Last night, I discussed with Alan Jones (Sky News) issues surrounding criminal OHS prosecutions of the Victorian government over the hotel quarantine mess. The discussion is here.
The key point is that there must be consistency in the application of the law. There cannot be one rule for the rulers and another for the people who are ruled. To do that would amount to a collapse of the rule of law in society. More...
All News
Ken and Alan Jones discuss Vic Covid-19 OHS prosecutions
ATO exposed again! Systemic mistreatment of small business people
It doesn’t seem to stop. The ATO continues to deny that it does anything wrong, but official reviews and reports keep slamming the ATO. We listed in early April this year the string of parliamentary and other reports calling for urgent reform of the ATO.
This time it’s the Small Business Ombudsman reporting on the ATO’s enforcing debt even while the debt is being challenged in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. The report finds that the ATO does this on 12 per cent of occasions. This destroys the small business and their ability to challenge the alleged debt. The Ombudsman severely criticizes the ATO and calls for legislative reform. More...
ATO – Mongrel Bunch of Bastards – one year on
Watch out! Here comes a cascade of thanks. Major ATO reform for the self-employed seems to be here
Okay, get ready for it. In this update we’re going to praise a lot of people.
The reason is that it’s looking as though the sort of reform we need from the ATO in its treatment of small business people is actually happening. See this article in today’s Australian.
It's all to do with this document released on the ATO’s website last Friday (22 March). Frankly, we’re surprised how far this is developing. We’ll explain this in detail tomorrow with the key being the operation of the Small Business Tax Tribunal. More...
Official government report confirms ATO has big problems
The ATO has suffered another major hit to its reputation, this time (and again) from an official government investigation.
You may remember that following the Four Corners show ‘Mongrel Bunch of Bastards’ which exposed ATO abuse of small business people, the Minister, Kelly O’Dwyer, ordered a Treasury inquiry. Both the Small Business Ombudsman and the Inspector-General of Taxation (IGT) were asked to participate. More...
Banks forced to change small business contracts. A huge win for fairness!
We’re mighty proud of the work we did, over close to a decade, to achieve the 2015 unfair contract laws protecting small business people. Here’s the tracking of our campaign from 2009. And it’s pretty fair to say that, without us, the laws would not have come into existence.
In that long struggle the banks consistently opposed the unfair contract laws. During that campaign one bank, NAB, was found by the courts to have engaged in ‘misleading and deceptive conduct’ in relation to a business mortgage. In our view NAB’s bank officers arguably behaved as they did because NAB’s small business finance contracts seemingly gave them unfair power. More...
Some big wins! More to come? Let’s hope so!
A few update issues:
Competition law reform. Success!
We reported to you last Sunday on why the ‘effects test’ Bill is opposed by Labor. It’s simple: Follow the money. Coles pays the shoppies’ union who pays the Labor Party. Coles opposes the Bill. Labor opposes the Bill. Well, on Wednesday, the Misuse of Market Power Bill (Effects test) passed Parliament. Here’s the Senate debate (watch from about 12.52). Labor opposed. The Greens supported the Bill along with other independent Senators. Well done to them in ensuring a fairer deal for small business people and competition! More...
We’ve changed our name! But we’re still the same—only getting stronger
Well here’s a turn-up for us! In 2000 (goodness, 18 years ago!) we formed Independent Contractors Australia to advocate for the rights of self-employed people. And in that time we’ve been more successful than we could have envisaged. More...
Big end of town to pay on time! Or are they?
It looks like truly good news. The ‘big end of town’, through the Business Council of Australia, last week launched a new small business ‘pay on time’ code. That is, big businesses signing up to the code have agreed to pay small business suppliers on time. And the Council of Small Business of Australia (COSBA) has endorsed the code.
Let’s be clear. It appears that BCA has moved on the code because the Victorian government has implemented one, the Federal Small Business Ombudsman, Kate Carnell, has been pushing for one and the ‘big end of town’ doesn’t want to see legislation forcing them on this. More...
Like naughty schoolchildren, banks now complying with unfair contract laws
Readers might recall our news alert headline, “we’ll only do what we’re made to do!” This was a senior counsel from one of the banks responding to our efforts about eight years ago asking them to support the unfair contract laws.
Then in March this year we said that NAB was trashing its own small business brand because it had, in our view, lied about changing its small business contracts to comply with the now operational unfair contract laws. More...
Recent Posts
- Be afraid: Victoria’s 4th attempt at quarantine
- ATO Mongrel Bunch of Bastards Continues—Morrison Needs to Act
- ‘Homework’ takes on a totally new meaning … for adults!
- Victorian Government and Premier: Indictable criminal offences investigation
- BIG change must happen to ATO says government report
- Australian unions see flying ‘gig’ pigs landing from the UK
- Would you consider the Victorian Premier the most dangerous person in Australia?
- Victorian Covid lockdown (again). The evidence. Victorian Government failures. Prosecution
- ATO abusing its powers – manipulating the law to abuse people
- Holding public officials to account takes time and persistence – Covid and more
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