increase Newstart by $75 a week this year, as the party attempts to wedge Labor and capitalise on a growing push for change. It comes after the former prime minister John Howard made an unexpected intervention on the issue on Wednesday,saying the 24-year freeze had “probably gone on too long”. The Greens senator Rachel Siewert said: “It is time we stopped leaving struggling Australians behind and for Newstart to be increased to a level where jobseekers can live with some dignity … to leave Australians trying to find a job languishing well below the poverty is a national shame.” Researchers hope that chronic hepatitis B could be eradicated from the Northern Territory within five years. They believe that the combination of a phone app that offers key information in local Aboriginal languages and community care has created a “one-stop liver shop” that means the killer virus could be wiped out. Sarah Bukulatjpi, from Miwatj Health in Galiwin’ku, said delivering information to people’s fingertips had made a huge difference. “Now they really understand. Sometimes it’s difficult, telling them this story, that they’ve got this disease. Sometimes they feel shame.” North Korea has released three US citizens in a move that continues the apparent thawing of its relations with the US before a planned meeting between Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump. The release marks a major diplomatic victory for the Trump administration, and was secured during a visit to North Korea by Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state. Trump announced the releases on Twitter and has promised he will reveal a site for the summit within three days, but confirmed it would not be held at the demilitarised zone along the border between the two Koreas. Sport Israel Folau is in the news again, this time posting a link on social media to an anti-gay sermon. He may have escaped sanction the first time around but this time Rugby Australia must act, say Ryan Storr, a lecturer in sport development at Western Sydney University. Our resident cartoonist David Squires reviews the dramatic conclusion to the 2017-18 A-League season, including the Jets’ VAR-inflicted loss and other outlandish plotlines, with a cameo appearance by Andres Iniesta. Thinking time The latest cuts to the ABC are the government’s attempt to bully the broadcaster and silence criticism, argues Andrew Fowler, a former Four Corners journalist. “These kind of sustained attacks do have an impact. Though the ABC supported its political reporter who described Tony Abbot as “destructive” the buckling by the ABC to criticism of Emma Alberici’s reasoned argument that big business is not paying its fair share of tax, or the handling of the Asio cabinet files saga, where huge number of classified cabinet documents were returned to the government without producing a story, suggests a lack of strong journalistic leadership.” Fowler says the ABC must continue to hold the government to account – a bully can never be appeased. One in three millennials will never own their own home, and renters can be evicted with just two months’ notice, writes Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett. What effect is this instability having on young people’s wellbeing? “I used to find renting really, really stressful – especially after leaving university,” says Brett Chapman, 30. “You never feel comfortable when you move house every one or two years. You can’t decorate a place to make it a nice place to live.” Farmers in Oregon have grown three times more weed than their customers can smoke in a year, causing bud prices to plummet and panic to set in. In February state officials announced that 500,000kg of cannabis flower were logged in the state’s database. Last year Oregonians smoked, vaped or otherwise consumed just under 150,000kg of legal bud. So why the bloom, and what will become of the unwanted product? What’s he done now? Donald Trump has angered Scots after his luxury golf club in Turnberry banned the country’s favourite non-alocholic drink, Irn-Bru, because of its carpet-staining risk. The piecemeal ban on Scotland’s second national drink – long avowed as the ultimate hangover cure – has caused inevitable outrage on social media, and will likely swell the protests already planned should Trump visit Scotland as part of his trip to the UK in July. Media roundup “House of Cards,” declares the Canberra Times, splashing with the MP citizenship saga. The paper talks to David Smith, the most likely replacement for Katy Gallagher’s vacant Labor seat. If elected, Smith says, he’ll be much more than a seat warmer. The ABC has an intriguing read about those who pick up the phone when you dial triple zero, and why death threats, intimidation and verbal abuse have become a standard part of the job. Coming up Hillary Clinton starts her speaking tour in Melbourne with a talk with Julia Gillard. Bill Shorten will deliver his budget in reply speech to parliament in Canberra tonight. Supporting the Guardian We’d like to acknowledge our generous supporters who enable us to keep reporting on the critical stories. If you value what we do and would like to help, please make a contribution or become a supporter today. Thank you. 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