This story went off today and it was worth going and having a look at the Tax Act and SRO ruling referred to in here. No idea how Allan could possibly be confident in saying those WFH won't get caught up with land tax issues, or play off the issue - there genuinely is no clarity.

https://twitter.com/theheraldsun/status/1959735247542915559

To recap: key issue is whether you could lose part of your 'home' aka PPR land tax exemption due to “substantial business activity" in the residence by WFH. The Act & SRO ruling list factors for this test. It's not new but it’s relevant if WFH is looked at with minimum set days.

The second this was announced, you just knew it was a captains call that hadn't been discussed or refined with anyone. Making it standard in govt, sure. In private sector that's predominantly covered by federal laws? Get the feeling she'll regret being so arrogant out the gate.

https://twitter.com/7NewsMelbourne/status/1951924009802617169

They've admitted they have no idea what legal mechanism they could even consider using to create this 'right' and admit their own consultation process will NOT allow a discussion or debate about whether or not the laws SHOULD happen - just who should be sucked into them and how.

We're back for day 2 of Deeming v Pesutto🧵🍿 link to watch below, starts at 10.15am. This morning we're expected to hear some of the secret meeting recording & hear directly from Moira

youtube.com/live/9Zlu0FDp5… Recording first up! Honestly excellent audio quality & they have the transcript on the screen too. Very helpful.
Brief moment of initial stress on my part thinking that they were going to play this entire recording for 70 mins, but we're getting snippets & comments from lawyers.

The big day is finally here! The public circus showdown between Deeming and Pesutto kicks off this morning at 10.15am & yes the *entire* thing will be livestreamed throughout. Rolling comments will be added here throughout the day 🧵 Link to watch live:
youtube.com/live/Nmp3Ts7hA…

They're back 🐦👀 as leaderships are questioned and elections start to heat up, there's plenty of chatter happening from the birdies. First up, rumours are flying about Nick Reece's "unity ticket" with his deputy not looking very.. unified in public. His deputy choice mentioned only once via statement (to resoundingly bad feedback), Roshena has not been seen or heard publicly linked to Reece since the 'launch'.

One of the most fundamentally cooked things that has happened in politics, possibly ever. A thread.

https://twitter.com/LocalElectionAU/status/1817487878332801321

First up, let's get the birdies out of the way. You have to wonder if there's any truth to rumours Reece struggled to find a deputy at all since so few options were ever whispered about & why there's a rare endorsed Lib ticket that Roshena is obviously nowhere near.

Well, Reece wasted no time announcing his Lord Mayor run as an 'independent', despite him being a current Labor member. On top of that he's quietly hired Dan Andrews ENTIRE ex-team to run the campaign😂 Reece insists he isn't Capp, but maybe that's because he's trying to be Dan?

The Aus Labor Reddit page certainly claimed victory on behalf of the party as 'Labor takes back the Mayor of Melbourne'. This might be an unofficial Labor page, but hard to ignore that there are probably quite a few in the party who do feel that way.
reddit.com/r/LaborPartyof…

They're back 🐦 First up is one for the diaries - birdies say the AEC has been busy contacting potential voting booth locations for their availability specifically between Feb and May 2025. Looks like a 2024 federal election is definitely off the table (as predicted by Antony Green, of course).

The birdies are back especially for budget eve in Victoria 🐦 They've hidden the title for now but the theme of tomorrow will be 'amalgamation' aka how many loosely related things can we suddenly shove together in an attempt to save money & avoid a 'cutting' headline. Always a nice way to muddy reporting too.

Sutton is back in the witness box for the I Cook Food court case from 10am. Link to watch online:
vimeo.com/event/3572546 Interesting. Seems as if there was no new info or reports given to Sutton between making the first closure order and the second closure order. Sutton maintains he was 'satisfied' to do this but seemed to stop short of being able to explain what (if any) extra info allowed this.

The Slug Gate court case finally kicked off in Melbourne yesterday. After getting closed in Feb 2019, this has finally hit a courtroom. Originally the case consisted of claims against both Dandenong Council & the Dept of Health over the closure of ICook Foods.
Having settled the case with the Council last week (more will come on this) it leaves the case to be fought between I Cook & the Dept of Health/ Sutton.

Special birdy drop specifically as we hit July 1st 🐦 From July 1 further hidden health funding cuts come into effect that will see roughly 30 Non-Emergency Patient Transport/NEPT vehicles taken off the roads. Every single day. Immediately. They were only notified a few weeks ago about the cuts.

Reminder that 'property investors' are the ENTIRE rental market. Unless you & everyone you know can afford the stamp duty & holding costs to buy immediately, let alone in an area that allows you to keep your job & social links, pretending this is a good thing is insane. Most landlords will either pass this cost hike on to renters or sell without warning & people can get kicked out of a rental in the midst of a shortage. Which option is better for those living paycheck to paycheck? Because public data says this is a huge 30-50% of people in Aus.

Brief timeline on the Deeming saga because there seems to be a pervasive belief the expulsion motion today is based on the same issue as the last one, which isn't the case. But it also still has genuine issues. Backstory: Deeming was originally rejected for preselection federally due to her known campaigning on gender issues. This is a very well known advocacy topic for her in the party. VIC branches picked her anyway, with both conservative & moderate support.

Injecting Room Bill debate commentary Shing: "enrolments at Richmond West Primary School are mostly stable over the last few years".
Reality:

Fresh from the birdies 🐦 There's been rumours for weeks that Dan will leave/step down but the 👑 of the 🐦 has heard the leaving time has been decided for July. He'll quietly slip away during the winter break of Parl, handing over the leadership to Jacinta, otherwise known here as socialist barbie.

The Health Legislation Amendment Bill debate is back today. Commentary to follow. We're up with Terpstra, a govt favourite & previously nicknamed trashbag for the absolute garbage she is willing to spew from her mouth, like blaming parents for their childrens mental health issues from lockdowns.

Following the announcement that The Greens intended to support the govts Health Info Sharing Bill with amendments (that nobody has still seen), I sent this email offering the chance to have them choose what was said to those who will be directly affected by their decisions. I got a response with their press release & an offer to meet with MP Dr Read directly. I obviously took it.
Thanks to him for taking the time, it genuinely was appreciated.
The rest is paraphrased or my opinions & should in no way be inferred as quotes or opinions by him.

Petition debate kicks off! Limbrick, in the opening speech "this is the first debate of its kind in this Parliament."
"This is about respect. Privacy is a right.""

The petition to amend the Health Legislation Amendment (Information Sharing) Bill 2023 is moments away from hitting the 10k goal in only 72hours. Today, a post went up asking people why they were concerned about the Bill, this thread includes some of the responses (anonymized): > repeating similar data breaches that happened in the UK which was a disaster. This system has the same style of 'penalities for misuse' this govt is trying to hide behind as a defense, but it did nothing to protect thousands of people or their data.
independent.co.uk/news/health/da…

Quick thread on Mulgrave & the polls 🧵 Exit polling (asking ppl how they voted as they leave) in Mulgrave shows 3 things:
1. Ian Cook outpolls the Lib on primary vote. It'll be Ian vs Dan. He's absorbed more than expected of the Lib primary vote.
2. Dan still has a higher primary vote, but it's only around 40%.