ALMS FOR THE RICH?

In what we can only hope to be the final pre-budget media drop, The Australian ($) reports that the Morrison government has revamped its accelerated tax package to deliver about $2000 to average income earners and has developed a “back-to-work” wage subsidy scheme for businesses employing Australians under 35 who have been forced onto welfare payments.

Ahead of Josh Frydenberg’s official address tonight at 7.30pm (AEDT), The Age also notes that the government will not attempt to bring forward stage three tax cuts for the richest Australians from its 2024 start-date, as part of a bid to ensure the package gets through the Senate.

PS: According to The Guardian, a new Essential poll found that 51% the sample of 1066 respondents think the budget will benefit people who are already well off, while only 30% think it will be good for people on low incomes and just 25% think the budget will help them.

A CDC OF ONE'S OWN

According to The Conversation, Anthony Albanese has announced that a Labor government would set up an Australian Centre for Disease Control to both strengthen its pandemic responses — through training drills, managing the national stockpile, etc — as well as boost efforts to deal with chronic illnesses. The Labor leader noted that Australia is the only OECD country not to have such a centre.

As The Age reports, the news comes after Victoria’s chief health officer Brett Sutton warned that Melbourne risks failing to reach a fortnightly average of fewer than five cases a day in time for its October 19 target, while also defending the state’s 5km movement limit amid expert concerns there is no evidence either way as to its effectiveness.

Victoria recorded nine new cases yesterday, although the government later announced one in Shepparton had been confirmed as a false positive; the figure brings the state’s rolling 14-day rate to 11.9, and while that appears to make for a not entirely promising trajectory towards the target, Sutton has confirmed the nature of cases will also be considered ahead of the next restriction stage.

PS: In less depressing state updates, the Western Australian government yesterday launched the biggest regional flights deal in the state’s history, with 50,000 affordable airfares between Perth and Broome, Kununurra and Exmouth now on sale due to a tourism deal between the government, Virgin Australia and Qantas. This comes a day after the government announced a $600 one-off WA household electricity credit for electricity bills to be received from next month.

MOMENT OF TRUTH: WHITE HOUSE CLUSTER GROWS

According to CNN, the White House cluster of COVID-19 cases has grown to include press secretary Kayleigh McEnany.

The news comes after Trump, pumped full of roughly every COVID-19 drug there is, took a joyride around Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, a move The Washington Post reports was condemned by both Secret Service agents and doctors as putting agents in the hermetically-sealed SUV at risk. While Trump wore a mask, studies demonstrate that while they reduce risk they are not foolproof, and while advisers allege the trip was safe they have also noted the president was bored, buoyed by crowds outside, and wanted to show strength following leaks over his condition; additionally, The Hill reports that stock futures rose following his journey.

Elsewhere, The New York Times reports that White House physician Sean Conley has again rewritten Donald Trump’s COVID-19 record, noting that, while the medical team had painted a rosier picture of his health on Saturday, his blood oxygen level has dropped twice in two days and he has required medical intervention and been put on steroids. Conley now insists the president’s situation has improved enough that he could be released from the hospital as early as Monday (local time).

While Trump remains hospital-bound a month out from election day, Politico reports that Joe Biden is traversing battleground states like Michigan and Florida. The president does have a play here however; according to The Intercept, more than 100,000 absentee ballot requests have been invalidated in several Iowa counties, after judges sided with challenges brought by Trump’s reelection campaign.

EXXON TURNS UP THE HEAT

Finally, a quick global warming update: Bloomberg has revealed that Exxon Mobil Corp “has been planning to increase annual carbon-dioxide emissions by as much as the output of the entire nation of Greece”, after internal investment assessments leaked demonstrating that one of the largest corporate fossil fuel emitters expects yearly emissions will rise 17% by 2025.