Jozef Imrich, name worthy of Kafka, has his finger on the pulse of any irony of interest and shares his findings to keep you in-the-know with the savviest trend setters and infomaniacs.
''I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center.''
-Kurt Vonnegut
For a party that positions itself as the representatives of the oft-forgotten, hard-working regional communities, the Qantas Chairman’s Lounge is a curious place for the Nationals to kick off their election campaign.
Well, that’s what former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce and his Nationals colleague David Gillespie did on Friday. The duo posted videos to Facebook making their cost of living election pitches before Anthony Albanese had even left Government House that morning, as they waited in the Chairman’s Lounge to flee Canberra.
Barnaby Joyce and David Gillespie make their points on the cost of living from the Chairman’s Lounge.
Good to see the lads forgoing staged photoshoots and going direct to voters. But the Chairman’s Lounge? Really? The Nationals haven’t given up their memberships to the exclusive club like teal MPs have, but surely they must know the institution is still on the nose with voters.
In Joyce’s video, he waves around a half-eaten plum while sitting on the edge of an armchair.
“I want to … try and bring down power prices, try and bring some sanity back into it,” he tells voters, using the plum to point at Sky News footage of Albo arriving at the Governor-General’s.
“And you get yourself into a little bit of trouble here and there, but try and do the right thing by our country,” he adds. A reference to when he lay down drunk on a Canberra street last year, perhaps, or allegations of sexual harassment and an affair.
Gillespie took manspreading to a new level in his video, as he straddled the arm of another armchair and gesticulated at the TV behind him, albeit without the help of any stone fruit.
The country needed to get back on track by reducing gas and fuel costs, Gillespie repeatedly said. The irony of citing cost of living concerns while ensconced in Qantas’ invite-only, most exclusive club – especially when its airfares are still at eye-watering highs for regular punters – was apparently lost on him.
Remember that it was the Nationals Senate leader Bridget McKenzie who tied herself in knots last year over her own undeclared flight upgrades on Qantas. She was one of the fiercest critics of Albo’s own upgrades, before learning she had not declared 16 across various airlines herself.
No one could accuse the Nationals of checking their (airline) privilege.
The former EY partner who is alleged to have taken $700,000 in secret commissions while setting up illegal tax schemes for wealthy clients is challenging the Tax Office’s personal assessment of his affairs.
Peter White is being sued by the Commissioner of Taxation in the Federal Court for allegedly promoting three illegal tax schemes to seven clients in the five years to August 2021. The full hearing to set to start Monday and run for two weeks.
Former EY partner Peter White fought to keep his name secret for more than a year. Dion Georgopoulos
However, less than a week out from the hearing, White has filed against the Australian Taxation Office for a judicial review of his tax assessments.
White’s lawyers did not respond and the ATO declined to comment. The court would not release the documents on Friday.
Sources with an understanding of the case, but not permitted to speak publicly, said White was seeking a review in the Federal Court of the Tax Office rejection of his attempt to not have interest charged on unpaid taxes and penalties. The amount White is challenging is not
White is facing further significant penalties if he loses the case the ATO has brought against him about allegedly promoting illegal tax schemes. White could be fined as much as $1.5 million, or twice the benefit he obtained, if the Federal Court rules against him. This case is one of only a handful of tax promoter cases brought to court under laws passed in 2006.
White fought for more than a year to stop The Australian Financial Review naming him before giving up his third suppression bid in September 2024.
The Tax Office alleges White identified companies that had significant tax losses, then ran his client’s profits through those companies to wipe out large chunks of tax payable. The structure is called a tax access loss scheme. White is fighting the case.
White is also facing legal action in the Supreme Court of NSW brought by former client property developer Novce Grujoski.
Grujoski alleges White told him to transfer $400,000 in February 2017 and $300,000 in August 2019 to a trust as part of a tax structure. The claim alleges these were “secret commissions”, that White was a beneficiary of the trust, and that the former EY partner had a pre-existing relationship with the company he used to minimise tax losses.
The ATO began reviewing Grujoski’s tax affairs in mid-2018. Four years later, it told him the earnings on which he needed to pay tax had increased from $1.7 million to $28.8 million. This included tax returns for Grujoski, his wife and two associated companies.
The ATO alleges White told clients the Tax Office had scrutinised similar tax arrangements, found no problems, that the scheme was based on a 1989 High Court decision, and it had been run by partners at EY.
In his defence, White claims other staff at EY were involved in reviewing and drafting documents. He denies the ATO’s allegations.
According to claims in the ATO’s court documents, White used a whiteboard to illustrate how the tax scheme would work. He allegedly used WhatsApp to communicate with a friend who had control over companies that had tax losses
