THE NEWS WRAP: News Corp faces uneasy AGM

The proposed carbon tax is no different from the introduction of GST and will pass a lower house vote on Wednesday, the federal environment minister has claimed.

Tony Burke told the ABC: “The situation I think is actually more identical than the Opposition would want to admit. John Howard put a particular GST to the public.”

“The GST we ended up getting was not the one that John Howard had taken in the election, he modified it significantly because his original proposal couldn’t make it through the Parliament.”

Burke added that he was confident the carbon tax legislation would pass its first, key, hurdle in the lower house vote.

ATO chases huge personal tax debt

The wife of a former Perth-based entrepreneur has run up one of the largest unpaid personal tax debts in Australian history, owing the taxman $186 million.

Radhika Oswal reportedly owes a $2.4 million Medicare levy for 2007 alone, along with a $55.6 million administrative penalty for unpaid income tax debt.

Oswal is the wife of Pankaj Oswal, who lost control of his Burrup Fertilisers business late last year. The Oswals deny any wrongdoing and dispute the Australian Tax Office calculations.

News Corp faces uneasy AGM

News Corp faces a potentially divisive annual general meeting next month, with at least five shareholder and advisory groups questioning the leadership of CEO Rupert Murdoch.

Shareholder advisory firm Glass Lewis has told shareholders on Friday to vote against the re-election of James and Lachlan Murdoch to the company board.

The move follows calls by other shareholder groups for the removal of Rupert Murdoch. However, the Murdoch family’s hold of key voting shares means that the proposed changes are unlikely to happen.

Markets

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 20.21 points, or 0.2%, to 11,103.12 on Friday. The Australian dollar was up to 97.75 US cents.