Developing nations hope draft resolution will pave way for fresh talks on global tax policy
Developing nations are hoping to secure greater power over global tax affairs at a critical United Nations vote in New York on Wednesday.
If the body’s members vote in favour of a resolution put forward by the African Group of states, it could pave the way toward fresh intergovernmental talks on global tax policy.
Continue reading...Liberal MP Karen Andrews addressed the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women in parliament. Follow all the day’s news
Independents to launch report on whistleblower protections
Independent MP Andrew Wilkie has been arguing for more protections for whistleblowers for years. The attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, has proposed new laws to boost whistleblower protections, but there are still calls the law needs to go further.
Protecting Australia’s Whistleblowers: The Federal Roadmap draws on landmark research and synthesises three decades of reviews to outline a comprehensive, 12-step roadmap for better protecting and empowering whistleblowers.
Establishment of a whistleblower protection authority to oversee and enforce Australia’s whistleblower protections;
Upgraded whistleblower protections for Australian public servants in line with domestic and international best practice, including a positive duty to protect whistleblowers and steps to make it easier for whistleblowers to enforce their rights;
Consolidation and harmonisation of whistleblowing laws across the private sector in one new single law covering all non-public sector whistleblowers; and
Stronger, simpler protections for whistleblowers who make disclosures to the media and members of parliament.
The mortality ratios from Covid in Australia are quite similar to those estimated in other advanced nations. As a share of the population, fewer people died from Covid in Australia than in most other affluent nations. Yet among those who died, the same health inequalities can be seen in Australia as in other advanced countries.
What might have driven the socioeconomic disparities in Covid mortality? And why might many of those disparities have been largest in the Delta wave? As I have noted, disadvantaged people may be less able to work remotely, more reliant on public transport, and more likely to live in crowded households. Uptake of vaccination and antiviral treatments have varied across society as vaccines and treatment became increasingly available. Another factor is that successive Covid waves have had varying degrees of severity. A final factor is that in the years since Covid began, population immunity has steadily risen.”
Across all waves of the pandemic, deaths from Covid were highest among those aged 80‑89 years. The median age of those who died from Covid was 87.4 years for females and 83.6 years for males. Males had a higher number of registered Covid deaths than females. For every 100 female Covid deaths, there were 126 male Covid deaths. Around 3-quarters of all Covid deaths occurred in Victoria and New South Wales.
Continue reading...More than 1,000 staff who deliver money to firms such as Barclays, Asda and Tesco to take action
More than 1,000 security workers who deliver cash and coins to some of the UK’s biggest banks and supermarkets have voted to strike in December, raising the prospect of potential cash shortages in the run-up to Christmas.
The 48-hour strike by 1,156 members of the GMB union who work for the security company G4S is due to take place from 3am on 5 December, after a 97% vote in favour of industrial action in a dispute over pay. However, only 665 workers voted in the ballot, a turnout of 58%.
Continue reading...Online electrical store is cutting costs but faces ‘tough environment’ and supply chain problems
The online electrical goods retailer AO World has reported bigger half year losses as it has been hammered by the cost of living crisis and supply chain problems.
AO, which sells kitchen appliances, mobile phones and laptops for home delivery, warned of tough times ahead, but raised its full-year earnings guidance after closing loss-making divisions and its German business. This drove its shares 15% higher, but they are down more than 40% so far this year.
Continue reading...Most countries’ forecasts cut as Ukraine war prompts ‘largest energy crisis since the 1970s’
The UK will be the second weakest performer of the world’s big economies next year as the global economy continues to suffer the knock-on effects of the biggest energy shock in four decades, a leading international institution has warned.
The Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development said only Russia of the members of the G20 group of leading developed and developing nations would suffer a bigger contraction than Britain in 2023.
Continue reading...Central banks will need to adjust rates more often to respond to unpredictable levels of inflation, Philip Lowe says
Inflation is likely to become more volatile in the future as globalism retreats and climate shocks mount, requiring central banks to adjust interest rates more often, the Reserve Bank governor has said.
Philip Lowe, in a Committee for Economic Development of Australia speech in Melbourne on Tuesday, said the current spike in prices was soon expected to peak at around 8% before declining to “a little over 3%” by the end of 2024. Improving post-Covid supply chains, cheaper commodities and the effects of interest rate hikes – with more possible – would combine to rein in inflation.
Continue reading...Rishi Sunak’s visit to CBI conference found old allies keen to mend fences, but impeded by hard politics of immigration
Amid the steady grey Birmingham drizzle, Britain’s leading business lobby group tried to walk a careful path on immigration.
Members of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), present in greater numbers than in recent years at its annual conference, have been clamouring for more flexibility on hiring foreign workers, as a tight labour market wreaks havoc on their businesses and drives up wages.
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Buy now, pay later review has been coming for a while
The last time the issue was examined, under the previous government, it was decided the industry could regulate itself.
Continue reading...Closures rise by 60% in past year, including 453 in most recent quarter, says advisory firm Mazars
UK restaurants are going bust at a faster rate than during the Covid crisis owing to a “toxic mix” of surging energy costs, staff shortages and falling bookings.
Closures in the sector rose by 60%, with 1,567 insolvencies over 2021-22, up from 984 during 2020-21, according to a study by the advisory firm Mazars. The figure includes 453 over the past three months, up from 395 in the previous quarter.
Continue reading...Traditional TV shunned in favour of digital media and last-minute promotional campaigns
More than two-thirds of the UK’s biggest advertisers intend to cut back spending on traditional TV next year, as the recession fuels a shift to digital media and last-minute bursts of promotion.
A survey of 59 UK advertisers has found that 67% will make the deepest budget cuts to ads on broadcast TV, according to the Incorporated Society of British Advertisers (ISBA) and the media investment analysts Ebiquity.
Continue reading...One in 26 journeys disrupted with government accused of ‘abject failure’ to tackle worst offenders such as Avanti West Coast
Rail cancellations have reached their highest level on record with more than 314,000 trains fully or partly cancelled across Great Britain in a year, a Guardian analysis reveals.
Figures from the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) show that the proportion of cancelled services has more than doubled since 2015, rising to one in 26 of all train journeys being disrupted in the year to 15 October, the latest date for which figures are available.
Continue reading...Mystery surrounds embezzlement of tax revenues, which appears to have been facilitated by some of the highest offices in the country
Iraqis have called it “the heist of the century” – a brazen multibillion-dollar plundering of state coffers that has gripped the country.
The theft of $2.5bn was apparently facilitated by some of the highest offices in the land, according to sources and a series of government letters issued in the summer of 2021. The documents, signed by various government institutions including the then prime minister’s office, cancelled the audit of withdrawals from the Iraqi tax commission’s accounts.
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Birmingham against a windfall tax for oil and gas companies
Birmingham says he is opposed to a windfall tax for oil and gas companies to help assist with rising energy prices.
We don’t think that simply slugging a tax in relation to companies is going to do anything for the energy prices of Australians. You’ve got to fix supply in the gas market to provide for genuine outcomes there, and those types of taxes will actually only hurt you in the longer term because they will act as an investment disincentive and you have less supply for the future.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) has previously said limiting global heating to 1.5C as set out in the Paris agreement meant there can be no new oil, gas or coal investment beyond 2021.
A windfall tax is not about shoring up gas supplies, but generating revenue which can re-invested in new renewable energy projects and other decarbonisation projects.
I strongly support recognition and have done for many years and, of course, the debate around the voice has come along subsequent to early efforts to try to achieve Indigenous recognition. When it comes to the model for the Voice, I do think Australians deserve to see more detail and have more answers about how it will work, how it will be constituted and how it will make a difference. I understand the very passionate views by those who argue for the voice and I don’t wish to see them disrespected in any way, but I also acknowledge that there are strong Indigenous views of doubt and question about whether the voice will be actually effective in achieving any substantial change on the ground in relation to Indigenous disadvantage.
We are going to be asked to support a constitutional change for a model that is as undefined by the government in relation to that model. It is not unreasonable to want to see the detail of the model.
An economy growing as strongly as possible, keeping unemployment as low as possible – those are the things that our government managed to achieve, with strong economic growth in our last year in office, with unemployment down to 50-year lows, creating the conditions for economic growth to help to drive productive wages growth.
Continue reading...Charity warns of ‘significant risk’ that those on old prepayment meters will be unable to redeem vouchers offering £400 discount
The poorest and most vulnerable people in the UK risk missing out on the energy bill support and cost of living payments they are entitled to, because of a lack of clarity over what is available from the government and how to get it, charities have warned.
Under the energy bills support scheme announced by Rishi Sunak when he was chancellor, all households are eligible for a £400 energy bill discount, paid across six instalments starting last month.
Continue reading...IFS and Resolution Foundation say Jeremy Hunt’s policies will shock middle England, with higher taxes here to stay
Traditionally elections in Britain are decided by swing voters in a relatively small number of seats. Parties go to considerable lengths to tailor their policies to the perceived demands of those getting by on average incomes. Pollsters have even coined names for the archetypal electors that need to be wooed: Basildon man and Worcester woman.
So it will be of some concern to government strategists that the post-autumn statement analysis by thinktanks focused heavily on how the measures announced by Jeremy Hunt had an effect on those not particularly poor but not especially rich either. Both the Resolution Foundation and the Institute for Fiscal Studies highlighted the return of the “squeezed middle”.
Continue reading...Resolution Foundation says had wages grown at the same rate as before 2008, pay would be £15,000 a year higher by 2027
Jeremy Hunt’s autumn statement will result in extending wage stagnation for Britain’s workers to two decades as the chancellor’s tax-heavy budget piles more pressure on the nation’s “squeezed middle”, a thinktank said.
The Resolution Foundation said on Friday that the dire economic outlook meant that real wages were not expected to return to 2008 levels until 2027.
Continue reading...Swedish prosecutor says ‘complex’ investigation and analysis continue to see if suspects can be identified
Traces of explosives have been found at the sites of September’s multiple leaks from the Nord Stream gas pipelines, confirming that the breaches were the result of sabotage, Sweden’s prosecution authority has said.
“Analysis that has now been carried out shows traces of explosives on several of the objects that were recovered” from the scene in the Baltic Sea, Mats Ljungqvist, the prosecutor leading the investigation, said on Friday.
Continue reading...Millions of workers in the US work throughout the night, and the impacts can be profound on their health
Roger Reinhardt works third shift at a beer production facility in Michigan from 10pm-8am, four days a week. He initially started working nights because it was the only shift available when he started working but he has continued doing it for the extra pay.
But is not not easy.
Continue reading...Fiscal watchdog’s figures show eight years of growth wiped out; chancellor announces higher taxes and some cost of living support
In the Commons Rishi Sunak is making a statement about the G20 summit. These statements are normally routine, and just summarise what was said or decided at the meeting. They don’t normally include fresh announcements.
Sunak started by talking about the missile incident in Poland. He said Russia attacked Ukraine with missiles on the day that he “confronted the Russian foreign minister across the G20 summit table”. He said the blame for the missile landing in Poland lay with Russia. Ukraine could not be blamed for defending itself, he said.
During the bombardment of Ukraine on Tuesday an explosion took place in eastern Poland. The investigation into this incident is ongoing and it has our full support.
As we’ve heard the Polish and American presidents say, it is possible the explosion was caused by Ukrainian munition which was deployed in self-defence.
In just a few moments the chancellor will build on these international foundations when he sets out the autumn statement, putting our economy back on to a positive trajectory and restoring our fiscal sustainability.
Continue reading...Merchandise linked to supermarket’s latest Christmas campaign sells out online hours after going on sale
More than 70,000 shoppers have queued online and hundreds lined up outside UK stores to get their hands on Aldi’s toys and merchandise based around its Kevin the Carrot adverts.
By 10am, several versions of the soft toys had already sold out online amid high demand for merchandise linked to the hero of the discount grocery store’s festive campaign.
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