Superannuation tax breakthrough as Albo signals changes: PETER VAN ONSELEN on how the rules could be drastically different
News that Anthony Albanese is willing to negotiate precisely how the new superannuation tax is designed should be seen as a welcome development.
All that remains is whether or not it's a media stunt designed to appear open-minded, rather than a genuine attempt at compromise.
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Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
The Daily T: Musk v Trump, Yusuf v Reform — inside the right's fight with itself
It's been a tumultuous twenty four hours on the right, both in the UK and in the US. Firstly, Reform chairman Zia Yusuf resigned from the party yesterday evening, claiming that 'working to get a Reform government elected' was not 'a good use of my time'. Then, Donald Trump and Elon Musk's row deepened further, with Musk calling for the president to be impeached and claiming that Trump was was 'named in the Epstein files'. Trump for his part said Musk was 'wearing thin' and had 'lost his mind'. Former Conservative blogger turned Reform activist Tim Montgomerie joins Camilla Tominey and Gordon Rayner to reflect on Zia Yusuf's departure from Reform, plus they speak to one of Reform's most recent defectors from Labour, Scottish local councillor Jamie McGuire, about the party's results in the Hamilton by-election where it came third behind Labour and the SNP. They also catch up with Daily Telegraph Senior US Correspondent Rob Crilly about the escalating war of words between two of the world's most powerful men.
Sky News
an hour ago
- Sky News
Trump says Musk has 'lost his mind' - as president considering selling his Tesla
Donald Trump has said Elon Musk has "lost his mind", according to US media, as the White House reveals the president is not interested in speaking to him. In a phone interview with ABC News, the US president was asked about reports that a phone call was scheduled on Friday between Musk and himself. "You mean the man who has lost his mind?" he is said to have responded. A White House official has said Mr Trump is not interested in talking to his former ally amid a bitter feud between the two, adding that no phone call is planned for the day. It comes as a source familiar with the situation has told Sky News the president is considering selling his Tesla, in a further sign that no resolution to the explosive bust-up is in sight. Mr Trump purchased a Tesla earlier this year, describing the company as Elon's "baby". 18:59 The pair's relationship broke down publicly on Thursday, just days after Tesla and SpaceX CEO Musk left his role as a special government employee. In a fiery exchange, Musk posted a series of messages on X criticising the president's signature tax bill as a "big ugly spending bill". President Trump posted on Truth Social that Musk had been "wearing thin" and claimed he "asked him to leave" his government position, something Musk denied. Elon Musk then hit back, alleging the president "is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public." He gave no evidence for the claim, and it was dismissed by the White House. In a statement, it called the bust-up an "unfortunate episode from Elon, who is unhappy with the One Big Beautiful Bill because it does not include the policies he wanted." 1:17 The bill at the centre of the spat was passed by the House Republicans in May and has been described by the president as a "big, beautiful bill". The president said to reporters in the White House on Thursday that Musk "knew the inner workings of the bill better than anybody sitting here". "He had no problem with it. All of a sudden, he had a problem and he only developed the problem when he found out we're going to have to cut the EV mandate." Musk then denied this, saying: "False, this bill was never shown to me even once and was passed in the dead of night so fast that almost no one in Congress could even read it!" The spat hit Tesla shares, which closed down 14.3% on Thursday, losing about $150bn (£111bn) in value. Musk also said SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft "immediately" after Mr Trump threatened to cancel government contracts with Musk's businesses. Hours after issuing his threat, however, Musk heeded advice from X users telling him to "cool down" and posted: "Ok, we won't decommission Dragon". The row between two of the most powerful men in America comes a week after Musk left his position in the government, where he spearheaded a controversial cost-cutting department, DOGE - the Department of Government Efficiency.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Without Yusuf, Farage will find it even harder to increase Reform's popularity
At Reform UK's conference last September, Nigel Farage could not have been more clear: his party had to 'model ourselves on the Liberal Democrats' and painstakingly build an election-winning machine. This was always a tough ask, and with Zia Yusuf gone, it is harder still. By the time of the speech in Birmingham, Yusuf had been Reform's chair for slightly over two months, but Farage was at pains to praise the millionaire entrepreneur for having 'already made a massive difference to our level of professionalisation'. While the catalyst for Yusuf's sudden resignation appears to be his disquiet over some Reform MP's pushing to ban the burqa, there had long been rumours of tensions as the businessman tried to get an organisational grip on the party. Rightwing populists and political mavericks seem to be falling out regularly at the moment. On the same day Yusuf departed, Donald Trump and Elon Musk's faltering bromance ignited into a stream of social media insults and threats. Farage's various political parties have been similarly characterised by a chorus line of jettisoned ex-allies. So while Thursday's drama was in some ways nothing new, its repercussions potentially go quite a lot further given Farage's very clear ambition to finally take one of his political vehicles to a bigger stage. Much like Reform, Ukip and the Brexit party both enjoyed sweeping electoral successes, but largely based on particular issues of the day, a desire to kick the major parties and Farage's own genius for communication. As such, the triumphs tended to be brief, and the moment Farage stepped away, things fell apart. Yusuf's job, as set out by Farage in his speech, was to build a network of volunteer-driven branches nationally, which over several election cycles would gradually build up a mass of councillors, creating enough door-knockers to, in the Lib Dem tradition, bombard voters with leaflets at every election. The idea was to build a party not just reliant on the charisma of one person. Last month's local elections were a key first step as Reform took control of 10 councils across England, even if this was seemingly done in the main by paid-for literature, with Farage's 'people's army' of volunteers reportedly still thin on the ground. But within weeks of this landmark have come two reverses. On the same day Yusuf quit, Nathaniel Fried, brought in to work alongside Yusuf in Reform's Elon Musk-style 'department of government efficiency' (Doge) unit, also announced he was leaving. Just three days earlier, the unit had been unveiled with some fanfare on Reform's social media, pictured at Kent council's offices, with Yusuf saying that potentially wasteful spending had already been uncovered. Alongside the then-chair and Fried, the third 'Doge' member pictured was Arron Banks, previously a major donor to Farage's parties who had largely quit the political scene before standing as a Reform mayoralty candidate last month. Banks is now being talked about as a potential replacement for Yusuf, and while he is also a wealthy entrepreneur, his appointment could be viewed as a step backward, or at least into the past. A vocal and sometimes abrasive presence on X, Banks is a throwback to the less disciplined and more freewheeling Farage age, one of the self-described 'bad boys of Brexit'. It is not as easy to imagine him knuckling down to a regime of branch organisation and candidate vetting. Other rumours suggest Farage could play it more safe with the chair role, either handing it to Richard Tice, his deputy, or David Bull, the TV presenter who delights Reform conferences with his energetic warm-up routine. But whatever happens, Yusuf is a loss in another way. As Farage seeks to build Reform into a party whose support can be counted in the 30s of percent rather than the 10s or even 20s, this requires making it palatable to a wider base – hence Farage's vehement disavowal of anti-Islam agitator Tommy Robinson and, to an extent, the departure of the party's main culture warrior, MP Rupert Lowe. Put bluntly, having a young man of Muslim heritage whose parents came to the UK as immigrants as the party chair could be viewed as a sign that Reform was aiming itself beyond voters who enjoyed Lowe's talk of mass deportations. The fact Yusuf quit after a row about burqas delivers a very different message.
