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Rule of law

Tax bureaucrats try to sneak one through

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robertWho runs Australia? Is it the politically accountable politicians elected through the democratic process? Or is it the unidentified, unelected, bureaucrats who hide behind closed doors?

A situation happening now indicates that at least some Commonwealth bureaucrats think they run the country and democracy can go jump!

In the April budget last year, the Morrison government announced that the Tax Office would no longer be able to collect a small business tax debt while in dispute and under appeal. That’s a damn good policy move for tax fairness.

robertThe Small Business Minister stated in Parliament:

“We are backing small business in over the ATO. No longer will the ATO be able to garnishee and takeaway while the dispute is in train …”

A recording of the Ministers statement in Parliament can be viewed here  (23 sec)

A key job of the Commonwealth Treasury department is to draft legislation that puts government policy into effect. Last week, nine months after this very clear policy statement, Treasury released draft legislation that does the opposite of what the government promised. (See here and here.)

The draft legislation would not automatically stop the ATO collecting on a disputed debt. It would force a taxpayer to apply to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (a very expensive process) for a pause. And a taxpayer would have to prove that their application did not “restrict …administration of tax law…” In our view this is a sneaky bureaucratic way of killing off the Morrison government’s attempt at small business tax fairness.

Yesterday we lodged a submission condemning the draft law and calling for it to be put in the trash bin. Here’s our submission (3 pages).

Robert Gottliebsen in The Australian took the same view with the headline ‘Tax bureaucrats try to sneak one through.’

Why ‘sneaky’? The draft legislation was released for ‘consultation’ on 12 January, smack bang when most people are on holidays, and during the height of the Djokovic mess and while the government was/is handling supply chain and other Covid ‘crisis’ issues. And Treasury has given only seven days for responses. The draft legislation is short and tax bureaucrats have had nine months where they could have done something. Looks sneaky? Probably is sneaky!

We’ve said in our submission:

The job of Treasury is to faithfully draft legislation that accurately reflects the government’s policy intent … we submit that this draft legislation undermines the government’s policy intent and the process of democracy in Australia.

We’ve made it clear what the legislation should look like.

Normally we admire the professional integrity of the Australian public service and their respect for the democratic process. This situation is a dark smudge on that professional integrity.

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-gateOur 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!

Should the Victorian Premier face prosecution? A key question!

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eureka-protestorsWe’re pleased to report that our fund-raising efforts to enable us to take WorkSafe Victoria to court is going really well. Again, our huge thanks to everyone who’s put in. Last week, new contributions kept coming in, everything from $5 and up. We’re well on track to raise the needed money. If you haven’t read our legal strategy, here’s the link to the summary.

We’ve put together another short video that asks the question: are we picking on the Victorian Premier? I explain that it’s about the rule of law. Everyone should be subject to the same rules. No-one should be above the law. And I also explain the basics of the work safety breaches that we say require prosecution.

Here’s the video (4′ 28″):

you-tube-december-vid

The issue is not just a Victorian issue. It’s an issue at the heart of every democracy and the ‘rule of law’ in societies. We’re pushing on a local Victorian situation, but it’s about a principle that applies to all ‘civilised’ societies. There should never be ‘one rule for the rulers and a different rule for the ruled’.

We can tell you that our legal team has now started working on the specifics of the required court papers. It’s a big job so it will take some time. But we’ll keep you up to date.

And we’re starting a new round of radio ads. Here’s the latest 30-second ad:

We need to keep the money arriving of course. We’d appreciate it if you could pass on our information to people you know who may be interested.

Here’s the link to the contribution page.

Huge response to the call for our WorkSafe legal action support

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protestorsLast week we let you know that we are ready to go to court. And we asked for your support.

We’ve had a massive response and thank everyone who has contributed.

This is to bring you up to date on some more info.

Today we started radio ads on Melbourne talk back radio 3AW.
The response has been huge!
The ad runs all week.
Here’s the 30-second ad:

We’re producing a series of short videos explaining why WorkSafe must do its job and why prosecution of individuals should occur. The Victorian hotel quarantine disaster in 2020 led to 801 deaths and cannot be ignored.

Here’s the first video (2.58s):

You-Tube-Nov21-1

We explain why WorkSafe Victoria must prosecute government departments and individuals. Our Not Above the Law campaign is calling on WorkSafe to do its job. No-one should be above the law.

We are ready to go to Court. Now we need the money! 801 Deaths should not be ignored or forgotten!

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CourtOur efforts to require WorkSafe to prosecute Victorian government agencies and individuals over the 2020 hotel quarantine disaster and 801 deaths bore fruit in late September (7 weeks ago).

WorkSafe announced that it is prosecuting the Department of Health!  This prosecution demonstrates that our one-year-plus campaign was totally correct. Without our campaign the prosecution would almost certainly not be occurring.

But WorkSafe claims it doesn’t need to do anything else. It is refusing to prosecute responsible individuals, such as the Victorian Premier.

We say WorkSafe has a legal obligation to take the next steps. It must refer the investigations to the Victorian Director of Public Prosecutions. WorkSafe refuses. It has said to us “…WorkSafe is not required to provide reasons …” and told us that we “…may wish to seek independent legal advice…”  We will soon make this and other correspondence public.

Court action

We now have no option but to take WorkSafe to Court. We have organised a top legal team. The legal strategy is set. But let’s be clear. This will be a hard and expensive legal battle. The cost will be huge in legal fees. Now we must raise the money.

We need your $ contribution.

Thanks to the huge support from everyone so far. But this is now the BIG game. Every $ is important. Please let your friends know.

Contribute as a campaign member here. Contact me if you’d like to discuss making a contribution: 0412 393 692

Legal strategy

Our legal strategy and course of action has been carefully thought through. Here’s a briefing on the legal strategy. It explains our specific legal options before the Courts.

What’s the end result?

We’re simply wanting WorkSafe to do its job. That is, to investigate the following individuals, at least, and prosecute as and where required:

Daniel Andrews, The Premier of Victoria
Jenny Mikakos, The former Health Minister
Kym Peake, Secretary for Health and Human Services
Melissa Skilbeck, DHHS, Deputy Secretary, Regulation, Health Protection and Emergency Management
Andrea Spiteri, DHHS, Executive Director, Emergency Management
Jason Helps, DHHS, Deputy Director, Emergency Management
Brett Sutton, Chief Health Officer
Annaliese van Dieman, Deputy Chief Health Officer
Michelle Giles, Deputy Public Health Commander
Simon Crouch, DHHS, Senior Medical Adviser, Acting Deputy Chief Health Officer
Noel Cleaves, DHHS, Manager Environmental Health, Regulation and Compliance

This is about justice and the rule of law. No-one is or should be above the law.

Contribute as a campaign member here.

Sutton’s decisions to remove staff was “shocking”. To prosecute or ignore?

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st-basilsThe Victorian hotel quarantine disaster of 2020 lead to 801 deaths, mostly in aged care homes. The Victorian government blamed those aged care deaths on the Commonwealth. ‘It’s not our fault’ was the message from the Victorian Premier’s media-manipulation team.  But now the facts and truth are coming out.

This week a coronial inquest into the 50 deaths at St Basil’s aged care home began. The evidence from just the opening day is startling.

According to media coverage a report from an independent expert in disaster and emergency health said that a lack of coordination between state and federal health departments was a “root cause of the tragedy at St Basil’s”. This shows a shared responsibility between the Victorian and Commonwealth departments.

But there were not large numbers of aged care deaths in other states. So why Victoria?

The coronial inquest gives a better understanding. The inquest heard that Victoria’s Chief Health Officer, Brett Sutton, ordered the removal of St Basil’s staff.  Victoria’s health department, Commonwealth health officials and local medical staffed called this decision a “shocking idea”.

The head lawyer assisting the coroner said that this decision by Brett Sutton was made “…despite all present apparently being aware of a risk that the replacement workforce may be inadequate to meet the statutory care standards”.  And this is what happened.

The new workforce, hastily bought in, were understaffed, not familiar with the patients’ needs and overwhelmed. The situation is described as “shocking” with staff in tears, “… positive and negative patients mingling freely, PPE not being cleared…” and more. The consequence was the deaths.

The head lawyer said the staff “…were operating within a wholly inadequate governance and management structure.”

This is consistent with the finding of the Coate Inquiry into the 2020 Hotel Quarantine disaster where the “…disaster that tragically came to be…” was caused by “…lack of proper leadership and oversight…”

That is, it was the inept, incompetent, chaotic management shambles by the Victorian government that resulted in the virus escaping the quarantine hotels. The coroner’s inquiry is pointing to the same managerial incompetence resulting in the deaths at St Basil’s aged care home. The Victorian government was intimately involved at each step. Brett Sutton was a top, key decision-maker at each step.

WorkSafe Victoria is prosecuting the Victorian Health Department over the quarantine disaster. They are not prosecuting any individuals. We continue our push to require WorkSafe to prosecute responsible individuals. WorkSafe’s prosecution of the Health Department demonstrates that our 18-month campaign (to date) is valid.

We are in deep strategic discussions with lawyers. ‘Robust’ correspondence with WorkSafe continues. We hope to let you know of next steps in the near future.

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