New tax cuts to help with the cost of living
A new tax cut for every Australian worker
The Working Australians Tax Offset (WATO) provides an additional tax cut of up to $250 for working Australians on top of the tax cuts in the 2024–25 Budget and the two upcoming rounds announced in the 2025–26 Budget. This will benefit over 13 million Australian workers.

The WATO is a permanent, annual tax offset of up to $250 from the 2027–28 income year for all Australian workers. This increases the effective tax‑free threshold for Australian workers by nearly $1,800 to $19,985 (or up to $24,985 for workers eligible for the Low Income Tax Offset). Of the 13 million Australian workers who receive the WATO, 97 per cent are expected to receive the full $250 offset.

Residents of Lorne, on Victoria's scenic Great Ocean Road, have been locked in a battle of wits for years now.

They've been fighting skirmishes with a large flock of increasingly intelligent sulphur-crested cockatoos that love lifting the lids of the town's wheelie bins and spreading rubbish on the ground.

"When holiday-makers and Airbnbs, etc, leave on a Sunday, they put the bin out, overfill it, and the cockies just throw rubbish all over the road," says Allan Walls from the Lorne and District Men's Shed.

The birds have grown so dexterous that they can now lift the lids on bins that aren't overfilled, and they have shared that knowledge with other birds in their flock. 

Prime Minister Keir Starmer of the United Kingdom, President Emmanuel Macron of France, and Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany met on 7 June with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine to reiterate their unwavering support for Ukraine in its defence against Russia’s illegal invasion and next steps in negotiations to support a just and lasting peace. They underlined that Europe had an important role to play in any settlement, as a steadfast supporter of Ukraine. Leaders were clear that all efforts should be conducted in closest cooperation with Ukraine, wider European partners, and the US.

CRASS, BOMBASTIC, DEVIOUS, CLOWNING, PUSHY, IDIOTIC AND MANY OTHER UNFLATTERING EPITHETS DEFINE TRUMP — DONALD J TRUMP... DONALD IS THE RESULTING BOIL ON THE ARSE OF AMERICA AFTER YEARS OF UNDERLYING INFECTION... IT HAS THREATENED TO TAKE THE ENTIRE WORLD WITH ITS DISEASE....

BUT TRUMP CAME TO POWER AFTER A LONG LINE OF AMERICAN DECEIT AND DISASTROUS FOREIGN POLICY LED BY THE AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM OF THE 1990S... TO NAME A FEW CRAPPY OF THESE AMERICAN LEADERS, NIXON, BUSH SENIOR, CLINTON, BUSH, OBAMA, TRUMP, BIDEN, THEN BACK TO TRUMP....

Declining trust in government is helping fuel One Nation’s rise, and the failure to properly regulate lobbying has left powerful insiders in gambling, defence and fossil fuels with too much influence over public policy.

John Menadue

Declining trust in government and parliament are important reasons for the rise of One Nation. Some of that lack of trust is caused by the Albanese government.

Russian President Vladimir Putin wished his US counterpart, Donald Trump, a happy 80th birthday during a phone call, presidential aide Yury Ushakov has told journalists. Trump was “touched” by the greeting, and the two leaders spoke for about an hour in a “friendly and open” manner, the official added.

Trump was particularly appreciative of the gesture, Ushakov said, noting that Putin was the first foreign leader to call and give his best wishes on Sunday.

Putin also thanked Trump for his Russia Day greeting earlier this week, adding that the American president’s message conveyed a “feeling of respect for the Russian people.”

The two presidents discussed a wide range of pressing international issues, including the memorandum of understanding between the US and Iran, as well as the Ukraine conflict, Ushakov said.

German state media has accused Tesla trillionaire Elon Musk and anti-grooming gang activist Tommy Robinson of calling for the “hunting” of migrants in the wake of an alleged asylum seeker beheading attempt in Belfast.

Tuesday’s edition of German public broadcaster ZDF flagship programme ‘Today Live’ argued that the backlash to footage of a Sudanese asylum seeker allegedly attempting to cut a man’s head off in Northern Ireland earlier this month was a result of malign actors from abroad on social media, signalling out Elon Musk and Tommy Robinson in particular.

FROM TIME TO TIME WE NEED TO BE REMINDED OF THE CRAP THE AMERICAN AND OTHER WESTERN MEDIA HAVE BEEN PUMPING OUT FROM THE PROPAGANDIST SHIT-TANKS OF THE CIA AND THE PENTAGON... ZELENSKY ISN'T A CHURCHILL THOUGH THEY SHARE A LOVE OF DRUGS... CHURCHILL WAS ON AMPHETAMINES [AND BOOZE], ZELENSKY LOOKS LIKE HE IS SNIFFING COCAINE IN THE TOILETS...

SO HERE'S NEWSWEEK IN 2022 WHICH TO SOME EXTEND WAS QUITE HONEST ABOUT ZELENSKY BEING SUSPECT ABOUT RELIGION... OF COURSE NO MENTION OF NATO'S OWN TAKEOVER OF UKRAINE, NO MENTION OF THE AMERICAN ORGANISED MAIDAN COUP, NOR OF THE DONBASS BEING BOMBED BY YUCKRAINE DAILY AND KILLING 14,000 [UNITED NATIONS VERIFED] RUSSIAN/UKRAINIANS WHO DIDN'T LIKE THE NEW 2014 NAZI REGIME IN KIEV... AND NO MENTION OF ZELENSKY BEING A NAZI SUPPORTER HIMSELF....

America’s 2025 National Security Strategy calls for gaining control of the world’s oil trade. Toward this end, Donald Trump’s Oil War aims at depriving Iran, Iraq and its neighboring OPEC countries of their sovereignty over whom they may sell their oil to, just as he has done to Venezuela. There is no remorse for the collateral damage being caused by the disruption in energy trade that is plunging most of the world’s economies into depression.

Geopathology and the Econopathology Behind It

MICHAEL HUDSON

Operation “Bagration” was the Soviet revenge for the catastrophic disasters of 1941. It cost the Third Reich the lives of almost half a million of its soldiers, and the whole Army Group Center was destroyed during the process.

How Soviet operation ‘Bagration’ brought the Germans their greatest ever military defeat

JUNE 23 2019 BORIS EGOROV

In the summer of 1944, Soviet troops were ready to begin the liberation of Nazi-occupied Byelorussia. The Red Army command was eager to take revenge for the disastrous defeat it suffered there in 1941. Now the time for the Soviet Blitzkrieg had come. The offensive was planned for the 23rd June, almost to the day Barbarossa had started three years before.

LAST NIGHT, I WAS ABOUT TO POST AN ARTICLE ABOUT THE POLISH GOVERNMENT BEING UPSET AT ZELENSKY GLORIFYING NAZIS WHO, DURING WORLD WAR TWO, HAD MURDERED THOUSANDS OF POLISH PEOPLE — AND MANY JEWS AS WELL...

BUT I THOUGHT THIS IS SERIOUS ENOUGH TO SPILL INTO THE WESTERN MEDIA AND START CREATING TROUBLE FOR ZELENSKY WHO FOR ALL INTENT AND PURPOSES IS CROOKED, DEVIOUS, CORRUPT, HYPOCRITICAL AND POSSIBLY USING COCAINE... SO I WOULD WAIT TO SEE WHAT DIVERSION THE LITTLE DICK-PIANO PLAYER WAS GOING TO COME UP WITH, WITH THE HELP OF HIS MAIN HANDLER, MI6...

AT THIS STAGE I DO NOT HAVE ANY PROOF THAT ZELENSKY HIT THE ROOF OF THE MONASTERY, BUT THE REBUTAL FROM THE 100 PER CENT RELIABLE MARIA ZAKHAROVA IS GOOD ENOUGH FOR ME...

Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting has bought a $US1 billion ($1.4 billion) stake in SpaceX, the biggest investment outside iron ore in the private miner’s history and a bet on Elon Musk days after his rocket and satellite company staged the largest float on record.

SpaceX raised $US75 billion in its Nasdaq listing on June 12, the biggest initial public offering ever, and closed its first session up 19.2 per cent and worth about $US2.1 trillion. The debut made Musk the world’s first trillionaire.

Rinehart, Australia’s richest person, said the investment reflected Hancock’s confidence in Musk and “the need for the West to keep investing in technology and innovation”.

2026 marks the Semiquincentennial of the United States, the 250th birthday of the nation.

(Or does it? The niggling historian might note that 250 years from 1776 marks the Declaration of Independence as the start of the United States, but, of course, in 1776 there was no United States. Or in 1786, for that matter. The Constitution, which created the legal framework for the nation, was written in 1787 and wasn’t finally ratified until 1788.)

But never mind. 1776 it is, and so on with the Semiquincentennial celebrations!

Happy 250th Birthday America!

By Steven Conn

Gaza requires urgent international attention.

What is happening in the besieged and devastated strip at the moment by far exceeds an unfolding humanitarian disaster; it is a calculated geopolitical reshaping. Israel is actively executing a plan to permanently occupy the vast majority of Gaza, with consequences that require little elaboration considering what we already know about the ongoing genocide.

Israel’s Designs on Gaza

Netanyahu has been explicit about having no intention of following any peace road map, planning instead for the permanent incremental takeover of Gaza, writes Ramzy Baroud.

Currently, much of the international debate centers on a single official: Bulgarian diplomat Nickolay Mladenov.