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Self Employed Australia

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Workers compensation

They say there’s “trouble Down Under?”

March 7, 2023 by Self-Employed Australia

trouble-down-underThe speed with which Australia’s fundamental operational structures are being changed is quite breathtaking.

At the beginning of February, the Federal Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, released a ‘thought’ article where he announced “…the beginnings of a new economic model” by creating “…a new values-based capitalism for Australia”.  This embodies a surprisingly radical intent, even given the tradition of the labour movement’s ambitions over the last 50 years.

On my thesis, ‘The New Australian Socialist Experiment’  (also released in February), I saw Chalmers’ declaration as part that emerging experiment. What I hadn’t expected was the rapid rate at which this new agenda unfolded, became apparent and ignited a vigorous debate.

Gary Banks was the head of the Productivity Commission from 1998 to 2013. The Productivity Commission is the major government-funded ‘think tank’ that looks at, and reports on, how to make Australia efficient and productive. Normally any criticism by such government bodies directed at government (even by retired heads) is cautious, using toned-down bureaucratic language.  But this week Gary Banks came out swinging.

In a damning assessment of the current policy direction Banks referred to “…policies that have damaged our economy’s ability to cope with change, to be competitive and support economic growth.” He refers to “monumental bungling”, policies that are “…contrived to maximise the cost…” and “…we [Australia] have been busily eliminating our competitive advantage…”

Gary Banks’ criticism is directed at all governments, not just the current federal government. What is significant is not simply his criticism of specific policies, but the unexpected tone of his criticism. He is flagging an Australian structural, self-created, economic downslide.

Banks’ blunt warning comes just as many retirees are reeling in shock at unexpected significant changes to superannuation tax rates. While the proposed tax regime only appears to affect ‘rich’ people, those changes also signal that using superannuation for retirement is now much more risky. Is this the beginning of the end for superannuation?

To us (SEA), it’s not just what’s already happened that’s caught our attention, but what seems to be pending. There are tea leaves to be read!

  • There is broad media reporting of a rental crisis. But emerging policy seems to be pushing housing rental supply in a negative direction. One much-touted ‘solution’ is the imposition of rental price controls and rent freezes.
  • Influential, wealthy unions are supporting and calling for price controls—not only on energy but, seemingly, more broadly as well.
  • State workers’ compensation schemes are in financial crisis, unable to fund their obligations.

Our experience is that when this sort of media coverage starts happening it’s usually followed by new regulations to ‘solve’ such problems.

And we know that the policy knives are out to harm self-employed people. We reported in February on just one agenda item designed to kill off independent truck drivers.

Over the next few weeks we’ll try and put together analysis of these issues and more. Things are certainly moving at a rapid rate!

Filed Under: Federal politics, New Australian Socialism, News Updates, Self-Employed Australia, Self-employment, Superannuation, The nature of work, Workers compensation

Government report: Don’t destroy self-employed gig workers. We agree

October 23, 2022 by Self-Employed Australia

report-gigDespite the Albanese government’s description of self-employed ‘gig’ work as a ‘cancer’, a recent government report (interim) says that such work and workers should not be ‘stymied’. We totally agree and have made a supporting submission.

The Productivity Commission is a high-powered federal government economic research think-tank. What it says is important.

In its (interim) report it studies and makes recommendations on the gig/platform economy. It says:

Regulation should evolve to meet the workplace relations challenge of innovative new business models, without stymying their potential contributions to productivity.

This is a heap of common sense. We hope the Albanese government takes note. Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater!!

Our submission makes key points of fact.

There’s no confusion between an employee and a self-employed person:

  • An employee earns income through the employment contract.
  • A self-employed (independent contractor) person earns income through the commercial contract.

This legal fact is supported by research conducted by the International Labour Organisation and by international standards to which Australia is a signatory. Like the Productivity Commission, the ILO says:

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

We say that employment-structured firms are under competitive threat from gig/platforms and self-employed people. These firms are marshalling their well-entrenched political power to stop or limit the competition for power. This explains the ‘third way’ push which is on the Albanese government’s agenda.

The ‘third way’ push is highly dangerous. It has been rejected by the ILO and is causing great harm in the UK, for example. We explain this in our submission.

We also say that self-employed people are entitled to ‘protections’ but through commercial regulation not employment regulation. For example, protections are already available under laws covering unfair contracts, work safety, collective bargaining (under competition rules), minimum rates guarantees and dispute resolution.

But there is urgent need to reform the workers’ compensation schemes, for example, to allow individual self-employed people to register directly with the schemes without being forced into ‘employment’. Currently, self-employed people are banned from workers’ compensation, a glaring discrimination.

We explain these issues and more in our submission.

Filed Under: 'Insecure Work', Collective Bargaining, Defining Self-employment, Independent contracting, News Updates, Self-employment, The Gig Economy, The nature of work, Unfair Contracts, Work Safety, Workers compensation

Some good news? Workcover NSW and Federal Government contracts

April 26, 2017 by Self-Employed Australia

Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Mostly we’re complaining about bad government behaviour. And we should! And we will continue!

BUT, it makes a pleasant change to report some good news.

Workcover NSW:
As far back as 2005 we had been actively trying to defend self-employed people in NSW from the NSW WorkCover Authority. In 2012 the new government undertook a review. In our submission we stated that the workers compensation scheme is

… one of institutional oppression directed towards [the] self-employed, …has inflicted enormous harm on NSW small business people…and … the authority has a history of acting in a dictatorial manner, answerable only to itself.

We substantiated our claims with actual case studies.

Following the review, the Workcover Authority was effectively sacked. A new body was formed to handle the scheme called icare. What a difference!

We’ve had dealings with icare over the last 3 years and some recently on some touchy, difficult issues. We may not be in complete agreement with some outcomes. However, we’ve found the icare personnel and their processes open, transparent, honest, interested in facts and not presumptions and genuinely interested in fairness. icare has just undertaken a new review focused on improving customer service delivery. They deserve congratulations and we trust the improvements continue!

Federal Contracts
You’ll be aware of our work to secure unfair contract protections for small business people and the success we’ve had with that. However, what’s always ‘got up our noses’ is that government is exempt from these laws. You know—one law for the plebs and a different standard for the powerful!

We chatted with the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission about this. They conducted a review of the Federal Government’s ‘standard form contract’ and found some concerns. As a result, the government has amended its contract. This is hugely important. Massive numbers of small businesses and self-employed people provide goods and services to the federal government.

We’ll have more to say on this. There are some sensible and fair elements. Here’s the new contract.
If you do business with the Federal Government, we suggest you make sure your contract is in accord with this one.

Filed Under: Campaigns, Unfair contracts, Workers compensation

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