Word: costelloe
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Australia's Treasurer Peter Costello has had few better moments in his political career. Yet tonight he did not seem likely to either punch the air or appear too pleased with himself. Months of huddling with officials in preparing his 11th Budget had given Costello a pallid face. He looked in need of a decent night's sleep. His head was full of new tax scales, growth projections and spending measures. But ignore the facial puffiness and creases, for his lively eyes told the real story. Here was a happy fellow. The tax-cut man cometh...
...federal Government is swimming in revenue. Australia's export prices are at a 30-year high, a record number of people are employed, incomes are rising and company profits are booming. Despite economic squalls in the neighborhood, and beyond, Costello could boast in his Budget speech that Australia was still expanding: "In fact, growing in the longest continuous stretch our nation has ever experienced." Soon Australia would be a $A1 trillion economy...
...Costello had announced immense tax cuts in the past, such as those worth $A12 billion a year accompanying the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax in July 2000. And there had been modest tax cuts and increased family payments aimed at low earners in recent years. Now it's the turn of the top end-and those who one day aspire to be like them. At the start of the decade, the 47 cent tax rate kicked in at an annual income over $A50,000; from this July, the rate will be 45 cents and the income threshold will...
...measures in Peter Costello's 11th Budget-particularly better child-care arrangements-show that the Howard government isn't completely deaf to concerns about female workforce participation. But the inadequacy of the changes to FTB rest on a simple truth: after a decade of constructing a family-welfare state on this scale, major improvements aren't likely to come from the architects. Labor leader Kim Beazley's support crew is mulling over the implications of the trends in tax and welfare. Beazley is now pitching to the middle; the tax burden, workplace insecurity, high petrol prices and interest-rate rises...
...about trading CDs, you can find the stuff that has yet to make its way to iTunes, like Led Zeppelin and the Beatles, as well as stuff that you might not be able to otherwise find (example: Adios Amigo: A Tribute to Arthur Alexander featuring Mark Knopfler, Elvis Costello, Frank Black and Robert Plant). The service boasts a catalog with 10 times as many albums as iTunes. While this is true, in order to get at even a fraction of that music, you?ll have to play along...