The stupid things we do with tax

The Coalition wants to slam the door shut on 34 Australian women and children stuck in a Syrian detention camp for relatives of ISIS fighters proposing jail terms for them and for anyone who tries to help them come home. ANU extremism and deradicalisation expert Dr Clarke Jones says the process of bringing these women home is complicated and involves considerable and ongoing input from security and welfare agenices. As the Government contemplates tinkering with capital gains tax an impassioned plea from a Labor stalwart, former Reserve Bank board member and secretary of the ACTU Bill Kelty has urged the government to face up to the reality of intergenerational inequity or face the consequences at the ballot box. Expert economists, Richard Holden and Chris Richardson share their ideas for tax reform. Indigenous poet Cheryl Leavy has won the Peter Porter Poetry Prize for her poem “Kumanjayi”, a powerful expression of defiance in verse that challenges us all to confront the reality of rising rates of Indigenous deaths in custody.