Burst of forgetfulness around Centrelink’s debt collection efforts

Plus: The science is settled on drinks boozy and soft, and Trump drives a pundit to tears.

Labor to the rescue! Fairfax reports exclusively on the opposition’s efforts to stop Centrelink debt collections, Fairfax websites, Friday:

Linda Burney, Labor’s human services spokeswoman, has written to the Australian National Audit Office requesting they investigate Centrelink’s controversial $4.5 billion debt clawback project amid ongoing accusations that it is unfairly targeting people and miscalculating bills.

They left something out. The Australian’s Rick Morton, Saturday:

Labor’s leadership team of Bill Shorten and Tanya Plibersek pioneered the “robo-debt” data-matching system Centrelink is using to target current and former welfare recipients for apparently not declaring their income properly — but they now argue it should be suspended. The automated system of matching income data from the tax office and income as reported to Centrelink to identify discrepancies was announced in a joint release¬ by the then minister for human services, Ms Plibersek, and the then assistant treasurer, now Opposition Leader, in June 2011, adding an extra $71 million to the budget.

Sorry, Albury … where? The Sydney Morning Herald examines Health Minister Sussan Ley’s real estate dealings, Saturday:

The Gold Coast apartment is listed on Ms Ley’s Register of Interests as an investment property in her own name, her only real estate asset apart from her home in Albury, Victoria.

Perhaps the internet was down at Fairfax HQ. Wikipedia, yesterday:

Albury is a major regional city in New South Wales, Australia, located on the Hume Highway on the northern side of the Murray River. It is the seat of local government for the council area which also bears the city’s name — the City of Albury. Albury has an urban population of 45,627 people.

The economics is settled. Reason.com reports, January 5:

A new tax on soda and other sugary drinks that took effect on New Year’s Day in Philadelphia is already generating outrage from some residents and businesses in the city … The tax is levied at a rate of 1.5 cents per ounce, which makes it 24 times more expensive than Pennsylvania’s taxes on beer. Practically, that means that some drinks end up being nearly twice as expensive after the tax is applied, turning $2 sodas into $4 sodas.

So is the science. Donald Trump, Twitter, October 15, 2012:

I have never seen a thin person drinking Diet Coke.

Especially if they tip some bourbon in it. TheTelegraph, UK, January 6:

While most studies warn of the health risks of alcohol consumption, researchers think that drink may play an important role in improving social cohesion by triggering endorphins which increase happiness and promote bonding … Professor Robin Dunbar of the University of Oxford’s Experimental Psychology department, said … “Our social networks provide us with the single most important buffer against mental and physical illness. While pubs traditionally have a role as a place for community socialising, alcohol’s role appears to be in triggering the endorphin system, which promotes social bonding.”

Speaking of the president-elect, columnist Wendy Squires joins the ranks of the weepers, The Age, Sunday:

And when I wept the day he was elected, they were real tears of utter devastation, sorrow and fear and not because some hipster barista used non-organic soy milk in my deconstructed latte — which is, after all, all my “type” drinks.