Finance
Latest
CBA’s BankWest takeover debacle and APRA’s “appalling” regulatory fail
When the HBOS Group collapsed in 2008, UK taxpayers were left to fund a £17 billion bank bail-out. It was a prudential disaster that contributed to the break-up of the UK's Financial Services Authority (FSA).
Tax
Latest
Lend Lease: double dipping and Dutch tripping
What Lendlease has been doing is buying villages, claiming a bonanza of deductions by changing the contracts from lease to loan arrangements, booking the benefit of those deductions to its bottom line, and ignoring the tax law that says you can’t double dip.
Energy
Latest
APA: why do foreign energy giants covet Australian assets? We’re a soft touch
Unless it wants gas prices to shoot up, and Australia's monopoly pipeline operator to be controlled by a Hong Kong billionaire via the Cayman Islands who is not keen on paying tax, the government would be mad to give the green light to this $13 billion APA takeover.
Government
Latest
Trump talks America First but his actions are China First
Donald Trump promised to put America, and especially American workers, first in every decision,...
Business
Latest
Stranglehold: global tech giants push up prices
Noticed the price of an Uber sneaking up lately? Rising fees perhaps from online travel agencies...
Markets
Latest
ETF Fightback: passive manager attacks the active myths
It’s no coincidence that the groups most threatened by the groundswell of money into ETFs and index investing are also their staunchest and most vocal opponents. Any time there is hostile press on ETFs, you can be sure the author behind it is an active fund manager.
Sydney Democracy Network
Sydney Democracy Network
Despatch
Recent Stories
Top 40: Platinum takes gong as Australia’s top corporate taxpayer
Australia’s number one corporate taxpayer is Platinum Asset Management. Founded and controlled by legendary investor Kerr Neilson, Platinum pays more tax, dollar-for-dollar of income, than any other large company in this country.
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Road-bump for government by consultants amid UK calls for Big Four bust-up
The ultimate “take-out” is that the cost of government is rising, not falling, despite the cuts to bureaucracy and despite the rhetoric of private sector efficiency
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Marty Cohen: the man behind CBA’s sales culture unveiled
“Rah-rah-style motivational forums” and a $40 million chit for US consultant Marty Cohen helped to shape the aggressive cross-selling Commonwealth Bank sales culture which led, in part, to the customer disaster now unfolding at the banking Royal Commission. Michael Sainsbury reports.
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Glencore, media battles and the pitfalls of fighting a multinational
There was one simple goal: to find out how much income tax was paid by Glencore, Australia’s biggest coal miner. Our quest had more spills than a Blues Brothers movie. We were met with the threat of a lawsuit, newspaper editors caving in with grovelling apologies, weeks of company searches costing hundreds of dollars, a hostile PR offensive run in rival media and the mining lobby and were still none the wiser.
Read More
The BCA, fake pub-tests and the impending propaganda blitz
Senate hearing, April 24, 2018 Senator Lee Rhiannon: You have again repeated this supposed...
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Six top aged care operators reap $2 billion from taxpayers, pay little tax
Wherever taxpayer dollars up for grabs, rent-seekers will be there by the dozen. In Australia’s aged care sector, governments pick up some 70 per cent of the chit while private providers rake in the profits, often deploying aggressive tax avoidance schemes. The upshot is that taxpayers effectively get hit twice.
Read More
Country by Country: warning OECD may sabotage EU transparency again
The endless battle against the business lobby for tax justice and transparency proceeds apace. The European Council is scheduled to meet in Brussels on May 25 and will likely consider new rules on corporate transparency
Read MoreExclusive interview: unlocking the secrets of DisConnex
Exclusive interview with head of Australia’s biggest infrastructure project, DisConnex. Project secrecy, cost, engineering and impending privatisation.
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Paul Budde: Is this the NBN cost-benefit vindication?
In the light of the yet to be published report on the social and economic benefits of the NBN,...
Read More
Good timing: Australia Post in talks to become a bank
The banks will fight it tooth and nail. Australia Post is considering becoming a bank, a move which could deliver significant competition to the country’s banking oligopoly through lower fees and lower-cost mortgages.
Read More
Dick Smith disaster turns legal circus amid bank contortions
A phalanx of forty lawyers will parade into a Sydney courtroom this morning to spar over the...
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Royal Commission: no easy fix for systemic corruption
There has been great surprise at the revelations of bad behaviour by this country’s biggest...
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Spectre of foreign regulatory action as AMP crimes worse than Rio Tinto
It is clear that the “misconduct” of the senior executives of AMP is far worse than the “misconduct” of the senior executives of Rio Tinto and the revelation of this misconduct by the Royal Commission had a material effect on the share price of AMP shares.
Read More
Multinationals mollycoddled: former ATO official calls for tax secrecy to go
The number one weapon of the multinational tax avoider is secrecy. Together with tougher...
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#Top40 Tax Dodgers Countdown: critics and trends
Why are the likes Origin Energy and Pfizer not in the Top 40? Why not Qantas? Where is Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, or Google, Facebook, eBay and Apple?
Read MoreWith All Due Respect – University Reforms
Rebranding University of Western Sydney into Western Sydney University. Cost $10 million. Interview with Education Minister Harry Diculous on the critical reforms in universities.
Read More
WestConnex: what NSW must learn from Victoria and Queensland
Heads you win, tails we lose. Is this a guiding principle in the privatisation of Australia’s biggest infrastructure project, WestConnex? As laid out in our “Blind Faith” investigation, the government of NSW has tilted the playing field in favour of WestConnex bidders thanks to a scheme to artificially make the tollroads longer, and by jacking up both the number of roads tolled and the tolls themselves.
Read More
Married at First Sight: accountants stuck in a bad marriage
Notwithstanding infidelity and the infamous boys’ night out, the union of Dean and Tracey on Married at First Sight appears to be similarly functional to the marriage of the Big Four peak body, the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia with its New Zealand beau … that is, not very functional at all.
Read More
Tax Office puts foxes in charge of henhouse again … for small business
The taxman is tougher on small business than big business, of that there is no doubt. Here are two short stories: one of Susan and Greg, a couple from Queensland who lost their house after running a cafe for 16 years
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Taxman closes in as William Hill skips the country
UK betting giant, William Hill, is selling out of its Australian gambling operation, this country’s biggest, while it is under investigation by the Tax Office, likely for dubious transactions exposed here.
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The emerging Chinese economic storm is Turnbull’s biggest threat
In the endless election cycle that Australian politics has become, Malcolm Turnbull is facing a...
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Helen Bender and CSG: a tale of two Queensland towns – Goondiwindi and Miles
Helen Bender tragically lost her father, fifth generation farmer, George Bender, after a long,...
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Paul Budde: Is there a business case for the National Broadband Network?
Paul Budde, one of the world’s foremost telecommunications management and business consultants,...
Read More
Snicko Cricket Australia – it’s just not cricket
Australians hold their young cricketers to a far higher standard than their politicians and business leaders. The following analysis of Cricket Australia, the sport’s governing body, is a case in point. We discovered a litany of rule-breaking.
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View the complete top 40 Tax Dodgers list here
View the complete top 40 Tax Heroes list here
View the complete top 40 Tax Payers list here
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New Michael West Podcast
Created by PodcastOne, this 3 part series looks into how Australia has gone from one of the cheapest countries in the world for energy to one of the most expensive, and reveals just what has happened with our gas and electricity supply and why we are on the verge of an energy crisis.