Self Employed Australia

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“Everyone needs an Advocate”

Rule of law

Xmas is here—Goodness. A quick update and Season’s Greetings!

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seasons's-greetingsSuddenly Xmas is upon us. What a year!  Season’s Greetings to all our members and followers! We wish you the very best for a ‘non-lockdown,’ ‘sudden rules change’ Xmas and holiday season.

Here’s a quick pre-Xmas update for you on our two main campaign activities.

Victorian Government OHS prosecution campaign

The fund-raising response has been outstanding. We’re looking solid in achieving our funding target for the legal campaign. We try and ring people to say thanks for contributions but the numbers have become a bit overwhelming. Please accept our thanks if we haven’t rung you.

The funding is so solid that we’ve started the process of spending serious money on lawyers. The full legal team had a long and highly productive Zoom conference early last week. Tasks have been allocated, research into the finer details of legal issues is occurring, and preparation of court papers has begun. We’ll keep you updated during January. I won’t go into the details at this stage.

We’ve had quite a few queries around the fact that WorkSafe is prosecuting the Victorian Health Department and what this means. I’ve prepared another short video explaining that the prosecution of Health doesn’t change the fact that individuals also need to be investigated with a view to prosecution.

Here’s the YouTube video:

NATL

Reform of the Australian Taxation Office

Our decade-long campaign to reform the ATO rules governing how it is required to treat small businesses continues. Yes, we’ve been on this case for 10 years. Yes, we are persistent.

Here’s the ABC coverage of what we’re seeking:

Helen

You’ll be pleased to hear that we are in discussions with the ATO on our Taxpayers Rights Agenda based on the USA model for regulating the IRS. The ATO is showing genuine interest and seems to want to understand. That’s good. We’ll continue the discussions.

Other major issues

  • The new Federal ‘pay on time’ laws are now in full implementation. This is hugely important for small business people and a great Xmas present. We’ll provide some updates in the New Year.
  • The beefing up of Unfair Contract laws is slower than we’d like. The new Federal Bill has across-the-board support but seems to be caught up in an overloaded Parliamentary backlog of Bills. We hope it proceeds before the next Federal election. We’ll certainly push for this.

So again. Season’s Greetings to everyone. Let’s all trust that planned holidays, long overdue family gatherings and some well-deserved relaxation occurs without Covid-reactive government interference.

A free and fair society? Nah! The powerful and corrupt rule Oz – if we allow them!

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slug-gate-corruptionOur campaign to prosecute the Victorian government and responsible individuals over the 801 Hotel Quarantine deaths in 2021 is about the application of the rule of law. But there is another case we’re following that goes to the heart of who we are as a nation. That is, are we willing to tolerate naked government corruption that is intent on destroying the lives of individual people?

Ian Cook built a solid family business (ICook Foods) over 30 years. With his staff of 41 workers he supplied prepared meals to aged care homes and others. In 2019 the local government food regulator forcibly closed his business. But get this. The regulator was running a (loss-making) business in competition with ICook. And the evidence from media reports and two parliamentary inquiries is that Ian was stitched up. The regulator made false claims of food contamination and planted ‘evidence’ of health breaches. The story in Victoria has become known as SlugGate.

In Senate comment in June this year, Senator Eric Abetz referred, to the appearance of “… a conspiracy by health officials in Victoria to close ICook Foods for the purposes of benefiting the government-owned, loss-making enterprise….”

We’ve explained the story in a bit more detail here.

Here’s a radio interview of Ian’s son Ben Cook telling the rotten story:

And here’s a great website that tells it all.

But having lost everything the Cook family are standing up. They are suing the local council and the Victorian government for $50 million.

The Cooks have tried to get Victoria Police to prosecute government officials for corruption. The police have refused. This is very similar to WorkSafe refusing to prosecute individuals over the hotel quarantine deaths! The Cooks have now lodged complaints with the Australian Federal Police. Here’s their AFP complaint.

Australia needs brave people like the Cook family. I admire them enormously. They must be supported by the law. Victoria is looking like a cesspit of corruption. But to ignore ICook nationally is to concede that corrupt authoritarianism already has a huge grip on our nation. The enemy is already within the gates. We have lost. The rule of law means nothing!

An ‘agitated’ Tax Commissioner – Roast or burn taxpayers?

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jordan-agitatedJust recently we covered on an important Parliamentary Committee Report calling for legislation to create Taxpayer Rights. The Parliamentary Report says that taxpayers need protections from an ATO that may abuse its powers. The recommendations are common sense that we strongly support.

Under Australian legislation all taxing powers belong to the Tax Commissioner. This legislation effectively means the Commissioner has the power of a ‘tax dictator’.

Senate Hearing – ‘burn them’

About a week ago the Tax Commissioner attended a regular Senate Estimates hearing. This is where Senators ask questions of the bureaucrats.

Senator Eric Abetz (Tasmania) asked the Commissioner if he remembered the Four Corners program ‘Mongrel Bunch of Bastards’ that covered ATO abuse of taxpayers.  And if the Commissioner remembered saying that the accusation in the program that the ATO ‘slowly boiled people until they are roasted to death’ was ‘ludicrous and absurd’. The Commissioner said he remembered.

Senator Abetz then produced a transcript record of senior ATO legal officers discussing a strategy against taxpayers to ‘burn them.’ The Commissioner replied, “I’m astounded that you are raising this.” Senator Abetz tried to speak but the Commissioner cut the Senator off with “No listen to me…”  Senator Abetz commented that he was surprised by the Commissioner’s  agitated response’. See the Abetz-Commission video record (10-min YouTube) here.

Senate Hearing – No to ADR – ATO whim

Later in the same hearing, Senator Ben Small (Western Australia) had questions. The Senator asked if there were times when the Commissioner would not enter Alternative Dispute Resolution with taxpayers. (ADR is being hailed by the ATO as a great way to avoid disputes.) The Commissioner responded with a bit of a rambling reply that included “If you (ATO) have entrenched avoiders, ADR wont help.”

That was part of the Commissioner’s reply to the Senator’s question which asked,  “Where a taxpayer in that particular circumstance approached the ATO with a view to engaging in good faith ADR to de-escalate for the parties, are you saying that would not be appropriate?”  See the Small-Commissioner video record (11-min YouTube) here.

So, it seems that the ATO’s much hailed Alternative Dispute Resolution is only available if the ATO likes you. That is, ADR is NOT a right for taxpayers but something entirely at the ATO’s whim. Sounds like a tax dictatorship to me!

ATO ‘bad eggs’

I liked Senator Abetz’s comment to the Commissioner comparing tax officers’ behaviour to those of the police. The Senator said:

“But every now and then we do get a bad egg, and we cannot overcome the bad egg by referring to the 99 per cent of good people in the police force and similarly with the ATO. The concern I have, Commissioner, is that your response … suggests that you are not willing to accept that there might be an issue where you do need to deal with this sort of a culture or behaviour by certain individuals.”

I’d agree with Senator Abetz. We should be concerned. Are taxpayer rights only there at the whim of the ATO dictatorship? That’s neither just nor fair.

Parliament must lead

The parliamentary report calling for a Taxpayer Rights Bill seems to recommend leaving it to the ATO to ‘develop’ those rights. After witnessing the Senate Estimates performance above, every taxpayer should be highly concerned. Taxpayer Rights have to be created by the Parliament. That’s what Parliaments must do. Parliaments are there to protect the people from dictatorships.

It seems we have a lot of work to do for Taxpayer Rights.

It’s worth watching the Tax Commissioner in the Senate:

Here’s the Hansard record

  Abetz-Commissioner video (10 min)

 

 

  Small-Commissioner video (11 min)

One giant step for taxpayers – ‘Taxpayer Rights’

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taxation-rightsThe key Parliamentary Committee overseeing the Australian Taxation Office this week released a report calling for major reforms to the way the ATO treats taxpayers. At the core of the report is the recommendation for Taxpayer Rights.

What does this mean?

If you’ve followed our ATO reform campaign, you’ll likely be aware that we’ve studied the US laws covering its tax office, the IRS. The US legislation stipulates specific “do’s and don’ts” with which the IRS must comply to treat taxpayers fairly. And there’s a watchdog, the Taxpayer Advocate, with real powers. We presented our full report on this to the Parliamentary Committee in mid-2020. Here’s a summary.

We’re very pleased to see that the Committee Report calls for substantial reforms to ATO administration with significant elements drawn from the US laws. The Committee looked at the US closely, including interviewing the retired US Taxpayer Advocate.

The Committee has 19 recommendations all of which strongly we endorse. The key highlights include that the ATO:

  • would not be able to collect a debt until all appeals (tribunal/court) have been decided. In fact, the Morrison government has already committed to this. Watch Small Business Minister Stuart Roberts in Parliament 13 April this year.
  • bear the onus of proof of allegations of fraud or evasion. The Committee notes that this has been recommended in past years but never implemented.
  • cannot charge an interest rate on debts that’s greater than the interest rate the government pays.

What would probably stagger most Australians is that such ‘reforms’ are needed. It demonstrates just how dictatorial are the current powers of the ATO.

But there’s more. The Committee’s recommendations also include:

The Committee Report is a major step forward for a better, more efficient and fairer tax collections system. It’s important to note that when Jason Falinski MP (Liberal) presented the report to Parliament, the Deputy Chair Julie Owens MP (Labor) also endorsed the report. That is, the recommendations have support across the (normal) political divide. This is the Australian Parliament working at its best.

In presenting the report to Parliament, the chair of the committee Jason Falinski MP first praised the ATO for improvements it has made to date. He particularly praised the ATO’s work to implement JobKeeper. We agree. That praise is well deserved. But Falinski went on to say that improvements must continue.

The ATO does a great job for Australia. But the evidence is overwhelming that, in the debt assessment and enforcement area, major abuse of taxpayers is endemic. The ABC covered this (again) just last week. See TV coverage and online articles.

Often big government organisations that have dictatorial powers are blind to the community and to the individual harm they do in the abuse of those powers. And they don’t view their abuse as abuse. They see the abuse as them doing their job!

These reforms recommended by the Tax and Revenue Committee are massively important. We hope the Morrison government will move to implementation. But also we would hope that the ATO would see the reforms as positive for them as an organisation as well as the community. We hope!

Again, here’s the Parliamentary Committee report.

Justice means prosecuting individuals – Where is WorkSafe?

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Worksafe-questionIt’s a couple of weeks since we updated you on the Not Above The Law campaign over the 801 Victorian Hotel Quarantine deaths in 2020. Here’s some info.

Prosecution of Health

You may likely be aware that, on Wednesday 29 September, WorkSafe announced that it is prosecuting the Department of Health (but not responsible individuals). The announcement caused a storm of media coverage.

29 September was one year to the day that we sent our 131 application; the legal trigger that required WorkSafe to investigate with a view to prosecuting. The prosecution totally validates our campaign, demonstrating the correctness of both the issue and our pressure activity. The major media channels now view our campaign as significantly serious.

Magistrate hearing: Last Friday 22 October was the first Court hearing, a procedural matter where the date was set for the start of the serious legal process (10 March 2022).

Plead guilty? There is speculation that Health may plead guilty and pay a ‘round robin’ fine – that is, the government fines itself which means (effectively) no fine. The media have been on to this with commentary viewing this as a ‘con’.

Next stage – Our campaign focus – prosecute individuals

Our campaign is now focused on pushing heavily for prosecution of the responsible individuals – that is, the Premier, Minister and government officials. This doesn’t mean that we say they are guilty, but rather that the evidence requires prosecution. I explained this in a 3AW radio interview (6 minutes) on 22 October:

TV advert #2 (30 seconds): Following the Health prosecution announcement, we have relaunched our TV advert on social media. See the refocused ad here. This is being supported by a hard-hitting on-line social media campaign (on Facebook & Google).

Radio adverts (30 seconds): A new radio advert is running this week on Melbourne 3AW, 7am to 10am with several repeats in each time slot:

 NATL website: A dedicated Not Above The Law website was launched mid-September which has had strong traffic. Here’s the site: https://notabovethelaw.com.au/

Legal campaign

To date we’ve had a big impact without needing court action. There have been 38 pieces of correspondence between Self-Employed Australia and WorkSafe over the last year. In addition, during September we wrote to the Attorney-General, Shadow Attorney-General, WorkSafe Minister, Shadow WorkSafe Minister, Ombudsman and the Solicitor-General. There has been careful legal guidance at every step. See information here.

We anticipate news about next steps in the near future.

What does the Covid modelling say?

You might be interested in some tracking of the predictions about the spread of Covid-19 since the last Victorian heavy lockdown started. The Table below shows what the Burnet Institute predicted would be the Covid impact during the heavy lockdown.

They said that (see page 7, Table 4, of their document)

  • The number of infections would peak at 4,543 per day.
    The actual peak so far is 2,297.
  • Hospital demand would peak at 3,150 per day.
    The actual peak so far is 851.
  • ICU demand would peak at 706 per day.
    The actual peak so far is 163.

Ummmm?

Burnet-table

WorkSafe concedes a ‘bit’. But not enough. Much more work to be done

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long-journeyIf you’ve been following our Not Above the Law campaign, you’ll likely be aware of a BIG development yesterday. Early in the afternoon WorkSafe Victoria announced that it is prosecuting the Victorian Department of Health over the hotel quarantine disaster of 2020.

This triggered a media storm with coverage across the nation. After I went into a deep-dive analysis with our lawyers, I then spent all afternoon doing media interviews – ABC (radio, TV, print), SkyNews, Herald Sun, 3AW radio and others. Thanks to everyone for the huge number of emails and texts. Pardon me for not responding. I thought it best to do so now.

Here is some background information:

Ombudsman: Yesterday morning we lodged our detailed complaint to the Victorian Ombudsman about WorkSafe not complying with the law by failing to send its investigations to the Director of Public Prosecutions. The WorkSafe announcement yesterday afternoon does not change that complaint one bit. WorkSafe still must provide its investigation materials to the DPP on all the parties that they are not prosecuting. WorkSafe continues to fail to apply the law on this.

Thanks to everyone who lodged complaints with the Ombudsman over the last week. It’s been huge. If you have not done so, please still lodge a complaint.

Channel 9 Advert: I am advised that, as of late yesterday, Channel 9 has decided to run our advert. Again, thanks to everyone who lodged complaints with Channel 9. It’s also been huge. But I’ll be cautious. I won’t say it’s a definite until the first advert airs. That should be very soon if arrangements fall into place.

WorkSafe Letter: WorkSafe wrote to us late yesterday afternoon essentially saying, ‘the matter is now closed’. We wrote back saying ‘no it’s not!’

Here’s a key issue:

Criminal law: Work safety breaches are indictable criminal offences. An ‘organisation’ cannot commit a criminal act. Only people do. A gun does not commit murder. The person who pulled the trigger commits murder. Common sense would suggest that the Department of Health cannot not commit criminal OHS breaches. The people who control, direct and run the Department commit the offences.

Therefore this issue is not closed by WorkSafe’s prosecuting the Health Department. We are continuing with our campaign. We are not stopping. We are just warming up.

How will we succeed?  I keep being asked, ‘how will we get WorkSafe to undertake prosecution of individuals’? My reply is ‘by doing what we have been doing’. This is a people movement. We must, and will keep delivering analysis and messaging about the need for the prosecution of Departments and individuals. We have confidence in the voice of the people!

And you, our SEA members, are at the core of this. The campaign has taken us this far in getting yesterday’s breakthrough. But it’s only happened because of your support — people contributing $5 and up, putting in time and effort (contacting the Ombudsman, etc) and more.

Our huge thanks. We should all be pleased. But there’s still a lot more to be done!

WorkSafe Victoria raises the ‘double standards’ flag. Kowtows to union demands

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red-bookIn a telling development yesterday, reports from an industry trade magazine describe how WorkSafe Victoria is investigating a business over the death of a worker from Covid-19.  The WorkSafe move comes after the Australian Services Union “…called for an investigation…”

The ASU said that it will be “…supporting a WorkSafe investigation…” and “… will hold all employers accountable…”

There’s a telling tale here of what could be called the ‘Victorian comrade racket’. The union comrades demand. The ‘justice’ institutions jump! It’s selective! Businesses (of any size) are taken to be ‘bad’ and must be punished. But when it comes to holding government itself responsible, under exactly the same laws, it’s all very ‘complex’ and hard!

It’s now 18 months since the Victorian hotel quarantine disaster first started (March 2020). WorkSafe took up to 4 months before it says it started investigating the Victorian government for OHS breaches. It’s nearly 12 months since we wrote to WorkSafe requiring it to investigate. And it’s now 11 weeks since WorkSafe was required under its own statute obligations to give to the Director of Public Prosecutions its investigation material into the hotel quarantine disaster. Delay. Delay. Delay! Where is justice?

Here’s what the Victorian Occupational Health and Safety Act says:

Section 131 (3):  If the Authority advises the person that a prosecution will not be brought, the Authority must refer the matter to the Director of Public Prosecutions if the person requests (in writing) that the Authority do so.

In this case Self-Employed Australia is ‘the person’. WorkSafe has said it is continuing to investigate. That is, it is not prosecuting. Under the plain reading of the Act, WorkSafe “…must refer the matter to the Director of Public Prosecutions if the person requests (in writing)…” We have made that written request. On a common sense reading of the Act, WorkSafe has not done what it is legally required to do for 11 weeks.

We find it deeply concerning that WorkSafe is ignoring what seems to us to be its legal obligation. But we are active in spite of this delay, delay, delay.

There have been 29 pieces of correspondence between ourselves and WorkSafe on this issue over the last 12 months.
We have run radio and social media ads asking WorkSafe to comply with its obligations.
We have just relaunched our dedicated Not Above The Law website. It gives a good overview of the campaign and details the 142 charges we alleged. Check it out.
Our legal team is in deep discussions and preparation.
More major media is being prepared.

Our campaign for justice for 801 deaths will not stop.

We give considerable detail on our efforts here including our 20,000-word analysis The Case For The Prosecution drawn from the Coate Inquiry evidence.

And thanks to the huge support from people that keeps coming in. It is  most encouraging when people contribute even $10 as a member to the campaign. It’s this support (lots of it) that keeps us going.

How the ATO ‘manages’ parliament – ATO techniques as ‘lawmaker’

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In 2018, high-profile tax lawyer Mark Leibler stated that the ATO effectively makes tax law. He said:

“…for all intents and practical purposes, it’s effectively the (Tax) Commissioner who lays down the law.” “…Commissioner effectively continues to act as lawmaker…”

The accuracy of this statement can be seen, in part, in the way the ATO ‘manages’ its appearances before Parliamentary Committees.

Our observation is that the ATO is polite, professional but provides answers only in general ways, avoids specifics and always emphasises how ‘nice, reasonable, and sensible’ it is. It uses the ‘you can trust us’ approach. By using this approach the ATO deflects attention away from facts that show them to be unreasonable, unfair, aggressive, breaching rules and intent on being an arbitrary tax ‘lawmaker’. In our view the ATO usurps the parliamentary process of democracy in this manner.

We’ve monitored some of the recent Senate quizzing of the ATO (2 and 3 June). Here are some YouTube clips you might find interesting. We think these clips give an insight into the ATO, but we’ll let you decide what you think of the ATO’s parliamentary management techniques.

In our view the Australian Parliament needs stronger oversight of the ATO’s tax management processes. Legislation is needed to achieve this.

Be afraid: Victoria’s 4th attempt at quarantine

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Be afraid. Last Thursday (8 April) the Victorian government restarted its Covid hotel quarantine program.

This is the fourth attempt. The first two attempts from March 2020 resulted in Covid being released into the community, months of lockdown and 801 deaths.

The third quarantine program attempt started on 7 December 2020. On that day Self-Employed Australia warned of problems. Our information was that basic, simple procedures were not in place and that quarantine ‘HQ’ was dysfunctional. By 12 February 2021 Victoria was back into lockdown.

Procedure breaches were simple. For example, staff who had close contact with quarantined travellers and who were supposed to work in isolated rooms were called into mass staff meetings. Just plain dumb.

Even if Covid-19 was ‘unprecedented’ (although on basic facts it was fully expected and known), the health and safety breaches were overwhelming of basic, common-sense things.

Let’s hope this fourth attempt will be more successful. Perhaps it might be better. Our information is that, sometime around early March 2021, WorkSafe inspectors ‘marched’ into Quarantine HQ asking specific questions. “Show us your policy on this?” “Where are the instructions for that?” and so on. This panicked bureaucrats who couldn’t supply immediate answers.

Since then, we believe that WorkSafe has essentially taken control oversight of the quarantine program. Take one example. All men working in quarantine must be clean-shaven. This is to ensure a proper seal when wearing face PPE.

Even with WorkSafe oversight there are big procedural gaps.

Some six weeks or so ago, when vaccination of quarantine staff started, the instruction was that vaccination was voluntary. Staff planning happened accordingly. But now vaccination of all quarantine staff is compulsory. It will take several weeks to get additional potential staff vaccinated. This is basic dysfunctional management.

But there’s more! Covid outbreaks from quarantine have a set pattern. The first line of infection is from infected travellers to quarantine staff. Then from quarantine to, most commonly, the staffs’ immediate family or house mates.

New South Wales has a program of vaccinating quarantine staff and the staffs’ immediate family/house contacts. That is, they’re vaccinating to create two lines of first-level defence. And Victoria? Nah! Quarantine staff are being vaccinated but there’s no reported intention to vaccinate quarantine staff family/house contacts.

Again, what’s being witnessed in Victoria is dysfunctional management. It’s not Covid itself that is the immediate problem. It’s the management of the quarantine system that is the threat to the health and safety of all Victorians. This is why we insist that WorkSafe must prosecute the Victorian government over the 801 deaths.

If prosecutions don’t occur, the full extent of the dangerous dysfunctionality will never be revealed and correction and improvement of the system will not occur. Victorians remain at risk!

Victorian Covid lockdown (again). The evidence. Victorian Government failures. Prosecution

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With Victoria back into another hard lockdown, we are following through on our campaign to have the Victorian government prosecuted for breaches of health and safety laws.

Today we release our YouTube assessment of “Was Covid-19 unprecedented?” The Victorian government uses this excuse to say that it was/is not responsible for over 800 deaths.

We present the evidence that a flu pandemic was expected and that it was well known that Covid-19 was coming. Click on the image to view the 4-minute video.

You can read the full details with links to source documents here.

We are finalizing an assessment of the causes of the latest Victorian hotel quarantine failure and will publish this shortly. This will support an additional letter we will be sending to WorkSafe Victoria. We will be advising them of the need to prosecute the Victorian government for breaches of health and safety laws over this latest quarantine failure. The evidence requires prosecution. More information soon.