Death and Taxes

Panellists: Malcolm Turnbull, Minister for Communications; Doug Cameron, Shadow Minister for Human Services; Sarrah Le Marquand, Opinion editor of The Daily Telegraph; Andrew Neil, British broadcaster and journalist; and Van Badham, Playwright and Columnist for The Guardian Australia. -- Malcolm Turnbull Malcolm Turnbull is the Minister for Communications and is generally seen as one of the most progressive members of the Abbott Cabinet. Though one of the richest man in Parliament and regarded by many as having a privileged background, Malcolm’s early years were spent in comparatively humble circumstances. Born in Sydney in 1954, he grew up in a single-parent household with his father, Bruce, after his parents separated. They lived in a series of flats, mostly rented. Malcolm attended Vaucluse Public School and, with the aid of a scholarship, Sydney Grammar, to which in later life he donated a new scholarship program in his father’s name to help underprivileged students. After graduating from Sydney University with an arts-law degree, he won a Rhodes Scholarship and completed a further degree at Oxford. Malcolm worked as a journalist, lawyer and in business, and became widely known in the late 1990s for leading the Australian republican cause. He entered Parliament in 2004 and represents the seat of Wentworth which covers Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs. Malcolm and his wife Lucy have two adult children and live in Point Piper in Sydney. -- Doug Cameron Doug Cameron has been an ALP Senator since 2007, coming to Parliament after a lifetime in the union movement. Doug's no-holds-barred style brought him to national prominence as national secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, when he was at the forefront of trade union opposition to the Howard government's industrial relations legislation. During the previous Government he was appointed Parliamentary Secretary for Housing and Homelessness in the reshuffle that followed Kevin Rudd’s return to the Labor leadership, and is now on the Labor frontbench as Shadow Minister for Human Services. Doug was born in Scotland in 1951. -- Sarrah Le Marquand As a columnist and opinion editor of The Daily Telegraph, Sarrah Le Marquand is – depending on who you listen to – either a “bleeding heart inner-city feminazi” or a “redneck from the hate media”. Sarrah left university determined to pursue a career in political journalism but an early detour on a magazine devoted to the surprisingly intricate world of daytime soap operas redirected her career. In the years that followed she was employed as a magazine entertainment reporter and film critic on breakfast TV before joining The Daily Telegraph in 2005 as television writer. She went on to assume various roles at the newspaper including film editor, columnist, features chief of staff and deputy features editor. In 2008 she was appointed features editor. In 2009 she began writing a weekly column for The Daily Telegraph covering everything from politics to pop culture to parenthood. She also writes a weekly column for Sunday Style magazine, is the executive editor of Sydney Taste and appears regularly on television and radio as a media commentator. In 2014 she was appointed opinion editor of The Daily Telegraph. She lives in Sydney with her husband and two young sons. -- Andrew Neil Andrew Neil is one of Britain's best-known and experienced journalists in print and broadcast. He is chairman and publisher of The Spectator, the oldest continuously published magazine in the English language. He also anchors much of the BBC’s network political programming, including the Daily Politics on BBC2 and The Sunday Politics and This Week, both on the flagship BBC1 network. Born in Scotland in 1949, Andrew attended Paisley Grammar School and the University of Glasgow, studying economics at the same university where Adam Smith wrote his famous Wealth of Nations in the 18th Century. Graduating in 1971 with an MA (Hons) in Political Economy and Political Science, his first job was in Westminster as a political researcher specialising in Housing Policy for the Heath Government. He moved into journalism in 1973 and enjoyed a rapid rise. Within ten years he was recruited by Rupert Murdoch for the prestigious job of editing The Sunday Times, where he remained until 1994. He subsequently became the first chairman of Sky Television but would part with Murdoch on bad terms, exacerbated when Andrew’s autobiography Full Disclosure made public some of his dealings with Murdoch. Andrew has many interests besides The Spectator. He is the chairman and publisher of Apollo, a monthly international art magazine, and chairs the Dubai-based ITP Publishing Group. This publishes more than 75 magazines and websites covering a broad sector of interests, from Construction Week to Harper’s Bazaar Arabia. -- Van Badham Van Badham is a Melbourne-based feminist writer, theatremaker, critic, activist, occasional broadcaster and one of Australia’s most controversial public intellectuals. She is currently employed as a political columnist and culture critic for The Guardian Australia. While as a theatremaker she’s had more than 100 international productions of her work. In 2014 her theatre projects include Notoriously Yours, a live action spy movie about the surveillance state that won the Critics' Circle prize and two other awards in Adelaide and is transferring to the Edinburgh festival, The Trollhunter, a Melbourne Comedy Festival show with Catherine Deveny, and Big Baby: Boss of the World, a collaboration with national puppet company Terrapin. Internationally, her works for stage and musical theatre have appeared at the Edinburgh Festival, the Adelaide Festival, the New York Summer Play Festival and in London at the Royal Court Theatre. The BBC World Service, Radio 4 and Radio 3 have produced her radio dramas. Her first novel, Burnt Snow, released in Australia in 2010, is the first in a three-book series for Pan Macmillan. She trained in writing for television on attachment to BBC serial Holby City and her award-winning short film, Octopus, screened in the Dungog, Tropfest Australia, Munich International, Berlin International and LA Shorts festivals. -- Audience: ALP 36%, Coalition 47%, Greens 11%, Other 2%, Not Specified 4% BUDGET EMERGENCY? Bob King asked: I feel like I'm living in a parallel universe. 1. In which our strong economic and financial position is envied around the world and 2. In which the Abbott/Hockey government claims that the sky is about to fall in. You're in government now. Why can't you be responsible and truthful about our financial/economic strengths instead of harping on about the weaknesses? MODERNISE THE GST Joseph Yakoub asked: Over the past few months, we've heard that the Federal Government is considering a range of measures to tackle the mounting debt, including increasing the age of retirement, introducing a GP Tax, and, most recently, a potential deficit tax. Through the entire debate, the one issue that all sides of politics have remained mute about is making changes to the GST, whether it be broadening the base or increasing the rate. This is despite most economists, such as Ken Henry, arguing that the GST is the most effective and efficient tool of taxation we have available. Malcolm Turnbull, Doug Cameron - why do both parties continue to avoid having a serious and rational discussion about modernising the GST? BUDGET AUSTERITY HURTS POOR Colleen O’Sullivan asked: Overseas experience overwhelmingly tells us that austerity measures hurt the poor. How can the government justify austerity measures, and lifting the working age to 70, the possible paid parental leave scheme and charging us $6 to go to the GP, without considering overly generous tax concessions, such as the luxury goods tax? Also can you acknowledge that without lifting the NewStart payment you're directing Australia down the path the US has taken - increasing economic disparity? SOFT POWER OR FIGHTER JETS Susan Dodsworth asked: The Government has justified spending more than $12 billion dollars on 58 Joint Strike Fighters on the basis that they are essential for Australia's future security. At the same time it looks likely to cut funding for the ABC and SBS, just as the ABC has secured unprecedented access to China. Are we underestimating the importance of soft power, the kind of power that Al Jazeera provides to Qatar, in securing Australia's future? QUESTION FROM FLOOR An audience member asked: Can we really trust the JSF to do the job if they’re taking 12 hours of maintenance for one hour of operation, and they’ve already been massively delayed and a number of the other purchasing countries have pulled out because they’re too expensive, don’t work and are taking too long? MEDIA OWNERSHIP Jeannette Horrocks asked: I live in Kiama and last week I was fortunate enough to be connected to the NBN which is which is a good, fast, efficient service and I hope all of Australia is going to have the opportunity to experience it soon. The government is considering a media shakeup which could see Rupert Murdoch controlling a larger slice of Australian Media than he does at present. RIGHT TO BE BIGOTED Catherine Jean-Krista asked via video: Andrew Neil, in Australia our contrarian columnists have a great tradition of saying that people who don’t like racist, bigoted media commentary are ‘whingeing about hurt feelings’. Our Attorney-General has seemed to endorse this idea by proclaiming Australians have a ‘right to be bigoted’. Does “The Spectator” believe that inaccurate, derisive and mocking commentary about people’s heritage is in the public interest? Or is it just a divisive business model that makes money playing on people’s prejudices?