Australia news live: a third of large corporations paid no income tax in 2020-21; Pocock backs fossil fuels super profits tax

One-third of large corporations paid no income tax: report

Christopher Knaus

Christopher Knaus

About one-third of large corporations in Australia paid no income tax in 2020-21, a new report shows.

The Australian Taxation Office released its corporate tax transparency report on Thursday, which showed the percentage of entities paying no income tax was 32%, down from a high of 36% in 2015-16.

ATO Deputy Commissioner Rebecca Saint said there were genuine reasons why some companies might not pay income tax, but that:

We pay close attention to companies not paying tax. We hold those companies that report continual year-on-year losses to an additional layer of scrutiny.

While it’s true some large entities paid no income tax, we’re seeing through our justified trust program that there are high levels of compliance by these entities, and taking decisive action where there’s not.

The report covers 2,468 corporate entities, including 1,376 foreign-owned companies with an income of $100m or more, 563 Australian public entities with an income of $100m or more, and 529 Australian-owned resident private companies with an income of $200m or more.

The Guardian is still working its way through the detailed report.

The ATO says that the 2,468 corporate entities paid a combined $68.6 billion in income tax in 2020-21. That is a significant increase in tax on the year prior and the highest since reporting began.

The ATO says high commodity prices drove the increase in corporate tax payments.

Saint also said:

These results demonstrate there are high levels of tax compliance amongst our largest corporates.

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Caitlin Cassidy

Caitlin Cassidy

Gunnedah mayor Jamie Chaffey said his shire’s road network was under “severe strain” following seven natural disasters in 12 months:

The frequency has made it very difficult to get across our network, we have 2,000 km and 900 km of unsealed roads … and we’ve been impacted right across the shire. It’s the compounding, cumulative effect. We’ve already spent millions just doing immediate remediation to get roads open again. It’s not even addressing the issue of how bad these roads are and how much money and time it’ll take.

Chaffey said his shire was far from isolated, with 126 out of 128 councils in NSW having declared a natural disaster in the past year.

When it comes to the local and regional road network, we don’t have the funding and manpower and equipment to get around this massive task. We need some innovative thinking.

Local Government NSW declares statewide roads emergency

Caitlin Cassidy

Caitlin Cassidy

Local Government NSW (LGNSW), a coalition of more than 100 mayors and councillors, has declared a statewide roads emergency at the National Local Roads and Transport Congress as a result of this year’s devastating floods.

The LGNSW president, Darriea Turley, said successive floods and torrential rain coupled with “chronic funding constraints” had caused $2.5bn in road damages and a “collapse” of the local and regional road network.

More than 220 natural disaster areas have been declared across NSW this year, leaving the road network in a state of emergency. Road repair funding pledged to date has fallen well short of what is required so we’re declaring this statewide roads emergency to get help before the situation becomes even worse.

In the coming weeks close to $4bn worth of crops will need to be harvested and transported, yet harvesting machinery is unable to access some of the most productive regions in our state. The wider rural communities supporting Australia’s food bowl are on their knees, waiting for the network to be repaired. NSW communities are facing an unprecedented disaster which requires an unprecedented response.

LGNSW is calling for an “acceleration” and “significant increase” in funding for the $1.1bn fixing local roads and fixing country bridges program, a boost to the road block grant and new funding for machinery and skilled workers to to expedite road repairs.

The declaration was unanimously supported by participating councils, meeting today in Hobart.

Updated at 21.24 EDT

Collingwood’s CEO resigns

Collingwood’s chief executive officer, Mark Anderson, has resigned after five years in the role, with the club’s football boss, Graham Wright, to step in as interim chief executive until a replacement is named.

The AFL released a statement praising Anderson’s leadership:

He also oversaw record membership numbers – which peaked at 100,384 as the club secured a top-four finish this season – while the club also signed and expanded sponsorship deals with KFC, Emirates and Nike during his time with the Magpies.

Collingwood is now the third club actively pursuing a new chief executive, with both Essendon and North Melbourne looking for chief executives after the departures of Andrew Thorburn and Ben Amarfio respectively.

The Collingwood president, Jeff Browne, has released a statement thanking Anderson:

On behalf of all at Collingwood, we thank Mark for his dedicated service to the Club.

We thank Mark for his guidance and expertise which has resulted in strong football and netball programs, record membership numbers, the highest home and away crowds in the competition and a club that has great momentum.

Updated at 21.17 EDT

Benita Kolovos

Benita Kolovos

Daniel Andrews promises $44m for new medical equipment for eight hospitals

Day two of the big red Labor bus and we’ve arrived at the Northern Centre for Health Education and Research in Epping, in Melbourne’s north.

The premier, Daniel Andrews, has announced a re-elected Labor government will spend $44m on new medical equipment for eight hospitals across the state.

The positron emission tomography, or PET scanners, which are used to find and monitor the spread of cancers, diagnose heart disease, brain disorders and other conditions, will be rolled out to Ballarat base hospital, Frankston hospital, Goulburn Valley Health in Shepparton, Sunshine hospital, the Northern in Epping, Werribee Mercy hospital, Warrnambool base hospital and Wangaratta base hospital.

Andrews says:

This is all about making sure you get the care, with the best equipment, free of charge, as close to home as possible.

The scanners will be rolled out over four years, he says.

Updated at 21.10 EDT

Adeshola Ore

Adeshola Ore

Victorian health department considering complaint about opposition’s ‘Ditch Danmobile’

Victoria’s Department of Health is considering a complaint about the state opposition’s campaign vehicle – the “Ditch Dan” vintage ambulance – and if it breaches the law.

The Coalition on Monday unveiled the 1970s-style ambulance – dubbed by the opposition the “Ditch Danmobile”.

But the head of the state’s ambulance union questioned the legality of the opposition using an “ambulance” vehicle. Under the state’s Ambulance Services Act, it is an offence to use the word “ambulance” on any vehicle that is not owned or operated by an ambulance service without written authority of the Department of Health’s secretary.

A spokesperson for the department of health told Guardian Australia on Thursday it was “considering the complaint” under the state’s ambulance legislation.

A fine of $3,698 can be imposed if someone is found to have committed the offence of using the word “ambulance” on a vehicle without the department’s authority.

Updated at 21.03 EDT

One-third of large corporations paid no income tax: report

Christopher Knaus

Christopher Knaus

About one-third of large corporations in Australia paid no income tax in 2020-21, a new report shows.

The Australian Taxation Office released its corporate tax transparency report on Thursday, which showed the percentage of entities paying no income tax was 32%, down from a high of 36% in 2015-16.

ATO Deputy Commissioner Rebecca Saint said there were genuine reasons why some companies might not pay income tax, but that:

We pay close attention to companies not paying tax. We hold those companies that report continual year-on-year losses to an additional layer of scrutiny.

While it’s true some large entities paid no income tax, we’re seeing through our justified trust program that there are high levels of compliance by these entities, and taking decisive action where there’s not.

The report covers 2,468 corporate entities, including 1,376 foreign-owned companies with an income of $100m or more, 563 Australian public entities with an income of $100m or more, and 529 Australian-owned resident private companies with an income of $200m or more.

The Guardian is still working its way through the detailed report.

The ATO says that the 2,468 corporate entities paid a combined $68.6 billion in income tax in 2020-21. That is a significant increase in tax on the year prior and the highest since reporting began.

The ATO says high commodity prices drove the increase in corporate tax payments.

Saint also said:

These results demonstrate there are high levels of tax compliance amongst our largest corporates.

More allied health professionals needed in schools, education union says

Peace also says a more diverse range of staff are needed in schools to address “complex and diverse needs”.

We need additional staff in our schools to support teachers, whether that’s education support staff [or] allied health professions. We’re dealing with very complex and diverse needs in our schools. We have a lot of kids who have additional needs and we simply don’t have the resources that we need to provide for all of those students, and that consequently means teachers are trying to fill gaps and consequently doing excessive and unsustainable work.

She says the inability to employ more staff does “mostly” come down to money.

Our public schools in this country are not funded to the schooling resource standard, the standard that the federal government has set to educate every child, regardless of where they go to school. Public school students are funded well below that standard.

Our public school students deserve better and the way to make sure that we have got the allied health professionals we need – psychologists, speech therapists, and so on – and also [that we are] giving teachers time to do the most important work, and that is when they’re in their classroom delivering the best and highest quality education they can.

They need time to do that preparation, planning, assessing their student work – and without the additional teachers, without additional support staff, without removing the administrative and accountability burden to some degree, then teachers will always be pressed for time.

Updated at 20.54 EDT

Administrative and accountability workloads of teachers needs addressing, union says

We mentioned on the blog earlier that the government has released its draft of the $328m National Teacher Workforce Action Plan.

Meredith Peace, the deputy president of the Australian Education Union spoke to ABC News this morning about how the sector feels about the draft, including the $10m plan to raise the profession’s status and $25m boost to address workloads.

The overall plan is a good initial step to look at the issue of teacher shortages across the nation. I don’t think the plan itself will resolve all of the issues we have, but it is a good first step and obviously advertising, promoting our profession, is one small aspect of that plan.

Workload is one of the critical issues … we know our members are saying it is driving them out of the profession and I think it’s also discouraging new entrants coming into the profession as well.

We need significant investment, not only from the federal government, but also from our state and territory governments across the country to address this issue.

We need to address the administrative and accountability workloads that drag teachers away from the most important work they do and that is the planning, the preparation for their classrooms when they’re actually teaching students and delivering a high-quality education.

Updated at 20.49 EDT

Japanese encephalitis discovered in north-east Victoria’s water

The threat of Japanese encephalitis increased in Australia earlier in the year when it was discovered in piggeries across Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia.

If you still have questions about the virus and why it’s spreading in Australia, Guardian Australia’s medical editor Melissa Davey has this explainer for you:

Updated at 20.43 EDT

Paul Karp

Paul Karp

Andrew Leigh on $5 note: ‘We’re having a considered conversation’

The assistant minister for treasury, Andrew Leigh, has commented on the Reserve Bank’s consultation over whether the King should feature on the $5 bill.

The federal opposition leader, Peter Dutton, accused Leigh of attempting to “rewrite history” and “trying to take advantage of the circumstances” by suggesting King Charles III would not automatically appear on the new $5 note.

Leigh told reporters in Canberra:

It hasn’t always been the monarch on the lowest denomination note, but it has in general been the case. We’re having a considered conversation with the Reserve Bank and the treasurer is leading that conversation. We’re not in a rush to make a decision on this. We believe it’s appropriate to take time, consult appropriately and make a considered decision.

Leigh declined to express a personal view.

Updated at 20.31 EDT