Good afternoon. The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, says the Coalition won’t stand in the way of Labor’s changes to the stage-three tax cuts, all but assuring they will pass parliament this month.
The Coalition will seek amendments but ultimately won’t oppose the changes, which which increase benefits to low- and middle-income earners and reduce the cuts for the wealthy. New analysis has shown that Nationals seats stand to gain the most from the changes, receiving an extra $451m a year, an average of $326 a taxpayer. That’s $100 more than the average taxpayer in Liberal seats ($226) and Labor seats ($229).
The Coalition’s decision sidelines the Greens, who had attempted to use their Senate voting bloc to lobby for an increase to jobseeker payments and raising the tax free threshold.
Top news
RBA holds rates at 4.35% | The peak of mortgage repayment pain may have passed as the Reserve Bank left its interest rate unchanged for a second meeting in a row. But the bank noted inflation “remains high” and added that “a further increase in interest rates cannot be ruled out”.
Boy charged with murder of Queensland grandmother | A 16-year-old Bellbird Park boy has been charged with the murder of Vyleen White in a Redbank Plains shopping centre car park on Saturday. Four other boys have been charged with unlawful use of a motor vehicle in relation to the incident.
Man scales 55-storey Melbourne tower | A 29-year-old French man who allegedly scaled a 163m-tall residential tower without a harness and a 25-year-old French national who allegedly filmed the incident have both been arrested.
Australian man’s claim to have invented bitcoin contested | Craig Wright’s claim to be the author of the founding text of bitcoin is a “brazen lie”, the UK high court has heard. The Australian computer scientist’s assertion that he is the pseudonymous author Satoshi Nakamoto is at the centre of a trial that began this week, where the 53-year-old is being sued by a group of cryptocurrency exchanges and developers.
Three Michelin stars for Australian-owned restaurant in London | Brett Graham has become the first Australian chef to claim three Michelin stars for a restaurant he co-owns. He opened The Ledbury in Notting Hill in 2005, and was awarded two Michelin stars in 2010.
UK professor suffered discrimination due to anti-Zionist beliefs | Prof David Miller, a sociology professor sacked by the University of Bristol after being accused of antisemitic comments, has won a “landmark” decision that he was discriminated against because of his anti-Zionist beliefs.
Research destroyed after freezer fails at Swedish university | Decades of research – including leukaemia research – were stored in tanks cooled with liquid nitrogen, at a temperature of -190C, at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm. But the freezer malfunctioned sometime between 22 and 23 December, leading to the destruction of samples from multiple institutions.
In pictures
Tokyo snow: first flurries of the year land in the Japanese capital
Heavy snow has hit Tokyo, disrupting trains, grounding more than 100 flights and covering the city in a white blanket. Click here to see a gallery of photos.
In numbers
And a quarter of Americans do not think Trump will ever concede if he loses a second time to Joe Biden.
Before bed read
Larry David is the best in the business, writes TV journalist Jack Seale, who gave Curb Your Enthusiasm’s final season five stars. “David and his ensemble are just so good at what they do, watching a slightly slacker Curb is like going to see a veteran rock band who have lost relevance but not their groove.” Read the review.
Daily word game
Today’s starter word is: WING. You have five goes to get the longest word including the starter word. Play Wordiply.
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