AFR’s different rules for BHP, News Corp; ALP won’t say Newspoll

And don’t forget to keep an eye on the slowly encroaching right wing tyranny.

Profits and losses. David Uren explains what they mean, The Australian, yesterday:

Reporting a record loss of $US5.7 billion ($7.9bn) in the December half year yesterday, BHP Billiton revealed it was claiming $US1.7bn in global tax credits, the bulk of which would come from the Australian government. This is a $US5bn turnaround from the previous December half year when the resource giant paid $US3.3bn in global taxes. Shortfalls in company tax collections have been the biggest single reason for persistent blowouts in the budget deficit.

The Australian Financial Review doesn’t mention the tax implications. Odd, given the bizarre assertion in this report by Neil Chenoweth from February 17, 2014:

The single largest factor in the underlying deterioration of the federal budget announced by treasurer Joe Hockey in December was a cash payout of almost $900 million to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation.

Labor likes Newspoll again (even if the party won’t mention it by name). Fundraising email from national secretary George Wright, yesterday:

We are well and truly in an election year, and it’s no exaggeration to say that Malcolm Turnbull could go to the polls at any moment now … That’s why it’s great that a national poll out this week shows Labor has a fighting chance to win the 2016 election.

Tyranny by stealth looms. Jason Wilson continues to fret over Chris Uhlmann and similar threats to our liberty, Medium, yesterday:

Whenever I write about right-wing movements and ideologies, I can almost guarantee that someone — usually a political liberal — will dismiss what I’ve said on the basis that we’re not in danger of a “fascist takeover”. It happened again … after The Guardian published my piece on … Chris Uhlmann … This time it was Australian political blogger Don Arthur … I pointed out that the cultural Marxism story that Uhlmann and other mainstream conservatives have been repeating is a staple of the far right. He responded with the doubt that we would be “overcome” by right-wing extremists. I always find this aspect of the liberal political imagination curious. The thought underpinning it seems to be: in the absence of a fascist revolution, democracy and liberalism cannot be significantly degraded. There’s an easy confidence here in the persistence of liberal democracy as an institutionally robust fact that can only be undone by the decisive triumph of extremists … I don’t share these sentiments. I would even go so far as to say that they are complacent and potentially dangerous.

Media futures. Mark Scott, National Press Club, yesterday:

In the next three years it would not be unreasonable to anticipate: the demise of weekday print editions of some of the nation’s most important newspapers; the closure of many regional newspapers; and the continued loss of local content makers in the bush, with fewer regional radio and TV news services (and) further dramatic newsroom cuts.

Helped along by your taxes and your ABC? Eric Beecher quoted in The Australian, October 11, 2010:

Operating in the commercial space, we expect vigorous competition from other commercial publishers. But to see the ABC tanks roll up on our lawn was bewildering.

More Beecher, from the same story:

I can now fully understand why the BBC has limited its online activities

Brussels stoush. Headline, Le Figaro, Tuesday:

Apres le “Brexit”, le “Franxit”?