Random NON FOOTY thoughts not worthy of a thread: Edition II

Status
Not open for further replies.

(Log in to remove this ad.)

RobZombie

Premium Platinum
Joined
May 18, 2012
Posts
6,107
Likes
14,731
Location
Back In Town
AFL Club
North Melbourne
Other Teams
Jays, Leafs
Doesn’t even know if the baby is his.
He’s just trying to muddy the waters by throwing his own girlfriend under the bus and pretending it’s about the rooting, when it’s really all about the rorting.

Wants people to think he’s some kind of aw-shucks hayseed honest country pollie despite having boarded at the same elite catholic school as Abbott. He’s just ******* despicable.
 

ferball

Premium Platinum
Joined
Jul 24, 2015
Posts
9,134
Likes
16,950
AFL Club
North Melbourne
He’s just trying to muddy the waters by throwing his own girlfriend under the bus and pretending it’s about the rooting, when it’s really all about the rorting.

Politicians got lipstick on the collar
the whole media
Started to holler
but I don't give a **** who they screwin' in private
I wanna know who they screwin' in public
 

Grogg

Norm Smith Medallist
Joined
Nov 24, 2012
Posts
5,599
Likes
12,537
Location
Womb with a view
AFL Club
North Melbourne
Now that's something you don't see every day.

That's pretty impressive, but any drummer worth his salt will tell you that you can only produce a decent rimshot with solid wood in your hands.

Not a bad performance though.
 

(Log in to remove this ad.)

giantroo

Bleeding Blue and White
Joined
Sep 23, 2005
Posts
58,275
Likes
92,137
Location
Melbourne
AFL Club
North Melbourne
Other Teams
Arsenal, Chicago Bulls
I'll post this here as it's related to taxation.

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/fed...-stadiums-but-pay-no-tax-20180221-p4z15v.html


NRL and AFL call for billions in dollars in public funding for new stadiums but pay no tax

In numbers
  • The year the sports were granted tax-free status - 1936
  • NRL surplus in 2016 - $217 million
  • AFL surplus in 2016 - $330 million
  • Top pay packet of ex-AFL CEO Andrew Demetriou - $3.8 million
  • Cost to taxpayers of NSW stadium rebuild - $2 billion
The NRL and AFL generate hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue and do not pay a cent in tax, Fairfax Media can reveal, while calling on the public to pay billions of dollars to build new stadiums as the NSW government faces an internal revolt over its $2 billion plan.

The new figures come as disgruntled Coalition MPs openly criticise the project, worried it is increasingly being ridiculed in the electorate after NSW Liberal MP Matthew Mason-Cox described the plan as difficult "to justify".

NSW Liberal MP Jonathan O'Dea told Fairfax Media he was encouraging community feedback and said "negative responses can often help a government refine its message or position".

Experts have labelled the tax-free concessions of the country’s two richest leagues and their clubs “a rort that is open to abuse” and called on them to follow the National Football League in the US and give up their tax-free status.

The concessions have led to operating surpluses increasing: in the AFL it has risen by 63 per cent to $330 million over the decade to 2016; in the NRL it has doubled to reach $133 million over the same period.

Chief economist at the Australia Institute Richard Denniss said it was time for both the NRL and AFL to cough up to help pay for infrastructure.

“I think the fact these sports pay no corporate tax and then turn around and ask the taxpayer to fund the stage on which their performance is played out is absurd and obscene,” he said.

Victorian taxpayers are also expected to fork out millions of dollars in election commitments to upgrade sporting facilities at Ethihad Stadium and other venues, despite fans being frustrated by years of ticket price rises going into administrators coffers.

The leagues and clubs are tax exempt under an 81-year-old provision that was designed to allow volunteer, community organisations to pay no tax in exchange for providing local facilities and encouraging sport participation.

The revenues of both codes have grown astronomically since 1936 through multibillion-dollar TV deals and lucrative gambling and alcohol advertising.

Executive pay for the sports adminstrators is also up by 40 per cent over the past decade. AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan earned $1.7 million in 2016, although his predecessor Andrew Demetriou made as much as $3.8 million in 2013.

The AFL recorded a loss of $17 million last year, but has recorded a net profit, after distributions, of between $2 million and $26 million every year since 2007 apart from 2011.

The NRL made a $45 million profit in 2013 and $21 million in 2014, but made a $10 million loss between 2015 and 2016.

After employee salaries (staff and players pay income tax) and operating costs, the surpluses are distributed tax-free to clubs, helping them build suburban property and entertainment empires at the same time as funding community infrastructure.

NRL clubs, including the Parramatta Eels and the Sydney Roosters have turned multimillion-dollar profits in the past two financial years, likewise Hawthorn and the West Coast Eagles in the AFL, while up to half of the clubs in both codes struggle to break even.

Club profits, after tax on poker machine proceeds, are supposed to be reinvested in facilities for members and the community, but there is no oversight of where the money is spent, a former member of the federal government's tax concession working group, Ann O'Connell, said.

“There is no accountability here, none,” Professor O’Connell said. “If they were large charities they would at least have to make public audited accounts."

The University of Melbourne tax expert said sport had no place in the not-profit-space.

“It seems to me the way they operate is that it is all about profit and generating surpluses through gambling and media rights, not just the encouragement of sport.”

She said loose rules allowing clubs to recruit temporary members when they signed into the clubs and not pay tax on their spending “was an obvious rort that was open to abuse”.

AFL spokesman Patrick Keane said the sports income and assets “were solely for the purpose of encouraging and supporting the game of Australian rules football” but declined to comment on the AFL’s push for taxpayer funding of infrastructure.

The NRL did not return multiple requests for comment.

In the US, a bill before the Senate has proposed removing the tax-exempt status for all sports leagues.

President Donald Trump, arguably the biggest advocate of tax cuts in the world, attacked the NFL in November over its former tax-free status. The league voluntarily relinquished it in 2015 following outrage over the $US30 million pay packet of its commissioner Roger Goodell.

Dr Denniss said there would be more money for children's sporting fields if less money was spent on new stadiums and more money collected in corporate tax.

“I think the stadium debate has opened many citizens' eyes to the scale of the issue," he said.

Daniel Gonano, an accountant and advocate for a separation between professional and amateur sport said clearer tax boundaries needed to be set between the two divisions.

“Professional club sport, supported by multimillion-dollar television contracts, is a commercial activity that should not have the advantages that result from being classified as part of the not-for-profit sector,” he said.

Despite mounting public pressure, including a petition signed by more than 100,000 residents, the NSW government has yet to receive a business case for the stadium redevelopment from Infrastructure NSW.

It is understood Sport Minister Stuart Ayres is not backing down from the project.

The Victorian government did not respond to requests for comment.
 

Snake_Baker

L'enfant terrible
Joined
Apr 24, 2013
Posts
39,327
Likes
69,892
Location
inside your head
AFL Club
North Melbourne
Other Teams
The Unicornia Reactants
Another SJW wanker.

Denniss was Senior Strategic Advisor to Australian Greens Leader Senator Bob Brown and was also Chief of Staff to Senator Natasha Stott-Despoja, former Leader of the Australian Democrats.

 
Joined
Jun 9, 2001
Posts
20,855
Likes
50,102
Location
Windy Hill Safe Injecting Room
AFL Club
North Melbourne
Other Teams
St Johnstone
Moderator #6,470
2 small children at home with vicious dog while parents at the gym body sculpting to feel good about themselves.

Idiot's. Lock ' em up.
I've never met his better half but to be fair Twinkletoes has an amazing body.

Sometimes you just have to make the sacrifices to achieve your goals.
 
Joined
Jun 9, 2001
Posts
20,855
Likes
50,102
Location
Windy Hill Safe Injecting Room
AFL Club
North Melbourne
Other Teams
St Johnstone
Moderator #6,475
Geeze there's a lot of companies offering to deliver groceries that match up their recipes loitering around the city handing out "free" vouchers at the moment.

Not sure why I wouldn't just google a recipe then either a) walk into a (gasp) supermarket myself to buy the ingredients or b) order them online from the supermarket directly?

Are people that time poor they need someone to even tell them what recipe to choose before marking up the ingredients for them to purchase?

Looks like the 21st centuries' answer to Crisco hampers.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom