“The acts of love have become the means of infection and death”
— Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, reflecting on the Ebola outbreak in his Christmas address
Home | Great big not-so-new tax
THE GIST. The new Assistant Treasurer Josh Frydenberg says the government is going to look at whether or not shoppers should have to pay GST on goods bought from overseas. At the moment, any purchase of less than $1000 is exempt.
WHO CARES. Australian retailers, that's who. They reckon that the exemption prevents them from competing fairly against overseas online shopping, and that it's "costing thousands of jobs". Harvey Norman boss Gerry Harvey says "This is totally unfair." Condolence card is in the mail.
BEEN THERE. This issue isn't new. In fact, the Productivity Commission addressed it specifically in a 2011 inquiry (PDF). They found that the GST threshold was only a "minor part" of the retailers' worries. They also said that while it might be fairer to lower the threshold, it wouldn't make financial sense - costing the government $2 billion to collect, just to chase down $500 million in revenue.
BIG PICTURE. Frydenberg said that at this time of year - i.e. boxing day sales - it's clear "how important retail jobs are to the Australian economy". That might be true, but it doesn't look like the retailers are suffering too much, given that people spent a record $2 billion during the sales yesterday.
BOTTOM LINE. In 2011 the Productivity Commission said it would support lowering the GST threshold if doing so actually raised money, but "this is not currently the case." Maybe the government has discovered some fancy new technology to achieve this over the last three years. Mark this one as 'wait and see'.
THE GIST. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has reaffirmed his plan to take out the part of the country's Constitution that forbids war. Article 9 of the Constitution says "the Japanese people forever renounce war as a means of settling international disputes."
BRIEF HISTORY. In case you forgot (which is possible if you don't have an elderly Australian relative), Japan lost WWII pretty handily to the Allied Forces, who continued to occupy the country for a couple of years after the war. In 1947 Japan implemented Article 9 - a move that the Allies claimed was at the Japanese government's suggestion. They probably didn't have much choice in the matter though.
WHY NOW? Abe's government adopted a resolution to 're-interpret' Article 9 back in July, allowing Japan to take military action in "collective self-defence". The proposal is pretty controversial, but Abe is probably feeling confident about pushing ahead with the change after the government's landslide victory in the recent election.
TAKING SIDES. Conservative politicians in Japan have apparently been trying to get rid of Article 9 for decades, but it's been too difficult. That side of politics says that Article 9 is outdated and limits Japan's ability to defend itself. On the other hand, the anti-war opposition is concerned about increasing militarisation - so much so that a man set himself on fire in protest in July.
Zombie nation. An Ohio man was ordered by town officials to take down his home-made nativity scene. The frugal Ohioan had leftover decorations from Halloween, so filled his manger with a life-size Zombie Baby Jesus - a move which apparently caused great offence to his neighbours. Understandably so, given the poor timing - people won't be celebrating Jesus coming back from the dead for about another four months.
Till death do me part. A Japanese travel agency is organising solo wedding ceremonies for single women. The package includes choosing a dress, bouquet and hairstyle, hotel accommodation and a photo album. 30 women have become 'solo brides' since May. Half of the brides were actually married already, but weren't satisfied with the first effort. Apparently they didn't want to risk having hubby there to ruin the second one too.
Christmas miracle. A money transport van crashed in Hong Kong on Christmas-eve, spilling cash all over the road. Police have recovered about HK $6m and arrested several formerly-lucky individuals, but $15m is still missing. Police said "we hope those who had picked up cash return [it] to the closest police station as soon as possible". Good luck with that.
