Latest news with #PaulKeating
ABC News
4 days ago
- General
- ABC News
Bronze busts of Rudd and Keating reinstated in Ballarat after brazen theft
The bronze bust of former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd sits on a tray in the back of a ute, along with a gas canister, some tools and a hi-vis vest. It is waiting patiently to be returned to its place in the Ballarat Botanic Gardens. Its bronze counterpart, the head of Paul Keating, basks in the sunlight on a stone plinth while a council worker polishes its face. These two statues are in the process of being installed in the regional Victorian public park, four months after the original bronze casts were stolen in a brazen robbery. Both Mr Rudd's and Mr Keating's bronze busts were severed by an angle grinder and stolen from the gardens on January 23 this year. The busts formed part of the Prime Ministers Avenue, where artworks of Australia's leaders are on display. At the time, 18 other statues were damaged in acts of vandalism. Victoria Police said the investigation into the incident remains ongoing. At the time, Ballarat Police told the ABC the two statues were valued at $50,000 each. Total costs are yet to be finalised, but the damage bill is estimated at $140,000. On January 26 this year, a photo of a masked individual dressed in black and holding what looked like one of the busts, along with a sledgehammer, was posted on social media. The photo was circulated with anarchist and anti-colonial ideology. In a statement, the City of Ballarat's director of economy and experience, Martin Darcy, said all repair work on the avenue was expected to be finished by late June. "The City of Ballarat strongly condemns graffiti and vandalism of any kind," Mr Darcy said. "This type of senseless damage is completely unacceptable. "It is not only extremely costly to our ratepayers and will divert money away from critical council services, but it detracts from Ballarat as a city."
Sky News AU
4 days ago
- Business
- Sky News AU
Paul Keating reportedly ‘furious' about Labor's planned super tax
Sky News host Sharri Markson says former prime minister Paul Keating is reportedly 'furious' about the Albanese government's idea of taxing unrealised capital gains. Veteran business columnist Robert Gottliebsen reports that both Paul Keating and Bill Kelty are preparing to publicly blast the Albanese Government over its proposed super tax. 'This will be big if Keating and Kelty are preparing to wage war on the Albanese government's plans to tax unrealised capital gains,' Ms Markson said. 'Let's hope they do, because it's unlikely Sussan Ley will be able to stop Jim Chalmers.'
ABC News
24-05-2025
- Business
- ABC News
Denouncing Coalition as a 'smoking ruin', Jim Chalmers takes revenge in a press conference for the ages
Treasurer Jim Chalmers held a press conference last week that will enter Australian political folklore. It was reminiscent of some of Paul Keating's press conferences and interviews from the 1980s when the then-treasurer made certain statements ("banana republic," "brings home the bacon") that matched the historic moment and became part of the national lexicon. And for Chalmers, it announced major twin victories: one economic, one political. It occurred on Tuesday afternoon. He had arranged for the press conference to start 10 minutes after the Reserve Bank announced its interest rate decision. That's because he was confident, like everyone else, that the RBA would be cutting rates for the second time this year, and he had a statement ready to go. And he was correct. The RBA announced a rate cut, worth 0.25 percentage points, to 3.85 per cent. The RBA also published new official forecasts showing that it expects inflation to be much lower this year than it was anticipating a few months ago. From Chalmers' perspective, the rate cut and lower inflation forecasts provided more evidence of something significant. Australia's intolerably high inflation had been dragged down from its peak and pulled back into the RBA's 2 to 3 per cent target band within two years. And it had been achieved without a recession or material increase in unemployment. That has never been accomplished in Australia before (as the economist Saul Eslake pointed out a few months ago). Can you think of any would-be treasurer who wouldn't be happy to have presided over such a feat? So, Chalmers called a press conference for the "Blue Room" in Parliament House. The room is set-up for press gallery journalists, with rows of chairs and space for TV cameras, and a lectern for politicians, framed with heavy blue curtains and various flags. Dozens of press conferences are held in that room every year, but this one was different. The Albanese government was still basking in the glow of its historic election victory from three weeks ago. We all know the story by now. Labor thrashed the Coalition so emphatically that it's condemned the Liberal and National parties to irrelevancy in Canberra for years. During the election campaign, Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor had been goading Chalmers for being "out of his depth" as treasurer. He said Chalmers had promised to lower the cost of living, and lower mortgage interest rates, but he'd done the "exact opposite". But now, three weeks later, in the wake of their historic election defeat, shell-shocked Coalition MPs have publicly blamed Mr Taylor for his role in the Coalition's embarrassing loss, saying he was out of his depth as shadow treasurer. If you were Chalmers, it would be difficult not to feel schadenfreude. So, that was some of the political context leading into the Reserve Bank's interest rate meeting on Tuesday. But on Tuesday morning, the post-election anger inside the Coalition exploded. David Littleproud, leader of the Nationals, called a press conference for 11.45am to announce he was severing the Nationals' coalition agreement with the Liberal Party. Why should his party be held back by the Liberal Party? After all, the Nationals had retained nearly all their seats in the election. It was the Liberal Party that suffered big losses, embarrassingly, losing another swathe of seats for the second election in a row. "The Nationals' party room does not take this decision lightly," Littleproud said. So, when Chalmers began his press conference at 2.40pm, he faced another major political development. Not only had the Reserve Bank just cut interest rates again, but it was also forecasting inflation to be lower than anticipated for the rest of the year. The Labor Party had comfortably defeated the Coalition in the federal election, with Taylor failing to land any damaging blows on Chalmers. And the political fallout from the size of the Coalition's electoral wipe-out was so severe it had led to the dissolution of the famed partnership. As Chalmers stood at the lectern in the Blue Room, he saw all of it: "This is a nuclear meltdown, and the Coalition now is nothing more than a smoking ruin," he said. "I think that is really clear. Also clear is the contrast between a government getting on with the job, managing the economy responsibly, here to talk with you today about the second interest rate cut in three months, and a Coalition – or a former Coalition – completely and entirely focused on themselves. "They tried to divide the Australian community in the election campaign, and they ended up dividing themselves. And the consequence of that is that the Liberal Party is now barely bigger than the crossbench in the parliament." That scenario would have been a politician's dream. It was the type of situation you'd be lucky to experience once in your life. Whatever you think of Chalmers, it was a milestone in his political career. And regardless of what happens to the Nationals and Liberals from here — if they kiss and make up or move on alone — it capped an election campaign that revealed much about modern Australia, and where the country is heading.
ABC News
23-05-2025
- Sport
- ABC News
Ange Postecoglou's journey from South Melbourne to Europa League glory
There can't have been too many occasions in the history of European club football finals when former Australian prime minister Paul Keating is quoted by a victorious manager. But this wasn't any ordinary final. And Ange Postecoglou is not an ordinary manager. "After a particularly unlikely [election] victory, he [Keating] said, 'this is one for the true believers'," Postecoglou told reporters in Bilbao's San Mamés stadium, moments after the Europa League final on Thursday. While Postecoglou was, typically, talking about everyone side from himself when he referenced the believers. But he may well have equally been talking about himself. On Thursday, Postecoglou became the first Australian — indeed, the first man from an AFC confederation country — to win a major European club trophy when his Tottenham side beat Manchester United in Bilbao on Thursday. For football fans in Australia, the sheer outlandishness of that statement is enough to restore confidence in a game forced onto the back foot from attacks by the major football codes while being simultaneously hell-bent on destroying itself through petty squabbles and grievances. "I can't put it into words," former Socceroo John Aloisi told ABC News Breakfast after the match. "It's just an amazing achievement, not only for Ange, but Australian football in general. "We know how much he did for our game back here and now [he's doing it] on the world stage. "Ange has coached for 26 years. He's got from the bottom to the very top and he deserves all the credit he gets. "It's an incredible achievement and fair play to Ange, he backs himself and he has won something major in Europe." Postecoglou sure has backed himself. To be honest, he's had to. "Mate, I'm a winner," Postecoglou said on Thursday, almost three decades later in his unique, deadpan way in that post-match press conference in the San Mamés stadium. "I've been a serial winner my whole career." In recent years that statement is true, but early on in his managerial journey, Postecoglou felt his race may have already been run. "Back in 2008 … I was sat on a commentary team with Ange Postecoglou at Fox Sports and he'd just been rejected by Melbourne Heart, who are now Melbourne City, to be the number two assistant," former Socceroo goalkeeper Mark Bosnich told ABC News. This was soon after Postecoglou had moved from South Melbourne into international management with the under age Socceroos squads. Postecoglou was with the youth teams for seven years, winning several under age OFC tournaments at Under 17 and Under 20 level but, crucially, failed to qualify for the U20 World Cup in 2007. That led to a furious exchange on SBS's The World Game with Craig Foster and, subsequently, the loss of his job and an enormous hit to his confidence. Postecoglou felt himself unemployable as a coach, dropping into lower league Greek and Victorian state football with Panachaiki and Whittlesea Zebras respectively, supplementing his income as a coach in local parks — a world away from the ticker tape and celebrations of San Mamés stadium some 19 years later. "In terms of achievements for Australian managers, head coaches in football, it's the greatest achievement," Bosnich said. "When you think about greatest achievements with Tony Popovic and Graham Arnold, the late Rale Rasic with a group of part-timers for the 1974 World Cup, but this eclipsed it all and quite easily. "It is absolutely huge. It is career-defining, life-defining. "To make that journey, to go all that way, is an absolutely fantastic achievement." It's quite hard to imagine a scene further removed from the heights of European football than the failed dream that was the old National Soccer League (NSL) of the late 1990s. "Playing football in this country hasn't really looked upon as mainstream," Bosnich, who started his football journey at Sydney Croatia before moving to Aston Villa and Manchester United in the Premier League, said. "It was a little bit looked down upon. So he's had to put up with quite a lot." Small crowds in small stadiums and a distinctly semi-professional set up is what Postecoglou, who played his entire senior career with South Melbourne, was used to as a player. An aggressive, attacking left back, Postecoglou won two NSL titles with Hellas but more importantly was given an unexpected bonus that would shape his philosophy for the rest of his career — the mind of Ferenc Puskás. The Hungarian maestro — one of the greatest players in history — managed South Melbourne from 1989 to 1992 and, with Postecoglou as his captain, won the NSL, among other things, in 1991. Postecoglou used to drive Puskás to and from training and, as an added bonus, got to pick the great three-time European Cup winner's attack-minded brain. With this attacking mindset firmly entrenched from his experiences under Puskás, Postecoglou took over at South Melbourne in 1996 after a knee injury prematurely ended his playing career aged 27. Almost instantly he became that winner he speaks of now. Postecoglou led Hellas to the NSL Premiership/Championship double in 1997/98, his second season in charge incidentally, and backed up to win the Championship again in 1998/99. He then went on to win the 1999 Oceania Club Championship too, his first continental title as a manager. Those victories led Postecoglou into his first tactical battles with some of the giants of the game, including Sir Alex Ferguson's treble-winning Manchester United team at the 2000 FIFA Club World Championship in Brazil. "We were a semi-pro team, playing against the great Manchester United, who'd won the treble, at the Maracanã," Postecoglou recalled earlier this year on British TV. 'We ended up losing 2-0 on the day but we gave a decent account of ourselves considering the difference. 'Some of my players, who were semi-pro but good footballers, probably played the games of their lives that day.' South Melbourne lost to Brazil's defending Copa Libertadores winners Vasco de Gama and Mexico's CONCACAF Champions Cup winners Club Necaxa 2-0 in Brazil. With Postecoglou scrabbling about in local parks and moonlighting as a pundit on Fox Sports, a chance opened up in the A-League after Frank Farina had his Brisbane Roar contract terminated following a drink-driving offence. Brisbane Roar were in desperate straits off the field and required a complete rebuild on it but Postecoglou was eager to show what he could do, although even then he was looking and thinking bigger. "I really want to build a football club, I want to build something like they have overseas. That was part of my discussions with the board," Postecoglou said upon his appointment. "When I picture myself coaching this football club I really want it to stand for something." Postecoglou took the reins in 2009. By 2010/11, his second season in Brisbane, the Roar won the Premiership/Championship double. Not only that, but the Roar grew into arguably the best Australian club side in history as Postecoglou masterminded an Australian record 36-game unbeaten run and then a second Championship win in 2011/12. A short stint with Melbourne Victory followed, but soon Australia's top job came calling, the Socceroos. There, Postecoglou had to battle enemies and critics within and without, the self-sabotaging monster that is Australian football rearing its many heads and striking out with impunity as Postecoglou's attacking and ambitious style was alternately praise and lambasted in equal measure. A home tournament success in the AFC Asian Cup in 2015 felt like the pinnacle of a well-made plan coming together and the development of a squad that could challenge at the latter stages of the World Cup in Russia. But the frailties, which will be familiar to Spurs fans, were all to evident during the marathon AFC qualification phase. Playing a possession-based attacking style that, at its best, was a joy to behold, yet also left his teams open to counter attacks and vulnerable to individual errors, leaving a highly-fancied side limping towards qualification for the World Cup in 2018. Postecoglou maintained he was looking at the bigger picture, wanting not only to qualify but, when the Socceroos reached the World Cup, for them to challenge the best teams in the world. The Socceroos eventually got to Russia. Ange did not, emotionally resigning after achieving qualifying. Postecoglou craved a return back to club management: "I want to coach abroad. Part of me, you know, is pretty keen to get stuck back into club football, working day-to-day," he said after resigning from the Socceroos. It wasn't long before he was back in club management, with Yokohama F. Marinos in Japan's unforgiving J-League. Marinos, a giant of Japanese domestic football, had not won the league since 2004 when Postecoglou was appointed. A tough first season saw him finish 12th although he also guided the club to the final of the J-League Cup. But as we all know, Postecoglou always wins in his second season, so in 2019 he lifted the trophy to end that drought. It was his ninth trophy in senior football as a manager and yet, the Eurocentric football world was all too eager to overlook him. "I know people dismiss my achievements because they didn't happen on this side of the world," Postecoglou said in his post-Europa League press conference. "But for me they were all hard earned." That dismissive attitude towards Postecoglou was most clear when he was appointed as Celtic coach in 2021. Postecoglou's appointment was greeted with a staggering level of disrespect from British press, most notably former Scotland striker turned shock-jock Alan Brazil, whose embarrassing response to Postecoglou's signing on TalkSport displayed an ignorance that did him little credit. It is the same response that Postecoglou has faced almost everywhere he's gone. After failing to qualify for the group stage of the Champions League and then suffering three losses in their first six Premiership games, Celtic's worst league start in 23 years, the knives were out and the naysayers were gathering their social media receipts. But, as Postecoglou had done at every club he's been to, he silenced those who would doubt him by winning. Two titles in two seasons, plus two Scottish League Cups and a Scottish Cup, five trophies in two years bringing Postecoglou's senior coaching medal haul up to 14. So on to the English Premier League, rightly or wrongly considered the pinnacle of the club game and Spurs, the wannabe big club whose lofty ambitions were unmatched by their barren trophy cabinet. Unlike at many of his club stints, his time at Spurs started brilliantly, unbeaten in their first 10 league games and five points clear at the top of the Premier League table, the best start to a Premier League season by any new manager in the league's history (since 1992) and Tottenham's best start in the top flight since 1960-61. The record since then has faltered. The league form that sees Spurs sit 17th is, as Postecoglou says himself, not good enough. And yet, in winning the Europa League title he has given Spurs fans a taste of glory they've not known in 17 years. "I know our league form has been unacceptable, but coming third was not going to change this football club," Postecoglou told TNT Sport. "Winning a trophy would, that was my ambition and I was prepared to wear it if it did not happen." Spurs could still part ways with Postecoglou, despite the trophy success. Perhaps Postecoglou could commit the ultimate mic drop and walk away, although that would be unlikely given what awaits Tottenham next season. Next year Spurs will be in the Champions League, with the big boys. Postecolgou has unfinished business in that competition after two unsuccessful seasons at the top table with Celtic, where he went winless through eight games across two seasons. Regardless of what happens next and where Postecoglou ends up, it will still be a hell of a long way from the old NSL.
The Australian
23-05-2025
- Business
- The Australian
Jim Chalmers destroys Paul Keating's superannuation vision
Paul Keating announcing universal super in 1992. You can now listen to The Australian's articles. Give us your feedback. You can now listen to The Australian's articles. Jim Chalmers is set to be remembered as the treasurer whose unrealised capital gains tax destroyed the historic 1992 universal superannuation vision of Paul Keating. At the moment there is an eerie silence from the 81-year-old former treasurer and prime minister. But in 1992, I was writing and broadcasting about the Keating plan to create a universal savings movement that would make Australia's pool among the largest in the world. It seemed optimistic then but now Australia's superannuation savings are close to being the highest in the world – the original Keating vision. Keating must know that aspiring Australians, mostly in self-managed funds, will exit superannuation rather than pay tax on unrealised gains. Accordingly, a third of superannuation will exit, leaving it as a lower to middle-income Australian movement. I can't believe Keating's eerie silence on the destruction of his vision will remain forever. Already, I am getting the message that some members of the cabinet and the caucus are realising that, by voting for the unrealised capital gains tax, they will have to tell their children and grandchildren they were part of the destruction of the universal savings vision that had been established by a previous ALP government – knowing that that destruction would weaken the nation. Yet the Treasurer, the cabinet and the caucus can still become ALP and community heroes if they go back to the original Chalmers plan – a 30 per cent tax on the income derived from superannuation balances above $3m – double the current 15 per cent rate on all funds. The second 15 per cent tax would be taxed in exactly same way as the first 15 per cent tax, which would continue to apply to all superannuation members. Keating's 1992 legislation had reasonable benefit limit provisions that were later abandoned by Peter Costello and the Coalition. Accordingly a 30 per cent tax on the income from an indexed $3m balance, calculated in the same way as the 15 per cent base rate, will not destroy the Keating vision, but rather restore an equivalent to his original reasonable benefit limit provisions. I believe the vast majority of young and middle-age Australians who aspire to success will accept that tax as fair. Chalmers becomes a hero instead of a person who will have virtually destroyed himself as a candidate to replace Anthony Albanese when he decides to retire as prime minister. It is ironic that Albanese achieved his historic win partly by flashing his green Medicare card, which every Australian participates in regardless of their income or wealth. The Keating superannuation scheme duplicated Medicare by also involving every Australian irrespective of income or wealth – it was a universal savings scheme A remarkable feature of the Keating plan was that, although it would see the emergence of very large industry funds, there was great scope for both retail and self-managed funds to be part of the universal savings landscape. The self-managed funds tend to be dominated by aspiring Australians seeking greater wealth by investing part of their superannuation savings in developing businesses. This has enabled about 60 per cent of ASX stocks to survive and prosper, thanks to the capital raising support of self-managed funds. These plus smaller emerging and venture-capital enterprises will be the first casualties of the decimation of self-managed funds as a result of the Chalmers tax. The aspiring people in the community will structure their savings in a different way. The mischievous detail in Chalmers' unrealised capital gains tax plan made me believe that this was the work of the top people in Treasury. But the avalanche of respected people from business plus former Reserve Bank and Treasury heads has been so great that it is clear they have been informally told by Treasury people that this is not their doing. This is a Chalmers tax, not a Treasury tax. In a strange way the Chalmers tax on unrealised capital gains is like cigarette excise. The Chalmers tax income estimates are rubbish because people simply will organise their affairs not to pay it. It will lead to legal and devious tax-avoidance schemes and nothing like the current revenue estimates will be achieved. A tax that is considered fair would raise substantially more. The best way to understand the horror of the Chalmers tax is to look at how it has been structured. The Treasurer clearly has demanded that it be designed to be able to cover a much wider field than superannuation Firstly, there will still be an initial tax of 15 per cent on income of a fund that is not in the pension phase. It will be levied in exactly the same way as the current 15 per cent which is applied universally across all superannuation funds regardless of size. Secondly, instead of basically doubling that tax to 30 per cent on income generated by funds above and indexed $3m, the government introduced legislation for a new tax that is actually going to be paid by the member not by the fund. To calculate this second tax – the unrealised capital gains or Chalmers tax – on June 30, 2025 (and for every subsequent year), superannuation fund members must provide a market value of the total asset base of their funds. If the value at June 30, 2026, is above a non-indexed $3m then the increase above the June 30, 2025, value, adjusted for withdrawals and contributions, will be 'taxed' at 15 per cent. The tax liability so created is not a liability of the fund, rather of the member who is entitled to the superannuation assets Accordingly the beneficiary of the rise in unrealised gains attributable to the balance above $3m will be personally taxed at 15 per cent on the increased paper value of his or her fund investment. Measured over a year the rise in value of the funds will include realised gains, income and, most significantly, unrealised capital gains. • The July 1, 2025, base will be taken as the market value of all the assets irrespective of what was actually paid for them: i.e. if there is a substantial paper capital gain in the years prior to July 1, 2025, that will not be the subject of the Chalmers tax. But if there's a loss that too will not be counted. Losses incurred under the Chalmers tax will merely be carried forward to be offset against future profits. Superannuation fund members can withdraw a sum equal to their new tax liability from their fund Alternatively they can leave the money in super and fund the tax from their personal funds. Originally there seemed some difficulty in the industry funds adapting to doubling the 15 per cent tax on balances over $3m but it is now clear they can manage it easily although they may need a one-year grace.
