AAP Rolling News Bulletin for June 19 at 0400
Tax (CANBERRA)
Despite handing startups more concessions from capital gains tax hikes in the federal budget, the government has been warned that the changes will exacerbate a brain drain of top talent from Australia.
New carve-outs will allow "innovative businesses" to continue to access the existing 50 per cent capital gains tax discount, while eligibility for the existing 50 per cent active asset reduction for small businesses will be expanded.
Labor's May budget replaced the 50 per cent discount with an inflation indexation model and a minimum 30 per cent tax rate.
While sold as making the housing market fairer for first home buyers at the expense of property investors, the changes were extended to all assets, including shares and businesses.
Because startups often have a negligible initial cost base to index from, the proposed changes would double the maximum effective tax rate on capital gains to nearly 47 per cent, diminishing the incentive to take a risk and start a business.
NDIS (CANBERRA)
The delay of a major report into plans to overhaul the $56 billion National Disability Insurance Scheme has been labelled "disrespectful," as disability advocates plead for participants to be protected from harm.
A parliamentary inquiry into Labor's proposed changes will hand down its report on Friday afternoon, after a last-minute decision earlier this week to delay its release.
The Albanese government is trying to claw back billions in savings to stop the NDIS from continuing to grow at an "unsustainable" pace, under changes that will kick 160,000 people off the scheme.
Public hearings have been told by disability groups the reform would lead to people dying, while increasing complexity for support providers.
People with Disability Australia interim president Jarrod Sandell-Hay, also an NDIS participant, said he hoped the report acknowledged concerns aired during the inquiry.
KPMG (SYDNEY)
The leaders of a high-profile consultancy face a grilling from a powerful federal oversight committee after making an 11th-hour decision to withhold information from their interrogators.
KPMG, which has more than half a billion dollars in taxpayer-funded government contracts, is feeling the heat over an audit leak scandal and the treatment of a whistleblower, raising concerns about its governance and integrity frameworks.
Ahead of Friday's hearing, it told the committee it would not provide the requested documents linked to those matters because they were confidential, subject to professional privilege and could prejudice the "administration of justice".
"We appreciate that this is not the response the committee was seeking," chairman Martin Sheppard wrote in a letter tabled by Labor's Deborah O'Neill, the committee chair.
Iran (BEIRUT)
Three Saudi-flagged supertankers carrying six million barrels of crude have sailed through the Strait of Hormuz, hours after US President Donald Trump signed a deal with Iran to end the war that has disrupted global energy supplies.
But in Lebanon, where more than a million people are displaced by the fighting, Israeli forces launched fresh air strikes on Thursday morning, raising doubt about how far Trump will go to force his wartime allies to halt an offensive he has now pledged to end.
Trump put his signature on Wednesday on the "memorandum of understanding" to end the war, as did Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian, bringing it into effect two days earlier than previously expected.
It calls for the immediate opening of the Strait of Hormuz and lifting of a US blockade of Iran's ports.
Ukraine (KYIV)
Scores of Ukrainian drones have rained down on Moscow, hitting the Russian capital's oil refinery for the second time in days in what Kyiv cast as a demonstration of its growing capabilities that should force Russia to accept a peace deal.
Russia, for its part, fired missiles into Kyiv, also for the second time in days, following an attack that damaged Kyiv's landmark 1000-year-old monastery and drew international condemnation.
In Moscow on Thursday, Reuters saw flames and plumes of smoke over the densely populated southeastern district of Kapotnya where the refinery supplying the capital is located.
"Air defence forces continue to repel a massive attack. Several drones managed to reach the Moscow oil refinery," Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said, adding that a shopping centre also suffered minor damage.
NATO (BRUSSELS)
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has lashed out at NATO allies, announcing a six-month Pentagon review of American forces in Europe that will depend on how fast they take responsibility for their own security.
"This will be a real review. It will be designed to ensure that NATO is moving fast and irreversibly toward Europe leading, stepping up to take primary responsibility for the defence of Europe," he told his NATO counterparts in Brussels on Thursday.
Hegseth lambasted European allies for failing to provide US forces access to bases in Europe to launch attacks on Iran, calling it "shameful".
"These allies, they put America's sons and daughters, our sons and daughters, at risk by denying them the predictable access, basing and overflight that never should have been in question at all," he said.
UK Vote (LONDON)
The northern English area of Makerfield is voting in a by-election that could return Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham to parliament, paving the way for him to launch a bid to take over as prime minister.
The election, triggered by a party colleague resigning his seat, has brought unusual attention to the former coalmining area near Manchester as its result will determine the shape of an inevitable challenge to the deeply unpopular Keir Starmer.
If Burnham defeats the candidate for Reform UK, Brexit advocate Nigel Farage's populist party, his victory on Thursday will fire the starting gun on a race to replace Starmer as leader of the Labour Party, a contest that could give Britain its seventh prime minister in just more than a decade.
Legal: Bogojevska (MELBOURNE)
The neighbours of an elderly woman whose body was dumped in a river say her remorseless killer should still be facing a murder charge.
Milena Bogojevska, 51, instead pleaded guilty in the Victorian Supreme Court to 85-year-old Lolene Whitehand's manslaughter.
Bogojevska killed the elderly woman by shoving a tea towel into her mouth, blocking her airways, when she came to her Footscray home sometime after 4pm on July 12, 2024.
The killer then tied a bag over Mrs Whitehand's head and was captured on CCTV footage dumping her body in the Maribyrnong River in Melbourne's west.
A fisherman found the body in the river two days later.
Bogojevska lived only a few doors down from Mrs Whitehand and she joined a group of other neighbours who discussed the elderly woman's disappearance on the afternoon of July 14.
In finance ...
Legal: Henderson (SYDNEY)
"Thank goodness, congratulations - you've settled the case with the main player."
That was how the news that shock jock Kyle Sandilands reached an agreement with his former employer, ARN Media, was welcomed by Federal Court Justice Angus Stewart.
But any visions of leaving the radio stoush behind were dashed as Sandilands' former co-star Jackie "O" Henderson showed no appetite for avoiding trial.
Neither star appeared in court on Thursday as Henderson's barrister indicated it was all systems go in her client's high-profile legal dispute over the termination of her record-breaking contract.
Henderson claims she was unlawfully sacked from her $100 million hosting gig on KIIS FM earlier this year and is expected to give evidence of subsequent damage to her health and wellbeing.
Tax (CANBERRA)
An existing capital gains tax concession for small businesses will be expanded and an innovative business discount introduced as Labor tries to ease the blowback from its budget tax changes.
One of four existing small business capital gains concessions, the 50 per cent active asset reduction, will be extended to all businesses with a turnover up to $10 million per year.
The existing threshold was $2 million.
It is the most widely used of the four such concessions for small businesses and 2.7 million existing small businesses will be eligible as a result of the change, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Thursday.
"We back Australian small businesses and the important role that they play in Australia," he told reporters in Sydney.
In entertainment ...
Obit Dreesen (LOS ANGELES)
Tom Dreesen, who along with partner Tim Reid formed one of America's first interracial stand-up comedy duos and later spent years as Frank Sinatra's opening act, has died at age 86.
Dreesen died on Wednesday at his home in Los Angeles, according to publicist Lori De Waal.
A cause of death was not provided.
After meeting in Chicago, Dreesen and Reid, who is Black, formed Tim and Tom in 1969.
Against a backdrop of simmering racial tension, they used humour to address social issues and promote understanding between audiences of different backgrounds.
They worked together until the mid-1970s.
Reid went on to solo success playing DJ Venus Flytrap on the popular TV sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati, where Dreesen was a guest star.
Arts Tapestry (MELBOURNE)
Completed half a century ago, Australian artist Arthur Boyd's monumental tapestries are finally on display together for the first time.
The renowned painter's Life of St Francis tapestries were woven at the Manufactura de Tapeçarias de Portalegre workshop in Portugal and completed in 1974, then acquired for the national collection the following year.
The St Francis tapestries measure up to 3.4 metres across, more than 20 times larger than the 70 centimetre pastel drawings they are based on.
Teams of weavers worked in shifts across 24 hours a day to complete the artworks, with each weaving comprised of between four million and 8.5 million individual stitches, explained the gallery's senior curator of Australian art Elspeth Pitt.
"They're really remarkable feats ... they've been able to translate that colour and texture of the original pastel drawings into these enormous works," she said.
In sport ...
WC26 Aust (SEATTLE)
Put the trash talking aside - the Socceroos don't need to have it laid out how important their World Cup clash with the United States is.
One sentiment came up multiple times ahead of the blockbuster at Seattle Stadium on Friday (5am Saturday AEST): this match is seriously "high-stakes".
Australia will want to silence the American pundits who have been lining up to have a crack at them - but there are bigger things on the line.
After shocking Turkey 2-0 first up and snagging three points, the Socceroos have earned themselves a golden opportunity.
Beat the US and they'll almost certainly top group D before even playing Paraguay.
Even a draw should at least guarantee progression, depending on how Turkey and Paraguay fare in their clash.
AFL Suns (PERTH)
Gold Coast's three-match losing run has put their AFL top-four hopes in jeopardy, but coach Damien Hardwick is confident the squad is still on track for something special - even if it doesn't arrive this year.
Talk of tension between Suns players and the coaching staff has been a big talking point in the lead-up to Friday night's home clash with Hawthorn.
Hardwick played down any talk of worrying rifts, saying tension and "big-boy conversations" are just a normal part of a high-performance environment.
The Suns started as one of this year's premiership favourites on the back of recruiting Christian Petracca and winning their first three games this season.
Plenty of chinks in their armour have been exposed since then, and Gold Coast (7-6) will be in for another stern test against Hawthorn (8-4-1).
Ends Bulletin
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