Daily News Roundup

Wednesday, October 11

The Morrison Government is promising to fast-track its legislated tax cuts for small and medium-sized businesses, costing $3 billion and setting up a fresh battle with Labor ahead of the next election.

The tax rate for companies with a turnover of up to $50 million has already been reduced from 30 to 27.5 per cent and is scheduled to drop to 25 per cent by 2026/27.

The Coalition now wants to bring those tax cuts forward so that the plan is fully implemented by 2021/22, five years earlier than expected, reports ABC political reporter Jane Norman.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the cost to the budget would be $3.2 billion over four years which had been partially offset by the Coalition’s decision to dump its big business tax cuts.

“Three million Australian businesses, employing around 7 million people will pay less tax and see the benefits sooner as a result of this announcement,” he said.

Having ditched its $36 billion corporate tax cut plan, the Coalition’s new plan is to lower the tax rate for small and medium businesses to 26 per cent in 2021 and then to 25 per cent the following year.

Figures released by the Government show a business that makes $500,000 a year would get to keep an extra $12,500 by the time the fast-tracked tax plan is fully rolled out.

Mr Frydenberg said the legislation would be introduced into Parliament in the next fortnight and claimed it would be a “real test” for Opposition Leader Bill Shorten.

“We know he already wants to rip up our legislated tax relief and make each one of those 3 million small businesses pay more than they have to,” he said.

If the plan passes Parliament, the two major parties will likely go into the next election with rival company tax policies.

Labor wants to keep the tax rate for small and medium-sized businesses at the current level of 27.5 per cent while maintaining a big business tax rate of 30 per cent.

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Britain’s Prince George, Princess Charlotte and pop star Robbie Williams’ daughter Theodora will have starring roles at Princess Eugenie’s royal wedding.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s eldest two children and Williams’ six-year-old daughter, who is known as Teddy, will be among the pageboys and bridesmaids at the celebration in Windsor on Friday, reports news.com.

The other bridesmaids will be Peter and Autumn Phillips’ daughters Savannah and Isla, and Zara Tindall’s spirited four-year-old Mia, along with Maud Windsor, who is Eugenie’s goddaughter and the daughter of Lord Frederick Windsor and his actress wife Sophie Winkleman.

Prince George, five, will be joined by fellow page boy Louis de Givenchy – the six-year-old son of JP Morgan banking executive Olivier de Givenchy and his wife Zoe.

The Queen’s youngest grandchildren, 14-year-old Lady Louise Mountbatten-Windsor, and 10-year-old Viscount Severn, who are the children of the Earl and Countess of Wessex, will take on the role of Special Attendants.

Groom Jack Brooksbank has asked his brother, Thomas Brooksbank, to be his best man, while Eugenie’s older sister Princess Beatrice will be her maid of honour.

Pop star Williams and his wife and fellow X-Factor judge Ayda Williams have been friends of Eugenie and her sister Beatrice for years.

They are protective over their young children, and choose not to show their children’s faces when they post on social media.

The Queen’s granddaughter is marrying drinks executive Mr Brooksbank in St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, on Friday.

More than 800 guests will gather in the 15th-century Gothic chapel, five months after the Duke and Duchess of Sussex staged their star-studded nuptials in the same venue.

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The Russian town of Zelenogradsk on the coast of the Baltic Sea has hired a cat chief to dish out food, strokes and free rides in the basket on her bike to stray cats, reports Reuters.

It was an unusual job advert. Wanted: Cat chief. Location: Zelenogradsk, Russia: Duties: Tending to the town’s approximately 70 stray cats.

Some 80 applicants applied for the new role with the municipality in the small town in the Kaliningrad region, which has also erected a cat statue and added a feline to its emblem in a bid to rebrand itself as Russia’s foremost cat-loving community.

In the end, local resident Svetlana Logunova was appointed guardian of the town’s felines. To help her with the task, she was given a bicycle and uniform, including a bright green jacket, black bow tie and hat.

She has been given a budget of 5700 roubles ($A120) a month to ensure all the seaside community’s cats are happy, dishing out food, strokes and free rides in the basket on her bike.

“I alone cannot care for every single one and a helping hand would go a long way,” Logunova said.

This daily news roundup has been curated with stories from ABC News.