ethought
1.5K posts
We all need to fight this until the policy is changed. The Government needs to repeal this otherwise, they will lose the next election, as they did in 2019, when they went after negative gearing, CGT and franking.
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ethought retweetledi
Chief Economist of Australia's Department of Immigration says that migration to Australia has not improved living standards.
"Migration has made Australia larger and has made it different. It hasn't made it more prosperous."
"I just do not buy the argument that migration increases productivity. I just do not find the evidence on that at all persuasive."
Joseph Noel Walker@JosephNWalker
Episode 2 of my Immigration Series: Australian immigration policy is genuinely sui generis. Not even Australians fully appreciate this. A potted history: - The only country to have run assisted passage at scale -- around 3.5 million people whose fares were subsidised, sometimes fully, in a program that began in the 1830s and ran for around 150 years, ending only in 1981. - The first country in the world to have a dedicated Department of Immigration (founded 1945). - Probably the only nation in history to have set an explicit population target after WWII -- 1% growth from migration plus 1% from natural increase. - The first country in the world to offer adult migrants English-language training (in 1948, still running) and (I'm pretty sure) a telephone interpreting service for migrants (from 1973). - In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Australia took 60,000 Indochinese refugees -- proportionally more per population than any other country in the world. - One of the earliest countries in the world to introduce mandatory detention for unlawful non-citizens (1992). - Per capita, it's been the world's largest receiver of international students for decades. - The OECD country with the highest share of overseas-born among countries with more than 10 million people -- around 32%, about 8-9x the world average, and projected to climb into the 40s, a level likely not seen in Australia since the 1880s. I discussed the history of Australia's migration exceptionalism with Mark Cully. Mark has written the first truly general history of Australian immigration (to be published later this year). He has direct experience, having served as the inaugural Chief Economist of Australia's Department of Immigration. We discuss the six most decisive decades in Australian migration history, as well as some bigger picture questions: - has migration actually increased Australians' living standards (Mark believes it probably hasn't)? - the three potential constraints on our ability to accept migrants, and which has tended to be binding in practice - what does history teach us about the rise of One Nation? - and much more. Watch below, or on YouTube, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Timestamps: (0:00:00) – Introduction. (0:03:21) – Why didn't Australia turn to slavery? (0:10:17) – The decade that made modern Australia (1850s) (0:20:51) – What was White Australia really about? (0:30:23) – The most epic policy experiment in Australian history (the postwar migration program) (1:01:57) – The 1970s: an underrated decade (1:07:02) – The drift into a temporary-migrant economy (1:21:49) – Inside the chief economist's office (1:28:56) – Culture, social cohesion, and integration (2:01:17) – Has migration made Australia richer? (2:06:56) – The main constraint on Australian immigration over the past 200 years (2:16:11) – What makes Australian immigration exceptional?
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ethought retweetledi
One Nation in the lead.
Labor at historic low of 26%
Combined One Nation/Lib/Nat 51% v Labor 26%
AusPoll@AusPoll6
🚨 NEW: Federal voting intention 🟧 ONP: 28% (+2) 🟥 ALP: 26% (-) 🟦 L/NP: 23% (-) 🟩 GRN: 13% (-) ⬛️ OTH: 10% (-2) DemosAU | 15-20 May | n=1502 | +/- 9-14 Apr
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ethought retweetledi
If you told me this time last year that One Nation would poll as the most popular party in Australia I would have been shocked. This is an absolute political earthquake
AusPoll@AusPoll6
🚨 NEW: Federal voting intention 🟧 ONP: 28% (+2) 🟥 ALP: 26% (-) 🟦 L/NP: 23% (-) 🟩 GRN: 13% (-) ⬛️ OTH: 10% (-2) DemosAU | 15-20 May | n=1502 | +/- 9-14 Apr
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ethought retweetledi
Want to know where your taxpayer dollars are going in Australia?
West Sydney businessman Jamal Sabsabi charged the Australian taxpayer $340,000 for PHANTOM 24/7 disability services to PRISONERS sitting in JAIL CELLS.
He appears to have signed up dozens of prisoners across Sydney’s jails, presumably through kick backs to the prisoners or their families.
He then billed the government for 24/7 disability care support, which the Australian government proceeded to pay with no questions asked.
Jamal’s company, Freedom Care Group, was the only NDIS provider ever listed on the Australian stock market - the ASX. They managed to raise $3.2 million from investors while running this prisoner harvesting scheme.
This fraudulent prisoner-harvesting scheme would still be going on today were it not for a courageous whistleblower who alerted the NDIA.
His company was shut down by the government for fraud but the NDIS decided not to ban him as an individual.
To this day, there is no NDIS banning order on Jamal Sabsabi. He has never been charged or prosecuted for the prisoner harvesting scheme.
He continues to enjoy his $5 million bayside mansion despite the trail of destruction he left in his wake.
And now he’s back working in the NDIS with a new business.
What a system! @PeteZogoulas
Drew Pavlou 🇦🇺🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼@DrewPavlou
NEW AUSTRALIAN NDIS DISABILITY FRAUD INVESTIGATION with @PeteZogoulas. This is Minnesota-style fraud on a national scale. We found a voodoo style witch doctor who continues to operate Australian taxpayer funded disability services despite the fact that she remains under investigation for the death of a participant in suspicious circumstances. We also discovered a massive PRISONER HARVESTING SCHEME where a West Sydney businessman named Jamal Sabsabi charged the Australian taxpayer $340,000 for PHANTOM DISABILITY SERVICES to PRISONERS sitting in JAIL CELLS. Shockingly, we found Jamal Sabsabi simply started a new company right after being exposed for this prisoner scam. When we barged into his new business to confront him, we found a new West Sydney businessman sitting in his place with a gigantic golden leopard statue on his desk worth thousands of dollars. Josef Yousif at first denied that Jamal worked at the new office, before admitting he had “hired” him for his great “experience.” Upon investigating Josef, we discovered he operated under at least six different legal names with a combined criminal rap sheet that features over 50 court appearances. This is seriously one of the worst run government programs anywhere in the world. We are talking about tens of billions of dollars in fraud and absolutely vile organised crime abuse of extremely disabled Australians.
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ethought retweetledi
Half your week. Gone. To the taxman.
The top income tax threshold hasn’t kept pace with inflation in nearly two decades.
Adjusted for inflation, it should sit at $281,450 today.
The top earners won’t stick around now.
Oh it’s going to get interesting.
#auspol
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@k_eagar Australia already has about 10 to 15 million empty bedrooms every night. The government needs to become like Air BNB themselves and fill those rooms
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Can someone please explain in simple language why Australia shouldn't ban short term rentals like Airbnb? If we did that, it would free up literally thousands of houses and bring them back into the rental market & discourage investors owning multiple short term rental properties
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Young woman on 7.30 criticising budget.
Says young people see starting a business best way to become home owner.
But budget CGT changes means starting up a business is disadvantaged.
Could some kind person tell her that less than 50% of new businesses survive 3 years. Taa.
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ethought retweetledi
@AustralianLabor Of the 46,022 places taken up in 2024-25 under this scheme, 15,400+ of them were allocated to permanent residents.
housingaustralia.gov.au/research-data-…
That's more than a third to non-citizens.
You are literally helping foreigners outbid young Australians at auctions.
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@OneAussieChick @PeterWallaceAU They are the ones that employ the other 95%
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@PeterWallaceAU “Many”
That would be 5-7%
But yeah, let’s cry for them
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Australians are being taxed to our eyeballs. 47% marginal tax rate and now 47% capital gains tax for many.
Yet we have a $ Trillion debt that’s growing, deficits, inflation etc.
It’s not incompetence, it’s intentional. Big change is need or Australia won’t survive. It’s coming.
Sky News Australia@SkyNewsAust
The Albanese government has been asked to “rethink” its capital gains tax overhaul as a top Australian businessman responds to Paul Keating’s dismissal of small business concerns. skynews.com.au/australia-news…
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ethought retweetledi
This is diabolical. It will destroy growth investing and retail investors would have to give up on higher risk shares. It would also make raising money in the ASX very very difficult. It almost seems like the people devising these rules have never themselves invested in risk assets.
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Private home ownership helped build Australia’s middle class. It was a post WWII initiative of Bob Menzies’ Liberal Party and has contributed to our egalitarian fair go ethos. Restoring it in 2026 is hardly “communism” as Murdoch ranters rant.
Anthony Albanese@AlboMP
We're helping young Australians like Erin and Harry get their foot in the door with the Housing Australia Future Fund. Because when you work hard and save, you should be able to afford your own home.
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ethought retweetledi
Surely that is not intended to be the case and won’t be the case.
I agree this change is over complicated.
They could have just made the CGT discount for existing residential 25% and left everything else unchanged and achieved the same incentive shift towards new homes and non-housing investments.
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@Pogmahone_ @tonytardio If you sell it the new arrangements will apply.
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@tonytardio Well no, because if they already have the property, the new arrangements don’t apply.
You’re welcome.
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Under the new rules, someone earning $130,000 a year with an $850,000 investment property would only need a 7% increase in the value of that property to have their capital gain tax pushed into the 47% top tax bracket. The windfall gain for the government is enormous with no risk
Tony Tardio@tonytardio
THE ABC NEEDS TO EXPLAIN THIS REPORT . They have used unnamed experts to accuse the campaign of rubbish while coming up with rubbish themselves
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@cicohipe @ShitValueFund Cant claim a tax loss on losses in this situation, that is the point.
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@ShitValueFund This is just flat out inaccurate and beyond that misleading. For starters, the person could claim a tax loss on the other 9 shares that didn't make a gain, meaning they lost to inflation.
The biggest issue i see with the budget is that it hasn't been properly explained
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Exactly why I said 90% of people will now be better off putting their money in a 5% interest Macquarie savings account. No risk for the same shitty return post tax
Dekka@DerekFranc90653
The new CGT policy, literally the most ridiculous and insane thing i have ever seen, see example below: Stops socially beneficial investment in favor of low risk low return stuff; exactly what we don't need. Over to you Jim to explain why this is reform and non distortionary?
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ethought retweetledi
The new CGT policy, literally the most ridiculous and insane thing i have ever seen, see example below: Stops socially beneficial investment in favor of low risk low return stuff; exactly what we don't need. Over to you Jim to explain why this is reform and non distortionary?
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ethought retweetledi
@GeoffWilsonWAM @JEChalmers @ausgov Chalmers should resign in shame, we need an early election nothing less is acceptable
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ethought retweetledi
This is really unprecedented
A Labor premier absolutely ripping shit out of federal Labor over a budget
Federal Labor really don’t understand how much the country is heaving right now
7NEWS Sydney@7NewsSydney
The Federal Budget has triggered widespread criticism, prompting NSW Premier Chris Minns to demand urgent tax reform and the Nationals to call for an early election.
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ethought retweetledi
🚨A HACKER GROUP JUST STOLE 4,000 OF GITHUB'S OWN PRIVATE REPOSITORIES.. PUT THEM UP FOR SALE FOR $50,000.. AND THE WAY THEY GOT IN IS THE SCARIEST PART..
They didn't hack GitHub's servers.. They poisoned a VS Code extension.. One GitHub employee installed it.. And the attackers walked through the front door using the employee's own credentials..
The group calls themselves TeamPCP.. They name their malware after the sandworms from Dune.. And they've been running the most sophisticated supply chain attack campaign in cybersecurity history..
Here's how the whole thing unfolded..
In March.. They poisoned Trivy.. One of the most trusted security scanners in the world.. Used by over 10,000 development workflows globally..
They injected credential-stealing malware into Trivy's official GitHub Action.. The malware ran silently BEFORE the security scan.. So every log showed "scan completed successfully" while the malware was stealing AWS keys, SSH credentials, database passwords, and Kubernetes tokens in the background..
It took Aqua Security 5 days to fully remove them..
Using the stolen credentials.. They breached Cisco Systems.. Cloned over 300 private repositories.. Including source code for unreleased AI products.. And repositories belonging to Cisco's customers.. Major banks.. Government agencies.. BPO firms..
In April.. They hit Checkmarx.. Another security vendor.. Poisoned 5 official Docker images in 83 minutes.. The scanner worked perfectly.. It just silently sent all your secrets to the attackers..
That automatically cascaded into Bitwarden.. The password manager.. Their CI/CD system pulled the poisoned Docker image.. And the attackers injected malware into Bitwarden's official CLI package published on npm..
One compromised security scanner poisoned a password manager.. Automatically.. No human involved..
In May.. They hit TanStack.. Libraries downloaded millions of times per week.. 84 malicious package versions across 42 packages..
And here's the terrifying part..
The malware scraped the raw memory of GitHub's build servers.. Extracted authentication tokens.. Used those tokens to bypass two-factor authentication.. And then published the infected packages with completely valid cryptographic signatures..
Every security verification tool on earth said the packages were legitimate.. Because they were signed by the real pipeline.. Using real keys.. The attackers just happened to be inside the pipeline when it signed..
They defeated the entire trust model of modern software supply chains..
The same week they hit the Nx Console VS Code extension.. 2.2 million installations.. The malware specifically targeted Claude Code configurations.. Hunting for AI assistant credentials..
That's a first.. Supply chain malware designed to steal your AI's access keys..
Then on May 19.. They revealed the GitHub breach.. 4,000 internal repositories.. Listed for sale at $50,000.. With a warning.. "If nobody buys it.. We leak everything for free"..
Their malware is self-propagating.. Once it infects one package.. It automatically finds every other package that developer maintains.. Steals the publish tokens.. And infects all of them.. Then those packages infect the next developer.. And the next..
It jumps between npm and PyPI automatically..
The group doesn't even do the extortion themselves.. They sell stolen credentials to ransomware gangs.. One gang used TeamPCP's data to threaten Cisco with leaking FBI and NASA personnel records..
And the scariest part of all..
They didn't break any encryption.. They didn't find any zero-days.. They exploited the fact that the entire software industry blindly trusts its own build tools..
Every security scanner.. Every Docker image.. Every VS Code extension.. Every GitHub Action.. Is a potential weapon if someone poisons it upstream..
And right now.. Nobody can tell the difference between a legitimate build and a compromised one..
Because the compromised ones have valid signatures too.
GitHub@github
We are investigating unauthorized access to GitHub’s internal repositories. While we currently have no evidence of impact to customer information stored outside of GitHub’s internal repositories (such as our customers’ enterprises, organizations, and repositories), we are closely monitoring our infrastructure for follow-on activity.
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Two years on, the NDIS costs the equivalent of the entire income tax paid by 3,980,000 Australians.
To put that in perspective, that's the population of Perth and Adelaide combined.
Davey@TheRealDavey2
@RangaRunner The NDIS is going to cost $29.2bn this year or roughly the income tax paid by 2.4 million Australians (to put that in perspective, that's the population of greater Perth).
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