O75 Public Administration

PM’s $1bn clean energy bet

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Original article by Geoff Chambers
The Australian – Page: 1 & 4 : 30-Oct-19

The federal government will establish a Grid Reliability Fund, which will be administered by the Clean Energy Finance ­Corporation. The new fund will invest in projects that increase the reliability of energy supplies and transmission infrastructure, and help to reduce electricity prices. Such projects include the ones that are on the short-list for the Underwriting New Generation Investments scheme. The government will also inject an additional $1bn into the CEFC.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY, AUSTRALIA. CLEAN ENERGY FINANCE CORPORATION, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF FINANCE, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, TRANSGRID, AUSTRALIAN ENERGY REGULATOR, AUSTRALIAN ENERGY MARKET COMMISSION

Google faces court case over misled users

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Original article by David Swan, Elias Visontay
The Australian – Page: 1 & 6 : 30-Oct-19

The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission has launched legal action against digital giant Google for misleading users of Android smartphones with regard to the amount of data it collects and how the data would be used. Amongst other things, the ACCC contends that Google failed to inform consumers that it would continue to receive location data from their smartphones if they switched off the ‘location history’ option. Google faces potential fines of up to $10m or 10 per cent of its annual turnover if the alleged breaches of Australian consumer law are proven in the Federal Court.

CORPORATES
GOOGLE INCORPORATED, AUSTRALIAN COMPETITION AND CONSUMER COMMISSION, FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA

New Roy Morgan Report Fills the Information Gap on Australians’ Net Wealth

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 30-Oct-19

There has been no shortage of attempts to measure the true state of wealth in Australia. Some have focused on income, others have tracked debt and yet others have tried to quantify assets. They have supplied pieces of the puzzle. But no-one has been able to provide the full picture on the Net Wealth held by individual Australians – until now. The Roy Morgan Wealth Report 2019 fills the gaps, providing evidence-based answers to the lingering questions about wealth in our nation. By calculating total personal assets and subtracting total personal debt, the report offers the first fully detailed data on Australians’ Net Wealth. This information matters because wealth, and the way it is distributed, is intrinsically linked to Australia’s economic resilience and future. Roy Morgan is able to deliver this information thanks to Australia’s most extensive and longest-running study of consumer financial behaviour. The study, which has been running continuously for more than 20 years, involves over 50,000 in-depth, face-to-face interviews conducted in respondents’ homes each year. This provides privileged access to every aspect of Australians’ lives, including fully detailed financial positions, providing data of unmatched depth and breadth. It enables analysis of genuine Net Wealth by age, gender, location, employment type and more, showing precisely what form that wealth takes, how evenly or otherwise it is distributed, how it has grown, and what further shifts are likely in coming years.

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN LIMITED

‘We’re not doing it’: PM quickly nixes call to raise GST

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Original article by Phillip Coorey
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 5 : 29-Oct-19

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has ruled out any changes to the goods and services tax regime without seeking a mandate from voters. Morrison has indicated that the federal government looked at broadening the GST when he was Treasurer, but such a move was deemed to have little economic benefit. Liberal senator Dean Smith recently broke ranks with his Coalition colleagues by advocating an increase in the rate and scope of the GST, arguing that the additional revenue would allow the states to abolish payroll taxes.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, LIBERAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF FINANCE, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, NEW SOUTH WALES. THE TREASURY

Unions push for jail terms for wage theft

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Original article by David Marin-Guzman
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 4 : 29-Oct-19

The ACTU has urged the federal government to introduce harsher penalties for employers who underpay their staff. Its submission to the government’s compliance discussion paper advocates a maximum jail term of five years or a fine of up to $2m for individuals and $10m for a company. The Australian Chamber of Commerce & Industry has in turn expressed concern about imposing criminal penalties for breaches of workplace laws. It has argued that such penalties should also apply to the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining & Energy Union.

CORPORATES
ACTU, AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY, CONSTRUCTION, FORESTRY, MARITIME, MINING AND ENERGY UNION OF AUSTRALIA

Explosive, gobsmacking statements by Tax Commissioner raise serious concerns about democracy, the rule of law and cover-up

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Original article by Ken Phillips
Self-Employed Australia – Page: Online : 28-Oct-19

Tax Commissioner Chris Jordan used an appearance before the Senate Economics Legislation Committee on 23 October to refute claims that the Australian Taxation Office can recover unpaid tax debts by taking money directly out of people’s bank accounts. The allegation was aired in advertisements funded by the ‘Right to Know’ campaign. Jordan says the ATO only takes action such as garnishee orders as a last resort, but there is documented evidence that the ATO emptied at least one person’s bank account and did not inform them of this until 10 days later. The ATO must be reigned in, but this is unlikely to happen until the federal government considers that the ATO is doing damage to it politically.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN TAXATION OFFICE, AUSTRALIA. SENATE ECONOMICS LEGISLATION COMMITEE

Watchdog to probe surge in tax debts

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Original article by Damon Kitney
The Australian – Page: 1 & 2 : 28-Oct-19

The Inspector-General of Taxation & Taxation Ombudsman, Karen Payne, says her office will investigate the causes of a sharp increase in unpaid tax debt, which has risen from $19.2bn to $26.2bn over the last four years. Meanwhile, there was a 13 per cent increase in the number of complaints lodged with the IGTO about the Australian Taxation Office in the last year. This followed a series of media reports which accused the ATO of excessive use of garnishee notices to recover unpaid tax debts, particularly against small businesses.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. OFFICE OF THE INSPECTOR-GENERAL OF TAXATION AND TAXATION OMBUDSMAN, AUSTRALIAN TAXATION OFFICE

Perry’s Rockpool chain cheated its staff out of $10m

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Original article by Tessa Akerman
The Australian – Page: 3 : 25-Oct-19

Maurice Blackburn’s principal lawyer Josh Bornstein has described allegations that Rockpool Dining Group underpaid its staff as one of the "most egregious cases of wage theft" in Australian history. The law firm has submitted a complaint to the Fair Work Ombudsman on behalf of the Hospo Voice union; amongst other things, it alleges that the restaurant group altered employees’ timesheets to show that they worked for just 38 hours a week, when some in fact are said to have worked for up to 100 hours a week. Bornstein says the FWO should seek the maximum penalty against Rockpool, given that it has acknowledged that the penalty against celebrity chef George Calombari for wage underpayment was too light.

CORPORATES
ROCKPOOL DINING GROUP, MAURICE BLACKBURN PTY LTD, HOSPO VOICE, AUSTRALIA. FAIR WORK OMBUDSMAN, MADE ESTABLISHMENT PTY LTD

Kelty unleashes super spray at Swan

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Original article by Joanna Mather
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 5 : 25-Oct-19

Former ACTU secretary Bill Kelty referred to Wayne Swan as a "miserable bastard" at the launch of the Crescent Think Tank on 24 October. Kelty’s description of the former Labor treasurer was on account of him only increasing the superannuation guarantee by 0.5 per cent during Labor’s six years in office. Kelty and former Labor prime minister Paul Keating are pushing for the SG to be increased to 12 per cent, although some Liberal MPs and the Grattan Institute have called for it to be paused at 9.5 per cent. Kelty says suggestions that deferring SG increases will cause employers to increase wages are "laughable".

CORPORATES
ACTU, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, LIBERAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA, GRATTAN INSTITUTE

Setka not going anywhere, says union

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Original article by Ewin Hannan
The Australian – Page: 4 : 25-Oct-19

The CFMMEU’s national conference in Adelaide has passed a motion calling on Labor to oppose exploitative free-trade agreements. Dave Noonan, the head of the union’s construction division, has criticised Labor leader Anthony Albanese for agreeing to support ‘sell-out’ free trade deals. He also said the CFMMEU’s Victorian secretary John Setka had the full support of delegates at the national conference and he will not resign. Noonan added that Setka’s resignation from Labor will have no impact, arguing that many of the CFMMEU’s leaders have not been party members.

CORPORATES
CONSTRUCTION, FORESTRY, MARITIME, MINING AND ENERGY UNION OF AUSTRALIA, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF EMPLOYMENT, SKILLS, SMALL AND FAMILY BUSINESS, AUSTRALIA. ATTORNEY-GENERAL’S DEPT