Good morning, this is Eleanor Ainge Roy bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Friday 21 July. Top stories Bill Shorten will today deliver a speech warning that inequality is fracturing Australian politics. The Labor leader will tell an economic conference in Melbourne the system as it stands is "accelerating inequality, rather than addressing it, entrenching unfairness, rather than alleviating it". He will say inequality has consequences beyond the economic and the social – it is also creating a fault line in politics by fostering a "sense of powerlessness that drives people away from the political mainstream, and down the low road of blaming minorities, and promising to turn back the clock". Katharine Murphy, our political editor, reports that Shorten has been under internal pressure for months to make Labor's economic and tax policy offering more muscular, with the former treasurer, Wayne Swan, a persistent public voice in arguing Labor has to avoid being "trickle down-lite", or offering voters "a sickening Davos third-way approach" at the next federal election. Some of the internal argument within Labor over the past 12 months has played out around whether the party should adopt a "Buffett rule" where wealthy people would be forced to pay a minimum rate of tax. While that policy is popular with the left and some unions, that concept has been rejected by Shorten, and, repeatedly, by the shadow treasurer, Chris Bowen. Meanwhile Malcolm Turnbull told the same conference on Thursday that he was ready to have a fight with the Senate to introduce more company tax cuts. He was more cautious about the prospect of further personal income tax cuts. But he said the government's move to lift the $80,000 threshold to $87,000 had been "a valuable middle-income tax cut" and that his refusal to extend the deficit levy, "gives you an indication that we feel already our personal tax rates are high and our top marginal rate is high by global standards". OJ Simpson, the former NFL star famously acquitted of murder, has been granted parole. He is expected to walk free in October after being jailed nine years for a botched robbery attempt. Four commissioners voted unanimously to grant Simpson parole after serving the minimum portion of a 33-year sentence. Simpson was convicted of robbery, kidnapping and assault charges in October 2008 after a bizarre incident in which he, along with armed men, attempted to retrieve sports memorabilia he said belonged to him from a Las Vegas hotel room. In 1995 Simpson was tried and acquitted in the murder of of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ron Goldman. It is still referred to as "The Trial of the Century". British people living in the European Union could lose the right to live in another EU member state after Brexit. The threat of potential restrictions on UK citizens after Brexit emerged at end of intense technical talks in Brussels this week . Around 1.2 million British nationals living in the EU would be affected, meaning a British national currently living in Germany would be unable to move to France, Austria or any other EU member state after Brexit. Senior EU officials said they were ready to look at the issue, but the UK had to make a reciprocal offer to protect the 3.5 million EU nationals living in the UK. A UK source close to the negotiations said there was agreement on 50% of the issues on citizens' rights. In a case of life imitating comedy, Amanda Meade's Weekly Beast media column reveals how ABC staff were encouraged by management to sit in a ring and share toys. The audio studios division held a feedback session with staff in which attendees were asked to sit in a ring and select a plastic toy from the centre of the group that most represents how they feel and speak "through" it. "Sounds like a direct lift from ABC TV comedy Utopia – or the BBC's The Thick of It," Meade writes. Sport India have beaten Australia by 36 runs to win the Women's World Cup semi-final. Harmanpreet Kaur played one of the world's great innings: her 171 not out from 115 balls was destructive, breathtaking, and full of class. Her effort catapulted India to 281-4 in a reduced innings of 42 overs. Alex Blackwell top-scored for Australia with 90 and Elyse Villani hit a quickfire 75 but their efforts were in vain. India will now face England in the final at Lord's this coming Sunday. Australian rugby celebrated Kurtley Beale's Indigenous heritage this week, but Bret Harris wonders whether the ARU has done enough to embrace Indigenous Australia, and what it could mean for the Wallabies if they do.
Thinking time |
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