Finance
China drives Australian flying school frenzy — and punters are out for blood
The expected arrival of thousands of Chinese pilot training students over the next decade is driving the current Australian pilot training school frenzy – and the punters are out for blood, Michael Sainsbury reports.
Tax
Black holes, high-rises and the Meatloaf Principle: Australia’s top audit fails
Rupert Murdoch's $7 billion soufflé, a billion-dollar retirement village ruse by Lendlease, Pfizer's Bottom of the Canal scheme, William Hill's $55 million black hole. Michael West tenders his Dirty Dozen Top Australian audit fails in evidence to the parliamentary inquiry into the Big Four auditors.
Energy
The Ultimate Gouge: why Australia, the world’s #1 exporter, now imports gas
What an outrage it is that the Northern Territory doesn't increase its grape production, rather than importing wine from South Australia! And what about those lazy Tasmanians; rather than producing their own mangoes and pineapples they import them from Queensland!
Government
Money for Jam Land: enviro review not as independent as it’s Craik’ed up to be?
To allow the poisoning of critically endangered grasslands by a company which he part-owned, Angus Taylor pushed to have the environment legislation reviewed. The review was chaired by Dr Wendy Craik, a regular reviewer for government. Will it be a "win-win" for the wealthy financier?
Business
Worried about agents of foreign influence? Just look at who owns Australia’s biggest companies
The attention being given to possible covert influence being exercised by China in Australia shouldn’t distract us from recognising that very overt foreign influence now occurs through investment. Clinton Fernandes reports.
Markets
Australia backs wrong horse as IP rights loom large in US-China trade war
Intellectual property rights are shaping up to be the key battleground as the trade war between the United States and China escalates. And Australia’s position favours the US, writes Clinton Fernandes, even though it is patently against Australia’s interests
Despatch
News Takes and Updates
Despatch
Latest
Abbott & Turnbull right on the NBN … for all the wrong reasons
The National Broadband Network is an unmitigated disaster not just for broadband delivery in Australia, but for how it has contributed to the devaluation of a whole industry sector.
Stories
Smoke and Mirrors: how the ABS tarted up the numbers for Josh Frydenberg
Someone is not getting their funding cut. It’s the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the Quiet Australians! It has been a week, and nobody seems to have noticed, but the front page of the GDP release has been doctored
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Angus Taylor’s agency flipped to Tudge, gives executive pay another nudge
There is still no evidence that IPFA does much but Angus Taylor’s brainchild has just delivered executives another round of lucrative contracts. Jommy Tee and Ronni Salt chronicle the latest movements at the enigmatic Infrastructure and Project Financing Agency (IPFA)
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Corporate profits and government spending boom while wages and economy languish
The supreme irony of the latest, listless GDP data is that private demand has been propped up by “brisk” government spending. There are serious questions over the Government’s competence to run the economy, reports Alan Austin.
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Political Game: boat people demonised, Bilos deported, while record numbers pour in by plane
Though routinely demonised in the Murdoch press, the numbers of asylum seekers arriving by boat are dwarfed by those arriving by plane. Former News Corp journalists Anthony Klan and Michael Sainsbury look at the latest numbers
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Scomo’s mate’s mate and the billion-dollar privatisation of Australia’s visa system
Meet the Tripodinas, the Sydney fruit and veg moguls and Liberal Party donors behind the bid to privatise Australia’s visa system
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Australia’s monopsonistic relationship with Beijing could tip it into recession
With China wielding its big stick over Australia, our monopsonistic relationship could tip it into recession, warns Michael Sainsbury.
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Gonski 2.0 a Sausage Factory
Who will Gonski Gonski? The Gonski 2.0 proposals are flawed, heavy in bureaucracy and will stifle creativity in children, writes classroom teacher, Paul Johnson
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Julian Assange smears fade as Wikileaks witnesses concede he was not reckless, did protect informants
For nine years, Julian Assange has been accused of risking lives and refusing to redact the names of informers in the 2010 Afghan War Logs release. That narrative, driven by governments and global media, exploded last week in an eye-witness speech given by investigative journalist Mark Davis.
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Trumped Up: Wiki cables show Australia thinks Iran is not the aggressor
Wikileaks cables reveal Iran presents no threat to Australia and little threat to the US. Instead, clear intelligence from the US, Australia and Iran confirms Iran, although portrayed as aggressive, has pursued a defensive military strategy. Clinton Fernandez reports.
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What the Bureau of Statistics didn’t highlight: our continuing upward redistribution of wealth
The results of the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics biennial survey of income and wealth have met with an uneven response, perhaps in part due to a slipshod press release. Christopher Sheil and Frank Stilwell report.
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Who Guards the Guards? Big Four prepare for war as beach-side senator brings corporate inquiry
A former school teacher from Copacabana Beach has just locked horns with the four most powerful private institutions on the planet. And they don’t like it. The shoddy audit standards, massive government consulting business and global tax avoidance
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In supporting jobless, Australia comes a stone cold, motherless last
Another global agency has exposed Australia as bringing up the rear in care for the disadvantaged. Alan Austin reports from Europe.
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Media dead silent as Wikileaks insider explodes the myths around Julian Assange
It is the cowardly and conniving journalists from The Guardian and New York Times who should be in jail, not Julian Assange, said Mark Davis last week. Davis has turned the Julian Assange narrative on its head.
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Mate Versus Mate: Inside ScoMo’s billion-dollar visa privatisation
Is Scott Briggs – Scott Morrison mate, Liberal staffer, News Corp lobbyist and Packer empire crisis consultant – now the front-runner to win the Government’s billion-dollar privatisation of Australia’s visa system? Or is it his rival suitors from Accenture and Australia Post, a consortium packed with Liberal Party identities?
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Has ACCC let Facebook and Google off the hook?
Australia’s consumer watchdog, the ACCC, has released its long-awaited final report on the market power of Facebook and Google. Long on rhetoric (all 623 pages of it) and short on recommendations, it’s unlikely to dent the massive market power of these search and social media behemoths. Kim Wingerei reports.
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Sleek pay, oblique performance: Angus Taylor’s first government agency, the IPFA
When Angus Taylor was first promoted to the ministry as Assistant Minister for Cities and Digital Transformation in February 2016, he drew on his wealth of knowledge of consultancies to set up the little-known IPFA, the Infrastructure and Project Financing Agency
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Qantas gilds lily on Macau lobsters deal with Triads
“Possibly the most expensive crustaceans in history at roughly $4,000 per lobster”. Qantas took a multi-million dollar hit to its bottom line as it engaged in a drawn-out contractual battle with its Macau freight partner, JetFast Limited, a company which had financial backing from the son of an accused Triad kingpin.
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Fencegate: lawyer arrested, charged with crimes against humanity for sending too many emails to local council
Have you ever had a fence? Have you ever had a neighbour? When was the last time you were arrested and plonked in a police cell for annoying your local councillors? If you have tears, prepare to shed them now. Michael West reports on #fencegate.
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Propaganda Prescription: how Australia can get its economic mojo back
The Liberal Party, its ideological ally the IPA and Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp have done a remarkable job of pushing the false narrative of superior Liberal economic management. The Labor Party has invited submissions to its 2019 campaign review. Alan Austin, who offers a solution.
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Crown Resorts board: is Orange the New Black?
Where does “the buck” stop? When it comes to corporations, the buck stops with the board. This is why directors are paid big bucks. They are ultimately responsible when allegations of corruption arise, as has been the case this week with dramatic revelations of Crown Resorts facilitating organised crime. Michael Sainsbury reports.
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Revolving Doors
Australian politicians and bureaucrats with links to fossil fuel & resource extraction industries.
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Top 40 Tax Dodgers for 2019
Who are Australia’s biggest Corporate Tax Dodgers using 4 years Australian Tax Office transparency data.
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