Google Australia pays pitifully tiny tax for its size – just $100 million last year despite booking $4.8 billion locally in advertising revenue. Yet now Google claims that its value to Australia is more than $50 billion and it is responsible for 280,000 jobs although it merely employs 1800 people.
most recent search Elizabeth Minter
JobSlayer: gas giants grab $300m subsidy then axe 3000 workers
The Government touts gas as a key plank of JobMaker, its Covid-19 recession recovery plan. To help “support jobs” the government has given the gas industry $300 million of taxpayers’ money in subsidies. In return, the industry has cut about 3000 workers, more than 10% of it workforce, in a boom production year.
AdRorts: the latest corrupt practice in a prodigious body of Coalition dirty work
Is the Covid-19 vaccine the Liberal Party’s vaccine or the Australian Government’s vaccine? It’s not their money but the Liberal Party has its logo plastered across advertisements for millions in Government grants. This #AdRort campaign is but the latest in a grotesque throng of rorts, such that this must surely be the most corrupt government in Australia’s history. Elizabeth Minter and Michael West report.
Housing Hypocrites: Tim Wilson’s housing affordability crusade just an assault on super
Liberal MP Tim Wilson is the latest Coalition politician to cry crocodile tears over the housing affordability crisis, calling for Australians to access their superannuation to buy a house. Wilson’s call however is supreme hypocrisy, writes Elizabeth Minter. Coalition policies – including negative gearing, property subsidies, money-laundering, super fund borrowing and banking and lending standards – are ample evidence.
Pork Barrelling Inquiry to probe bushfire funds routed to Coalition, a billionaire and the extraordinary Wagga Wagga windfall
The Pork Barrelling Inquiry will be expanded to hear claims that bushfire funding has been diverted to Coalition political mates and even the industrial projects of billionaire Anthony Pratt. The move follows an investigation here by Elizabeth Minter into a $177 million bushfire recovery scheme which only a handful of Coalition figures and the MP for Wagga Wagga seem to have had heard about.
Bushfire Rorts: Coalition targets bushfire recovery funds for Coalition seats
Federal and state funds for bushfire recovery have been heavily skewed in favour of Coalition seats with NSW State Labor picking up just 1% of $177 million handed out. Elizabeth Minter investigates
Australia’s environmental scientists intimidated, silenced by threats of job loss
The silencing of environmental scientists, as revealed in a study late last year, is profoundly damaging to our democracy, wastes taxpayers’ money, takes a huge personal toll, allows fake news to proliferate and short-changes the public. Elizabeth Minter reports.
Donald Trump deserted by corporate funders now regulations are gutted and tax breaks banked
Corporate America is frantically distancing itself from Donald Trump in the dying days of his presidency after spending four years financing him, enjoying his tax giveaways, his attacks on workers and gutting of regulations to fatten corporate profits. Elizabeth Minter reports on the rank hypocrisy, even extending to Scott Morrison’s top adviser on Covid-19 economic recovery.
In too deep: when Gladys’ and John’s rorts go wrong
Gladys Berejiklian’s defence of pork barrelling will hardly enthuse ratepayers in Batemans Bay, or taxpayers for that matter. The local government debacle over a Leisure Centre, which got the tick from Deputy Premier John Barilaro in dubious circumstances is the quintessential object lesson in why governments should do their homework before they start throwing money around for political reasons. Elizabeth Minter reports.
High Profits, Low Principles: betting losses balloon as Big 4 keep lending to gamblers
The Big 4 banks - ANZ, Westpac, CommBank and NAB - continue to lend people money to gamble with. You can't get a personal loan from a bank to use for gambling. So how is gambling a permitted purpose for a credit card? On what planet is this considered "responsible...
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Are we more depressed or more diagnosed?
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM 5), which finds widespread use in Australia and across the world, by physicians, researchers, courts, and schools, lists more than 300 criteria for depression, which makes the meaning of a diagnosis so...
Northern Ireland deja vu: They’re burning buses again
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I’ll have what Scott’s having, thanks!
It is important that all Australians be vaccinated against Covid-19, but they deserve to be able to choose the vaccine that best suits them. As the federal government’s rollout plan implodes, the good news is that it now seems likely that all Australians who want it...
U.S. Foreign Policy Flow Chart
Here’s a handy U.S. foreign policy flow chart. Share and Enjoy !SHARE TWEET SHARE COPY EMAIL PRINT
War footing groupthink; subsidies and socialism; glasshouses and stones
Upside down, inside out and black is white. Journalists fall over themselves to paint Scott Morrison as a courageous leader, the Financial Review lauds the “very affordable” housing market, in defiance of just about every expert in the country, and Tax...
