Self-Employed Australia

Common sense about ‘Gig’ from the Victorian government

June 22, 2023 by Self-Employed Australia

Here’s one for the history books. We’re actually complimenting the Victorian government on its ‘gig economy’ policy. Until now we’ve been a strong critic of the Victorian government on this.

In July 2020 the Victorian government released its report into the gig economy. (Just to remind you, we explained what gig work is last week—e.g., Harry Styles, etc). The research from the report is actually very good. (7% of the workforce ‘do’ gig, but less than 0.2% do gig for full-time income. That is, it’s ‘top up’ income for the bulk of gig workers.)

BUT, Recommendation 6 of the Victorian report effectively called for the outlawing of independent contracting (self-employment). However, contrary to this recommendation, the policy now released by the Victorian government is very sensible. It doesn’t do anything to harm self-employed people, doing gig or direct work, but puts in place good protections within a commercial framework.

This is exactly the sort of thing we support and want to see. And it’s completely counter to what the Albanese government has plans to do, which will be highly destructive of small business.

Here’s the Victorian government’s policy. It covers ‘gig’ platforms (e.g., Uber, etc). It has six standards as follows:

Victorian Government gig platform code—Standards

Platforms should provide consultation processes, forums or committees to allow for discussions with non-employee on-demand workers…
Platforms should ensure that the terms and conditions of the applicable contract are clear and able to be understood by non-employee on-demand workers
To assist non-employee on-demand workers to make an informed decision about whether to accept work, platforms should provide them with key information in writing about:

I. what they will earn should they complete a job, and how earnings are calculated
II. typical costs associated with the performance of work
III. their conditions of work
IV. the factors that affect how work is allocated by the platform (such as customer ratings).

Fair and Transparent Independent Dispute Resolution.
Platforms should not inhibit non-employee on-demand workers from freely associating to pursue improved terms and conditions relating to their work arrangements, where permitted by law.
Platforms must comply with their duties under the OHS Act.

Now this is common sense, as opposed to the Albanese government’s planned nonsense.

This Victorian government policy now forms a major part of our advocacy work in the Federal Parliament. We’re actively talking with independent Senators asking them to oppose the Albanese government’s plan. We’re now promoting the Victorian Standards to Senators as the way to go forward.

Our campaign is only just warming up with a full range of trips to Canberra and other places organised and being planned. Many thanks to the support we’ve been receiving from many of you which enables this critical work.

Should gig workers like Mick Jagger, Beyoncé and Harry Styles be worried?

June 14, 2023 by Self-Employed Australia

In late April, we alerted you to the new Australian Taxation Office (ATO) reporting rules for gig workers. We had some queries asking, “what are ‘gig’ workers?” That’s a pretty sensible question.

Last week I posted the answer on Substack. You can read ‘To Gig or Not to Gig’ (it’s free!)

Yes, icons of global popular culture such as Mick Jagger, Beyoncé and Harry Styles are all gig workers.

And (believe it or not) gig work is even older than Mick Jagger! Wow! I wonder if Mick’s eight children—particularly his youngest child, six-year-old Deveraux—would realise that Mick’s a gig worker? They probably wouldn’t care…

But the ATO does care about who is a gig worker. And the Albanese government, under Minister Burke, wants to kill off gig. But we assume that it wouldn’t give PM Albanese any ‘Satisfaction’ to attack Jagger, and anyway ‘You Can’t Always Get What You Want’.

But the ATO is really looking at this as a Satellite issue (apologies to Mr Styles).

What the ATO is focused on is the type of gig work that’s done through platforms. No, not the ‘stage’ platforms that Mick, Beyoncé and Harry work on, but the ‘tech’ platforms that Uber and other such companies use to organise work. The ATO calls it the sharing economy.

What the ATO wants to do is track your income if you work as a ride-share driver, rent out your flat/house/room for short-term accommodation and so on. The ‘platform’ companies will be required to report your income to the ATO starting on 1 July 2023 (i.e., soon!) The platform companies will require information from you, notably your:

ABN and business/trading name (where applicable);
first, middle and surname/family name (for individuals);
date of birth (for individuals);
residential or business address;
email address and telephone numbers; and
bank account details.

But we suspect they’d have all this information anyway. The ATO has provided a detailed explanation here.

And just to ensure the message gets through, to steal a line from Beyoncé, these new gig reporting rules also apply to Single Ladies! (But presumably won’t apply if you’re still in nappies.)

Campaigning is under way—Defending your right to Be Your Own Boss

June 7, 2023 by Self-Employed Australia

We thought we’d give you an understanding of the mechanics of our campaign to try and stop the Albanese government from implementing its ‘employee-like’ agenda.

We explained early in May that the government had started the implementation process with the release of the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations’ (DEWR) consultation paper.

Our first task was to assess and respond to the paper. We lodged our long submission (11,000 words) to DEWR and in late May provided you a brief overview. The reason for the long submission is simple. The government is throwing up a concept—‘employee-like’—which at first glance could appear reasonable. But it’s only when you delve into the detail of what this means that a full understanding is possible. And it means a direct attack upon your right to be your own boss, to be self-employed.

The next phase in our campaign started last week. This involves focusing on the independent Senators that the government needs to pass any legislation in the Senate. There are seven independent Senators. The government needs four of them to pass legislation.

Last week we began the engagement process with the Senators. It needs to be understood that all Senators and MPs are incredibly busy trying to comprehend a huge range of complex issues. Our responsibility is to present our arguments clearly, factually and as concisely as possible. To this end we’ve produced a four-page summary of our position.

Last week we had initial discussions with staff of some Senators and had one Senator ask us to come to Canberra to explain the issues in person. We did this and had a very productive discussion. It was pleasing to have this level of interest.

We’ve been conducting pro-self-employed advocacy campaigns for over 20 years and we’ve learnt one thing. It’s essential to sit down with Senators and MPs and explain one’s position face-to-face. We’re committed to this. And it’s not just independent Senators we seek to talk to, but also the government itself, the opposition and independent MPs.

This costs money, of course, and this is where your membership fees go.

For example, a one-day trip to Canberra (from Melbourne) usually involves:

$500 in airfares, $100 for buses, taxis, etc.

And staying overnight in Canberra (if needed) is expensive during Parliament sitting days—usually starting at around $250 a night (just for basic accommodation!!!)

The government plans to introduce its contentious legislation later this year. To run our advocacy campaign, we anticipate that around eight to ten trips to Canberra will be required before years’ end.

If you’d like to help fund any of those trips, you can do so through our dedicated campaign membership link here.

There’s quite a ‘battle’ going on, with the ACTU (unions) putting out a very aggressive ‘research’ paper which attacks the High Court and is hugely misleading on many fronts. It’s this sort of thing that we need to explain to Senators and MPs otherwise the union agenda will prevail.

We’ll keep you informed.

Justice and Not Above the Law: Class action to bankrupt Victoria?

May 24, 2023 by Self-Employed Australia

It can take a long time for justice and the rule of law to hold people accountable (particularly powerful people), where such accountability is proven to be warranted.

We made our attempt in Victoria to require WorkSafe to hold people (powerful people) accountable for the failures of the 2020 Hotel Quarantine disaster which resulted in 801 deaths. The Victorian Supreme Court ‘knocked us out’ on a technicality which meant that the Court did not have to rule on WorkSafe’s refusal to do its job!

Discernable recently interviewed SEA’s Ken Phillips (Executive Director) and Nick Karamouzis (Chair) where we gave a full report (26min).

But this issue is not over—not by the (proverbial) long shot! A class action for damages is proceeding in the Victorian Supreme Court with considerable success so far.

Class action—Victoria

The class action by the international legal firm, Quinn Emanuel, is suing for damages inflicted on the thousands of businesses forced into lockdown during 2020. As with SEA’s application, the state government attempted to have the application knocked out on technical grounds. But the Full Court of the Supreme Court has dismissed the government’s attempt. The action now progresses. Speculation is that a successful ruling could result in a payout to affected businesses in the many billions of dollars, even enough to bankrupt Victoria.

You can follow the class action here.

Michigan class action took nine years

It’s instructive to note the successful class action in the US state of Michigan where the ex-Governor and eight other government officials faced criminal charges, including manslaughter. This happened after a government-induced health crisis in the city of Flint in 2014. The crisis resulted in twelve deaths and some 90 cases of Legionnaires’ disease.

Just this month the Michigan Supreme Court awarded $US600 million ($A900 million) to finalise the class action for damages—a damages situation vastly smaller than that which occurred in the Victorian lockdown. But note that it took nine years to reach final settlement.

We’ll continue to follow the Victorian class action and keep you updated.

Labor’s ‘employee-like’ agenda assaults competition law

May 21, 2023 by Self-Employed Australia

We informed you on 7 May that the Federal government’s anti-small business plan was progressing. It released a Consultation Paper on 13 April requiring submissions by 12 May. We’ve lodged our submission opposing the planned legislation. The submission is here.

Sorry, but the submission is long—yep, 11,000 words.

The reason for the length is that the government’s plan is presented as if it’s a ‘tweaking’ of law and of limited application. It’s not. It’s a massive assault against the very principles and practices of contract that determine your right to be your own boss, to be self-employed. This can only be understood by understanding the detail.

We’ll explain the detail in shorter ‘chunks’ through this and a series of future news alerts. If you have queries, please contact us.

Competition law ‘protects’ self-employed, small business people

Today we cover the grave threats posed to competition policy and law, the jurisdictional authority of the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission (ACCC), and the right of people in Australia to earn their income as a small business person.

Competition law regulates commercial contracts.

Employment law regulates employment contracts.

The government’s plan is to allow employment regulation to regulate commercial contracts.

This is a massive step across a fundamental threshold.

The plan is to legislatively redefine commercial contracts to be employment contracts on the alleged grounds that some self-employed people are ‘employee-like’.

This defies the High Court’s declaration in February 2022 (Personnel Case) that:

“The employment relationship with which the common law is concerned must be a legal It is not a social or psychological concept like friendship…”

In effect, the plan is to ‘invent’ a new legislative contract form that is outside common law to thwart common law contract.

This also breaches Australia’s International Labour Organisation obligations where the ILO declared in 2006 that:

“National policy for protection of workers in an employment relationship should not interfere with true civil and commercial relationships…”

Competition clash

The provisions will immediately set up a clash between competition law and employment regulation. Specifically, the ACCC and the Fair Work Commission (FWC) will both be required to regulate commercial contracts that have been declared ‘employee-like’, but each with different and opposing public policy objectives. The ACCC to prevent collusion over pricing and ensure competition. The FWC to facilitate price collusion thereby creating the circumstances for anti-competitive behaviour.

This is being done under the pretext that some self-employed people need ‘protections’.

But protections are already in place:

Sham contracting laws in Australia are possibly the strongest in the world.
The Independent Contractors Act outlaws payment below similar pay to an employee.
‘Beefed up’ unfair contract laws begin in November 2023 and will be handled by the ACCC.
Collective bargaining for the self-employed is already available through the ACCC.
Improved, easier dispute resolution can be made available through small business ombudsmen, etc.
New ‘pay on time’ laws are currently being considered.

We are now undertaking a major advocacy campaign directed at Federal MHRs and Senators. We’ll keep you informed.

Labor’s agenda to outlaw the self-employed – Here it comes!!

May 7, 2023 by Self-Employed Australia

We’ve alerted you in the past to the Albanese government’s plan to deny people the right to be self-employed. It’s an attack upon your basic freedom to decide how you earn your income. That attack plan is now unfolding.

The Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR) has released a consultation paper on the implementation of Labor’s plan. We’re preparing a detailed submission (due on 12 May). Legislation is set for the second half of this year.

Be very clear. We totally reject this agenda. It’s bad on many fronts. We’ll explain the multiple problems progressively over the following weeks.

We have started talking to Senators and MPs about why this is so bad and should be stopped. We’ll be very actively pushing to defend the right to be self-employed.

We’ve prepared a summary of the DEWR consultation paper. We’ve tried to reflect what they are saying accurately.

In broad summary, Labor’s plan is to:

Treat the commercial contract used by self-employed people as an employment contract.
Regulate self-employed people through the Fair Work Commission, thus creating conflict with commercial law and regulation by the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission. The DEWR papers says that this will be done on a limited selective basis. But those limits are as yet unknown.

Frankly, we see our campaign as perhaps the most important one that we have conducted in SEA’s 24-year history. We must attempt to stop this.

We argue that Labor’s plan is a recipe for commercial contract confusion and uncertainty. We find the consultation paper to be a confused hotchpotch itself, as it is forced to weave a path through well-established legal, regulatory and policy principles and practices. This is so because the plan would generate conflict with those principles and practices on a wide scale.

At this stage we seek to understand the detail of Labor’s agenda. The difficulty is that the agenda is wrapped up in seemingly good intentions which mask its true consequences.

Many people have asked us for more information. We suggest that you read our summary first and see what you think. We’ll release our analysis progressively.

Gig workers alert – ATO tracking your income

April 28, 2023 by Self-Employed Australia

This is to alert SEA members and subscribers about new laws affecting you if you earn income through ‘gig’ platforms. As of 1 July 2023, the platforms will be required to report your income to the Australian Taxation Office. The move is directed to identifying undeclared income and will eventually apply to GST compliance.

Legislation for the Sharing Economy Reporting Regime passed Parliament in December 2022. The ATO is having to design the implementation of the new laws quite quickly. The ATO is seeking to implement this properly and is conducting industry and ‘stakeholder’ consultations on this. We’re involved in these consultations and have raised a number of issues.

To give you some context, the new reporting rules are targeting the (approximately) 970,000 people, or 7 per cent of the workforce of 13.9 million, who earn income using gig platforms. Only 0.19 per cent of the workforce, however, report earning all their income from gig. That’s according to the comprehensive inquiry into gig work done by the Victorian government.

Consequently, the ATO’s gig income reporting regime is overwhelmingly going to affect people who use gig as top-up income. If you’re using gig for income, you’ll need to ensure that you’re reporting that income correctly.

The issues we’ve raised in the consultation so far include the following:

Data collection: The gig platforms will be required to report data other than simply financial—mainly, we’re told, for identification purposes. We asked if the type of data required could be clarified.

GST: How will GST reporting operate? Will gig platforms be required to understand gig workers’ GST threshold limits?

Gross or net income: We assume that reporting will require net income declarations. That is, income after platforms take out all platform and related expenses.

Dispute management: This is our top query.

What if a platform incorrectly reports income or reports income that does not match the ATO’s prescriptions?

Our concerns here are strongly linked to the abuse of social welfare recipients in the Robo Debt scandal. In that case the ATO provided income data to Centrelink which then used that data to allege incomes that were false. The government’s dispute-resolution process was essentially non-existent, resulting in huge abuse of welfare recipients. The same potential exists with this new reporting system—namely, if there are reporting errors, then the gig worker is hopelessly disadvantaged in having them investigated and fixed.

We have to say that the ATO was/is very receptive to our concerns and queries.

If you earn income through gig, we’re keen to hear from you if you have concerns or can identify issues. Drop a line to me (Ken Phillips – kennethnormanphillips@gmail.com)

You can read more from Ken Phillips on his Substack Self-Employed Aren’t Stupid site, including ‘A tale of 2 Croissants.’

Self Employed. Marxism. Corruption. Not Above The Law

April 23, 2023 by Self-Employed Australia

At Self-Employed Australia we’re covering what seems to be a wide range of topics. In fact, these all come back to a central ‘thing’ that we seek to protect—namely, your right to be self-employed should you wish. That is, your right to Be Your Own Boss.

One of our great supporters is Discernable, an on-line blog television channel run by Matt Wong. Matt’s a true self-employed, small business innovator. He’s invested his own money, time and effort to pursue a vision that says that media news and issues coverage doesn’t have to be slogan-slamming but can undertake patient, intelligent coverage of issues.

If you haven’t watched Discernable we highly recommend doing so. If you’re like us, you’re likely to find the long (frequently 2 hour) interviews engaging, addictive and binge-watchable. The stories that come from Matt’s guests are fabulously insightful.

Matt has interviewed SEA’s Ken Phillips on several occasions covering our Not Above The Law campaign and more. Just this week Matt interviewed Ken and SEA chairman Nick Karamouzis.

The interview is available here.

We covered a range of topics. And to make it easy for you here are the timeslots of the issues we covered.

We trust our interview gives you a good handle on our campaign efforts.

Reporting from Marxism Conference 2023

April 13, 2023 by Self-Employed Australia

We’ve reported that the Albanese government has committed itself to upending our right as self-employed people to be self-employed. Its stated agenda is to create a third definition of self-employment called ‘employee-like.’ This will throw into confusion, perhaps even remove, key protections we have long campaigned to achieve—for example, protection from unfair contracts.

The government plans to move with legislation later in the year. We intend to mount a strong campaign against this and are preparing for the battle ahead. The government comes at its agenda from the perspective that there is an inherent conflict between ‘workers and bosses’. This is the old Left-wing perspective of the social and economic order.

The challenge posed by self-employed people to this perspective is that we are both worker and boss at the same time. So, do we exploit ourselves? Are we inherently in conflict with ourselves? Um … confusing!!

Over Easter, Australian Marxists held their Marxism Conference 2023 in Melbourne. Self-Employed Australia’s Executive Director Ken Phillips attended the full three days. His aim was to seek to understand what the Marxists’ arguments are and the world view that underpins them. If we are to effectively defend the right to be self-employed, we need to understand what the ‘other side’ are saying and thinking—even at the furthest end of the spectrum.

The Albanese government is broadly of a Left-wing persuasion. Prime Minister Albanese is from the socialist left of the Labor Party. We’re not offering a view on that, but rather seek to understand a range of political views. All political views fit somewhere along a spectrum of some sort. We don’t know where the PM sits on the Left-wing spectrum. We doubt that he is a hard-line Marxist as presented at the Easter Marxism Conference.

What we have done, however, is to put together some day-to-day reports on what we think it is that Australian Marxists believe. Here are the three reports we put together over Easter:

Reporting from the Marxist Front Line – Overview and agenda

Listing the agenda items.

Reporting from the Marxist Front Line – Day One

Capitalism is the enemy.
We are defined by our class.

Singing “the Internationale”

On War and Identity Politics

We have genuinely attempted to present reports of what was said and what was argued. We’re not commentating on those claims. Rather, we’re simply trying to gain a broader understanding of the mind of the Marxist Left.

‘A Tale of 2 Croissants’ and Being a Little Bit Pregnant(?)

April 5, 2023 by Self-Employed Australia

I let you know a little while ago that I’ve started posting as a Substack writer. Substack is for obsessive writers (like me). I’ve called my Substack SELF-EMPLOYED AREN’T STUPID!

Substack gives me a platform to write about self-employed issues, ideas, concepts and thoughts that complement what we do at Self-Employed Australia.

So here are some thoughts that might interest you from SELF-EMPLOYED AREN’T STUPID!

A tale of 2 croissants

I explain that:

“In my home city of Melbourne there’s a near-inner-city suburb that’s rapidly changed from working-class to ‘woke-well-to-do’ class. At the outer edge of the suburb there’s one street that seems to divide the two classes. On the working-class side of the street is a popular bakery run by a Vietnamese family. Not quite half a kilometre away (in the woke-well-to-do section), is another bakery.

The Vietnamese bakery sells croissants for $4.00.

The woke-well-to-do bakery sells croissants for $6.50.”

A serious look at being a ‘little bit pregnant’

This article looks at the labour academic argument that self-employed people can be a ‘little bit an employee’. I explain that:

For a long time, Australian unions, labour academics and their political fellow travellers have sought to cut away at the right of people to earn their income through the commercial contract. The Albanese government has committed to doing this later in 2023.

And explain the history and thinking around this idea.

Independence and the Death of Employment

You may not be aware that I published a book on this in 2008. I’ve decided to make this available through Substack in serialised, chapter format. I’ll progressively release chapters. In this first release I provide the book’s Introduction. In it I quote Roman Emperor Caligula who stated:

“Bear in mind that I can treat anyone exactly as I please”. That’s real power.

The modern employment contract is a contract of control and power, of one party over another. Few realise this. And much of my (obsessive) journey is to argue against such power and control.

As you are a subscriber to, or member of, Self-Employed Australia, you’ve become part of, or maybe are committed to, the campaign to defend self-employment—that is, escaping the control and power over you that comes with ‘employment’.

I invite you to subscribe to my Substack SELF-EMPLOYED AREN’T STUPID! blog and join me on the further development of this journey.