Finance

#29Leaks helps lift veil on how Iran avoids sanctions

by Shirsho Dasgupta and Kevin G Hall -- 6 Dec 2019 -- Finance

This story, pulled together from leaked documents, involves fake names, trading gold for gas, and a trip to Disney World. Shirsho Dasgupta and Kevin G Hall report.

Uppercut: call for violence at Parliamentary Inquiry into accountants

by Michael West -- 3 Dec 2019 -- Finance
The Barangaroo Triangle: inside Westpac’s invisible banking regime

by Michael West -- 29 Nov 2019 -- Finance

Tax

Knapp: Big Four failed Australia for their multinational clients

by Jeffrey Knapp -- 8 Nov 2019 -- Finance, Tax

This submission by Jeffrey Knapp to the current Parliamentary Inquiry into the Regulation of Auditing in Australia documents how the Big 4 audit firms – KPMG, PwC, Deloitte and EY – have undermined Australian auditing and financial reporting practice for multinational clients.

Tender Truncheons: Lendlease concedes Tax Office closes net on retirement village racket

by Michael West -- 4 Nov 2019 -- Markets, Tax
Lendlease tax boondoggle bigger than the hole it left in Sydney Football Stadium

by Michael West -- 29 Oct 2019 -- Markets, Tax

Energy

Gas: how Australia privatised the profits and socialised the losses

by Clinton Fernandes -- 25 Sep 2019 -- Energy

Norway delivered its oil & gas riches to its people, Australia delivered the profits into foreign hands, having done the exploration, spending years and billions proving up giant gas fields. As the gas cartel rakes in the profits exporting LNG at the expense of local consumers

The Ultimate Gouge: why Australia, the world’s #1 exporter, now imports gas

by Michael West -- 24 Jul 2019 -- Energy
Selling the LNG myth : false economics, selective accounting and political capture

by Stewart Taggart -- 11 Jul 2019 -- Energy, Environment

Government

Royal Attrition: Government caves to a “few big interests”, ignores Aged Care Inquiry reforms

by Dr Sarah Russell -- 10 Dec 2019 -- Comment Analysis, Featured, Government

aged care transparency and accountability

#29Leaks shows need for reforms on creating companies, says UK anti-corruption chief

by George Greenwood -- 9 Dec 2019 -- Government
Economic stagnation unlikely to improve under current Government policy vacuum

by Michael Keating -- 9 Dec 2019 -- Comment Analysis, Government, The Economy

Business

Our quest for transparency sees hackers and journalists dying for your right to know

by Kim Prince -- 5 Dec 2019 -- Business, Featured
Bellamy’s $1.43 billion price tag doesn’t equal an Australian icon

by Marcus Reubenstein -- 28 Nov 2019 -- Business, Markets

Markets

Hardly Normal: appalling insults by Gerry mar Harvey Norman meeting amid activist revolt

by Michael West -- 27 Nov 2019 -- Markets

"Are you are sexual predator?" asked Gerry Harvey of a dissident shareholder who was politely though persistently questioning him in front of a packed house at the Harvey Norman annual meeting. This was the crowning insult

Stephen Mayne on Gerry Harvey’s fans in the Murdoch media as fiery shareholder showdown looms

by Stephen Mayne -- 25 Nov 2019 -- Markets
MWI: Economic Recovery or The New Ordinary?

by Michael West -- 22 Nov 2019 -- Markets, The Economy

Despatch

News Takes and Updates

Despatch

WA brings Brookfield to heel but no excuse for privatising essential services

by Michael West -- 29 Nov 2019 -- Despatch

Governments flogging essential services, particularly monopolies, to private operators has always been a "no-no" of the highest order, at least as far as this publication is concerned. Hence our coverage of the sale of hospitals to Brookfield in the Caymans and, more recently, the Government's decision to allow Brookfield to take over aged care operator Aveo.

Johnson & Johnson’s implant failures mirrored in its reporting failures

by Michael West -- 21 Nov 2019 -- Despatch
Abbott & Turnbull right on the NBN … for all the wrong reasons

by Kim Wingerei -- 16 Sep 2019 -- Despatch
Feeding the Chooks

by Michael West -- 3 Sep 2019 -- Despatch

Stories

Operation Slippery: Russian aviation magnate diverts Australian Defence profits to tax havens

by Michael West -- 04 Dec 2019 -- Featured, Government

Australia’s Department of Defence is keeping silent. Yet it has serious questions to answer over...

Cormann’s Cuts: another plank in the push for privatisation of Australia’s visa system

by Abul Rizvi -- 03 Dec 2019 -- Government

Is the surge in Chinese and Malaysian asylum applications the reason the Government is so desperate to hive off the visa system? Abul Rizvi reports.

Where can Australians find trustworthy news and opinion?

by Alan Austin -- 27 Nov 2019 -- Business

If it is true as some assert that federal Labor cannot win elections in Australia because the mainstream media continually misrepresent its record, then what is the solution? One strategy is to replace those outlets with media which deliver trustworthy news. Alan Austin reports.

Calls for Reserve Bank as Peoples Bank as farm credit dries up

by John Carter -- 26 Nov 2019 -- Comment Analysis, Finance

The banks have virtually stopped lending to farmers, writes cattleman and veteran columnist for...

Swerving SWIFT: the story behind Westpac’s money-laundering calamity

by Nathan Lynch -- 22 Nov 2019 -- Finance, Markets

Bankrolling pedophiles, facilitating massive money-laundering schemes and terrorist-financing have branded Westpac, deservingly, an instant pariah of the banking world. As regulatory intelligence expert Nathan Lynch reveals here however, Westpac is unlikely to be alone. The story behind the story is industrial scale tax avoidance, the concealing of enormous cross-border payments

FATF caves as Australia keeps propping up property market with black money

by Nathan Lynch -- 20 Nov 2019 -- Business, Government

Nathan Lynch investigates the dark side of Australia’s 30-year economic miracle — credit growth, real estate and the business of providing a secure home for international flight capital.

Water Barons: Gina Rinehart pitches cattle against sawfish

by Triskele -- 19 Nov 2019 -- Business, Environment

Triskele looks at a proposal by Gina Rinehart to build the biggest irrigation farm in the northern hemisphere using offtake flood water from the Fitzroy River. The plan is at odds with the state government’s 2013 election commitment to create a landmark Kimberley National Park

Audit Blackout: gatekeepers cuddled while sleeping on the job

by Michael West -- 14 Nov 2019 -- Finance

Why the secrecy? Most of the Big Four’s audit inspections are blacked out; huge chunks redacted by the corporate regulators. In what other field of society would multiple breaches of the law be tolerated? asks Michael West.

Love Island Australia: Nine Entertainment chairman Peter Costello dunks Hugh Marks

by Michael West -- 13 Nov 2019 -- Markets

It was the Nine Entertainment Company annual general meeting yesterday and Peter Costello, federal treasurer turned company chairman rose to take questions from the floor. Michael West reports.

Franking Credits: Government wins as bank payouts fall, but Labor …?

by Michael West -- 12 Nov 2019 -- Government, Markets, The Economy

If Labor hoists the white flag and dumps its franking credits policy, it endorses a bizarre regime of cash hand-outs for wealthy share market investors. Michael West reports on the bank profit season, welfare for the wealthy and the winner from plunging bank payouts – Government

Tabcorp’s welfare payment from RSL veterans fund keeps pokie losses ticking

by Stephen Mayne -- 10 Nov 2019 -- Business

The RSL in Victoria is captured by the pokies lobby and Tabcorp. As we remember the fallen on Remembrance Day, don’t forget the dubious deals and scandals besetting the RSL, writes journalist and anti-gaming campaigner Stephen Mayne

Tax Cut Flop: 1080 fails to revive torpid retail sector

by Alan Austin -- 09 Nov 2019 -- Business, The Economy

Alan Austin unpacks September’s miserable retail sales data as the economy staggers from one record low to another.

Latest Aussie Tax Haven Sale: Pyramids of Brookfield get Treasurer’s tick to take aged care empire

by Michael West -- 06 Nov 2019 -- Government, Markets

Five people died at a children’s hospital in Scotland built by Brookfield, billions have been stripped offshore in Australian assets, yet Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has approved the sale of the nursing home and retirement village business Aveo.

Privatisation: public left in the dark on Sydney Ferries deal with French

by Neil Baird -- 01 Nov 2019 -- Comment Analysis, Government

Sydney Ferries has effectively been privatised,” writes Australia’s top maritime publisher and journalist Neil Baird.

Declaring a water emergency means putting people before profit

by Quentin Grafton and John Williams -- 01 Nov 2019 -- Comment Analysis, Environment, Government

The current drought in Eastern Australia has focused the attention of all Australians on water but...

Reserve Bank condemns Coalition mismanagement … not in so many words

by Alan Austin -- 31 Oct 2019 -- Government, The Economy

Monetary policy can be helpful but fiscal stimulus is also clearly needed to halt Australia’s flagging economy. Such was the latest message from the Reserve Bank Governor Philip Lowe as the Coalition stubbornly clings to its budget surplus. Alan Austin reports.

Oracle and EY: 42 breaches of the Corporations Act and counting

by Jeffrey Knapp -- 29 Oct 2019 -- Finance, Tax

“A dark pit of non-disclosure and secrecy”. A “serial lawbreaker” rewarded with lavish Australian government contracts. Forensic accountant Jeffrey Knapp takes the long-handle tech giant Oracle

PayDaze at IPFA: the Agency for Who Knows What leads the way on disclosure, not

by Jommy Tee -- 26 Oct 2019 -- Comment Analysis, Government

October in Canberra heralds the annual reporting season for government departments and agencies. Given the interest in Angus Taylor’s brainchild, the Infrastructure and Project Financing Agency (IPFA), its latest 2018/19 Annual Report was eagerly anticipated. Jommy Tee reports.