The People’s Bank and Privatisation

My first reaction to the news that the Commonwealth Bank had made a $9.67 billion profit was a typical champagne socialist rant. “What social justice reforms could we achieve with that kind of money?” I fumed (something non-smokers rarely do). For perspective, CommBank’s profit is more than double the $4 billion allocated to the Federal Media, Arts and Sporting industries in the March budget. It’s also twice the amount the Federal Government allocated to affordable…

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Don’t touch my dividends, Dude

There have been few occasions when dividends made it on to the front pages or lead item TV news. The first time was when Treasurer Paul Keating introduced the dividend imputation scheme in 1987, largely as a way of eliminating the double-taxing of company dividends. From that day, Australian investors were given franking credits on the dividends they received on their shares. This had the welcome effect of boosting the investment return for the investor…

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