LIB-NATS HAVE YET TO PRODUCE A REPUTABLE BUDGET : MEANWHILE THE RICH, POWERFUL & CORPORATE ARE REFINING THE ART OF TAX DODGING. READ MORE.

Australia doesn’t have a spending problem, it has a revenue problem. Over 30% of corporations based in Australia in the last financial year paid NO TAX, while the majority of those that paid tax paid less than 5% tax. 

It is obvious to everyone, except our Federal politicians, that Australia has a revenue problem. While on a daily basis the corporate owned media carries on about welfare fraud and the burden carried by the community because 33% of Australians rely on old age, disability, unemployment and single parents benefits to survive. How many Australians know that Murdoch owned News Corporation (which owns over 70% of Australia’s newspapers) received an 886 million dollar tax refund during the 2013/2014 financial year and paid NO TAX during the 2014/2015 financial year, while 21st Century Fox, Murdoch’s other media arm, paid less than 1% tax during the same period?

It seems, in Australia, there is one set of taxation laws for corporations and another set for the rest of the community. Unless Federal politicians, of all political hues, are willing to make corporate taxation revenue their number one priority during 2016, we can expect to be told, ad nauseam, there is not enough money for 

PUBLIC HEALTH,

PUBLIC EDUCATION, 

PUBLIC HOUSING, 

PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE,

SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFITS.

Read and/or download the full article below 

Hiding behind a proposed name change. If Transfield Services are doing this, will Wilson's Security follow suit?

Transfield Services to be renamed Broadspectrum Fr Rod's open letter to the Chair Diane Smith-Gander Transfield...
Posted by Anglican Parish of Gosford on Friday, 25 September 2015

THE WALMARTIZATION OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS IN THE USA AND ABBOTT GOVERNMENT PROPOSALS TO CHANGE AUSTRALIA'S UNIVERSAL EDUCATION SYSTEM

In recent times, Networkers will have heard of the proposals put forward to the Abbott Government which would impact the Australian idea and ideal of a state-run universal education system which is free and secular. I have received to-day the letter which is published below, 24 June 2015, and I believe I can see in this American document the seeds of the proposals before the Abbott Government.

BACKGROUND ON AUSTRALIAN INVOLVEMENT WITH WALMART
Over the years, The Network has published a number of posts relating to Walmart and to the former Woolworths CEO and Walmart Board Member, Roger Corbett.  Corbett, a former CEO of Woolworths, is well known across corporate circles in Australia and sits on a variety of corporate boards.  When Corbett retired from his position at Woolworths, it was expected that his next-in-line, Greg Foran, would fill his shoes.  This did not happen.  Greg Foran was passed over for his own next-in-line.  It was only a short while before Foran resigned from Woolworths. A short while later and Foran surfaced at Walmart head office in Arkansas, USA. A short while later, Foran was in China fixing up some very serious problems there.  Here are links which will give an idea of the changes Foran wants to bring to Walmart.

Walmart is notorious for the fact that a full-time worker can still have to survive on food stamps (American welfare/social security payments).  Foran, on appointment, announced that wages would be increased.  Gender and race discrimination have been part and parcel of working life at Walmart.  If you are black, progression has been difficult. If you are a woman, progression has been difficult. If you are black and female, forget progression!  This appears to be changing too.

Now, in 2015, Woolworths is behind the eight-ball in Australia with Aldi and Coles the forerunners. Things have not been going well for Woolies.  People are being laid off and the CEO (appointed instead of Foran) has stepped down.  Now the question is being asked - Will Greg Foran return to lead Woolworths out of its dire straits?

It is unlikely that the CEO of Walmart has anything to do with the Walton Family Foundation mentioned below. Networkers will note reference to "charter schools".  Here is one definition of such schools.  It is not clear - yet - what is the exact expectation to be crystallised from the proposal to the Abbott Government.  However, it is fair to say that Abbott and/or his supporters are considering changes to the Australian public education system which will take it away from the system that Australians have known and of which they are justifiably proud.  

Making Change At Walmart info@changewalmart.org via bounce.bluestatedigital.com	05:09 (16 hours ago)

Dear Brigid, Apparently, the Waltons aren’t satisfied with owning the largest low-wage employer in the country and being the richest family in the world. They’ve also been working (and by “working” we mean “spending”) overtime to undermine America’s K-12 education system. A new report out today from Cashing in on Kids shows the Walton Family Foundation is spending billions to implement a hardcore ideological agenda of replacing public schools with a privatized system that will be open to exploitation by private corporations. To put it succinctly, the Waltons are hell-bent on the “Walmartization” of public education. In addition to the billions spent by the Walton Family Foundation in pursuit of this agenda, members of the Walton family have funneled millions of dollars to education-related ballot measures and politicians who back their agenda. Stop the Walmartization of America’s public schools. Tell the Waltons to hold charter schools accountable. Sign the petition here. Lest there be any doubt, the Waltons’ meddling in education policy seriously threatens America’s historic commitment to the principle of free and equal access to public education. As the new report reveals, the Walton Family Foundation puts their money behind reforms that undermine the promise of universal public education in three key ways: By diverting taxpayer dollars from public schools to privately operated schools that are not required to admit and educate all students. By supporting efforts to close down public schools in poor neighborhoods and lay off experienced teachers in order to make room for privately-operated schools staffed by recent college graduates with only 5 weeks of teacher training. By blocking legislation to ensure public oversight and accountability of privately-operated schools funded with taxpayer dollars. To add insult to injury, the Waltons (who collect $8.5 million/day in stock dividends from low-wage Walmart) claim their education reform agenda will help lift children out of poverty. Of course, if the Waltons really care about lifting children out of poverty, they can act today – right now – to implement a $15/hour minimum wage at the country’s largest private employer, Walmart. We’re waiting... In the meantime, click here to sign the petition, and share it on social media. Tell the Walmart heirs to hold charter schools accountable. This email was sent to misseaglesnetwork@gmail.com | Unsubscribe

LEGAL NOTICE: UFCW and OUR Walmart have the purpose of helping Walmart employees as individuals or groups in their dealings with Walmart over labor rights and standards and their efforts to have Walmart publicly commit to adhering to labor rights and standards. UFCW and OUR Walmart have no intent to have Walmart recognize or bargain with UFCW or OUR Walmart as the representative of Walmart employees.

Part 4: 'Slaving Away' outfall and fall-out : Woolworths admits moral responsibiity at Senate Inquiry : still refusing to meet workers and the National Union of Workers

Cross-posted with Advocacy

Dear Brigid Today saw NUW members speak at the first Senate Inquiry into Australia's temporary work visas. The NUW remains firm: Coles and Woolworths have the power to fix this Labour hire agencies need to be regulated No workers should be forced to work for poverty wages in our fresh food supply chain We cannot allow a two-class system to remain in Australia. Every worker counts! Woolworths also appeared at today's Senate Inquiry, and admitted moral responsibility for underpaid farm workers. However, Woolworths are still refusing to meet with workers and the NUW to talk about a Fair Food Agreement to eradicate exploitation from our fresh food. Help put the pressure on and sign the petition here! And remember, we all have friends and family that can help. Share this petition with your community. NUW's Godfrey Moase, Winnie Lin, Caterina Cinanni, Sherry Huang and George Robertson with Senator Sue Lines and Senator Deborah O'Neill If you haven't watched the Four Corners program that exposed exploitation, you can watch it here. In unity, Tim Kennedy National Secretary National Union of Workers Email: nuwassist@nuw.org.au Call: 1300 275 689 National: 833 Bourke St, Docklands VIC 3008 Click here for office locations Website: www.nuw.org.au © Copyright National Union of Workers Unsubscribe

TWU boss calls for all migrant workers to be given the vote Workplace watchdog aims for top of retailers' supply chain on worker exploitation We need a new class of visa for low-skilled migrant workers Taskforce to target worker exploitation, visa fraud following 'slave labour' revelations Inquiries into 417 visa to be expanded Previous posts referencing this topic  can be found on this site at: Part 1 - Slavery in Australia. Is the 'Let 'er rip" attitude on visas for overseas workers going to be stopped? The Robinvale experience Part 2 - Names have been named in "Slaving Away".  Here they are recorded below and their responses. Part 3: The conscious consumer becomes the aware and ethical shopper.  Destroy the slavers from the checkouts of Australia! What are you buying? How did it get to you?  Whose hands has it passed through?

Part 3: The conscious consumer becomes the aware and ethical shopper. Destroy the slavers from the checkouts of Australia!

PLEASE NOTE THERE IS A PETITION TO SIGN 

AFTER LAST NIGHT'S SLAVING AWAY ON FOUR CORNERS. 

PLEASE SIGN IT. GET IT AROUND. YOU WILL FIND IT HERE.

Hopefully, this post, Part 3 on the Four Corners program, Slaving Away, is the last ... but who knows?

Please remember the words at left: 

Every time you spend money, 

you're casting a vote 

for the kind of world you want.

One thing Slaving Away makes clear is there is room for the conscientious, ethical shopper.  If you are someone who has breezed through your shopping only focusing on personal needs or needs of your household; if you are someone who has never considered the term 'ethics' in relation to visits to Coles, Aldi, Woolworths, then now is the time to step up.

First of all, let me introduce you to Shop Ethical!  

Shop Ethical! still continues as it started - a booklet you can keep with your wallet for your shopping trips.  Then it became a website. And now, for your smart phone, there is an app.  Shop Ethical can tell you about sustainable fishing, fair trade, human and animal rights abuses... and more.

However, it is best if you can keep up for yourself because quite often the naughties make the headlines.

Take Baiada, the poultry people. Their brands are well-known: Lilydale (a major supplier to Coles  and even the cooked chooks at Coles are Lilydale) and Steggles. 

However, it is not only chooks that Baiada kill.  They kill people too. And racism has been an issue within its migrant workforce.  Hardly the employer of your choice - that's if you really had a choice, which many migrant workers do not have.

I steer clear of Baiada products since all that came to my notice.  I am predominantly vegetarian but another household member is a carnivore - so chook is bought once a week for that person.  However, since the slavery accusations, I have declared to the household that chicken is DEFINITELY off the menu until I can find a really ethical source.  I don't rank my chances highly!

Akers Farms (turn to Part 2) apparently provides most of the sweet potatoes up and down the east coast.  I'm going to go back to local farmers markets and see what I can find in the way of an ethical source.  

As you, the ethical consumer will realise, fruit and veg in the major suppliers comes either on a plastic wrapped tray or loose.  I've never paid much attention - but I did happen to note that I bought some packaged celery and zucchini from Aldi and one gave information about the supplier.  I think we, as ethical shoppers, have to be able to check the source of a product if we wish.  So I am going to be writing to the Big 3 asking for the source of the product to be supplied on the loose fruit and veg.  

It is noteworthy that Slaving Away did not deal with Metcash, the suppliers of IGAs.  Not enough hours in the day?  Brands the same and if dealt with once in the Big 3, no need to go there again?

So what will the ethical shopper be looking out for:

• Fair Trade -v- Unfair Trade
• Animal cruelty
• Human cruelty - as in Slaving Away
• Fair pay and safe working conditions
• Union membership
• Local product and produce to support local jobs and firms
• Ethical corporate conduct
• Pricing - fair, too high, too low.  Watch out for too low. How? Why? What shortcuts?
• Quality

If you think of a few other necessary things to add to the above list, please let me know.

Women and the corporate world in Australia - all push and no give

Picture from here

This was in The Age this morning. http://goo.gl/kJAPoQ - 

so I want to put the bleeding obvious out there 

which is constantly and consistently overlooked.

1. Australia has had a Sex Discrimination Act since 1984 - as part of Australia's ratification of United Nations Human Rights and the Convention to Eliminate Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)

2. A decision was made - which has turned out to be less than really useful - to encourage Australian employers to do the "right thing" by a carrot and stick method which has proved, over time, to be almost completely ineffective.

3. At this stage in time we should not have targets like wouldn't it be nice to have 30% of women on boards. What would make more sense to me would be to have 50% of boards with only 30% of men on them.

I can see that Nicola Wakefield Evans and the @Australian Institute of Company Directors http://goo.gl/Uiee57 might want to do the right thing - but they are merely setting themselves up for yet another failure to effect any meaningful change. In fact, it is all too little and all too late. If someone wishes to make an argument for gradual change, so be it. But what is it worth after more than three decades of failure?

New target set: 30pc women on boards by 2018

The Australian Institute of Company Directors wants ASX 200 companies to voluntarily meet a target of 30 per cent of board seats to be filled by women by 2018.

THEAGE.COM.AU

Unethical mining corporations? Take a look at FreeportMcMorRan and Barrick Gold.

Australian miners overseas are no angels.

Think polluted watercourses, damaged food lands.

Think the Australia-Timor Leste martime boundary. 

Australian miner wants to mine close to a world heritage site.

No mining in Lower Zambezi National Park.

However, North America seems to provide a particularly nasty brood of miners.  Think Freeport McMoRan in West Papua/Irian Jaya.  And think this doozie of Barrick Gold's irresponsibility on the other side of the border in Porgera, Papua New Guinea.  Clearly, Barrick has ways and means of achieving its published goals of disciplined, profitable production.

Huffington Post has done us a great service.  It has compiled a list of thirteen corporations who are the most unethical in the whole wide world. And you will find a surprise - well, no surprise actually - in who came in No.1 --- and it wasn't a mining corporation!

Clearly, the governments on our planet

are doing a poor job of keeping corporations honest and ethical.

Just send these major corporations abroad

and you will lose friends and fail to influence the locals -

but then my guess is that there are handouts

to governments and other international influencers, aren't there?

Canadian mining companies the worst...

Senator Scott Ludlam questions operations of Australian mining companies overseas

Gas crisis for NSW? - Will someone tell govt, business & the moneybags lot that the time for lies, disguises, and self-interest is over

Is Adani - capitalizing on Queensland coal - down on its uppers? Who are these miners? Miners of our credibility as well as our resources?

Many thanks to my good mate Denis Wilson from The Nature of Robertson for keeping me in the loop with this information.  I have posted on Adani and his Queensland coal interests before. You will find these posts here.  The story below comes from here.  It s an article by Dev Chatterjee writing from Mumbai in India's Business Standard.

~~~~~~~~~~

Investors worried how long Adani Group will keep its head above water

Group faces severe debt and financing issues, which it says it is addressing; however, much work ahead

11

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Read more on:    Greenpeace | Pawan Dharnidharka | Gautam Adani | Adani Enterprises

RELATED NEWS

• APSEZ promoters sell 2.5% stake to meet minimum holding norm
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• Adani Power falls on preferential issue to promoters at discount
• Adani Enterprises posts standalone net loss in Q4

For Pawan Dharnidharka, a stock investor in Adani Enterprises (AEL), the year 2013 has not been a good one. The company's stock has lost 35 per cent of its value since January, making investors jittery.

The reasons are obvious - rising finance cost and declining profits. AEL, holding company of the group, had net debt as on March of Rs 54,496 crore, down from Rs 63,155 crore a year before, by Bloomberg data. The company managed to bring its debt down by selling its Australian asset to its own promoter family.

What is worrying is that the consolidated interest cost rose from Rs 1,825.6 crore in 2011-12 to Rs 3,493 crore for 2012-13, as its power business continued to drag it down. "Our power business went through trying times, overcoming structural bottlenecks of coal availability, increased prices and constraints on power evacuation. With focused efforts, we expect an early resolution on these matters," said Devang Desai, chief financial officer, Adani Group and executive director of AE. (Click here for chart)

Earlier 
AEL was founded in 1988 in Ahmedabad. Today, it has interests in a wide range of businesses - trading, coal mining, realty, shipping, city gas distribution, power generation, edible oil refining, grain storage, food processing. The growth has been phenomenal since it went public in 1994.

During the early years, the Gautam Adani-owned company focused on trading. But with the opening of the economy, it saw a big opportunity in infrastructure development. Soon, it had interests in ports across India, coal mine development, power generation, city gas distribution and real estate. It made an audacious move to buy a massive coal mine in Australia - which soon faced environmental opposition, led by Greenpeace.

Soon after its Australian acquisition, the group realised it had to manage its debt as priority. Early this year, a subsidiary company, Adani Ports and SEZ, announced the sale of the Abbott Point asset to the Adani family at the book value. On a consolidated level, ADSEZ invested $2.2bn in the Abbott Point asset. If ADSEZ gets its full investment back, AE's net profit would go up by five to seven per cent from FY14-15 onwards, reflecting the removal of the Abbott Point losses, say analysts.

The group also decided to freeze its investments in Australia. Till now, the company has made a total investment of $675 mn in mining projects there and is waiting for environmental clearance for the coal mine and a railway line. These are expected in the next six months and till then it has not planned any major capital expenditure in Australia.

Issues
One of the biggest drags for the Adani group is its power business. Adani Power made a massive loss of Rs 1,952 crore in 2012-13. The weak performance was driven by high fuel cost, due to lower consumption of cheaper coal from its mines abroad and from Coal India, apart from higher interest expense.

The power company is hoping to be able to renegotiate its power purchase agreement with various state governments. It was to use coal from Indonesia and the argument is that the government there had changed policies on coal export midway. However, state power distribution companies are planning to challenge this argument in court.

The good news for the group is that the traffic of Adani Port & SEZ went up in 2012-13, though its margins were disappointing. The company attributed this to a higher cargo mix and also higher container traffic from the Mundra (Kutch) terminal. On the balance sheet of Adani Port, consolidated debt has come down to Rs 11,000 crore from the earlier Rs 21,000 crore, with the Australian asset sale.

So far, the Adanis have managed to stay out of a debt trap. The question is whether they'd be able to manage their rising debt and finance cost. There is no guarantee that the power business will start adding to the group's profitability in the near future. The group's hope is that falling interest rates in India and low cost loans from abroad will help it refinance its earlier expensive loans and reduce the rising finance cost. Bankers say the falling rupee against the dollar is a big worry for the group as its forex loans are close to $5 billion and it could jeopardise the entire debt recast plan.

Till the company comes out of the woods, Dharnidharka will have to wait, as will other Adani investors. "I am worried, as I have lost a lot of money in the company's stock this year," he says. "I hope the group will be able to manage its debt soon."

The succession planning of rich and famous Australians - and the sick-making IPA

No. What I am posting below is not paid advertising.  The motto at The Network is "Freely, freely you have received.  Freely, freely give." No matter that Messrs Google & Co ply with advice on putting Adsense on my blog.

No - I am posting this for the snippets of insight it gives to an organisation I distrust and loathe: the Institute of Public Affairs.  The old adage suggests you will be judged by the company you keep ... and that is why I am posting this from The Monthly.   Rupert is an old man without a clear succession plan. Gina's succession plan seems to have come down to one - in spite of her family being somewhat larger. As for Andrew Bolt, Miss Eagle hopes there is no succession, planned or otherwise.

~~~~~~~~~~~

THE MONTHLY JUNE 2013 HIGHLIGHTS

EDITOR’S NOTE The Institute of Public Affairs is a right-wing, free market–cheering think-tank that gets significant support from Gina Rinehart and Rupert Murdoch. No one outside of the IPA knows how much, but it’s a lot – enough, as Media Watch pointed out last Monday, for the IPA to spruik Rinehart’s distinctly anti free–market notion to create a special economic zone in tropical Australia.  In April, the IPA celebrated its 70th birthday at the National Gallery of Victoria with a dinner speech from the News Ltd chairman, whose father, Keith Murdoch, helped set up the Institute. Tickets were $495, or double that if you wished to meet the mogul. Tony Abbott was there, as was George Pell. News Ltd’s Agent 007 – and the apple of Rinehart’s eye at Channel 10 – Andrew Bolt, was MC. For his speech extolling the “morality” of free markets, Murdoch was presented with a drawing of himself as a knight in shining armour. Rinehart, too, was on hand, to receive the IPA’s “Leadership in Free Enterprise” award. Further prizes were auctioned off to help top up IPA funds. A tour of the Reagan ranch in Santa Barbara went to Rinehart, for $25,000, and a behind-the-scenes look at The Bolt Report was snapped up for the same amount by her daughter, Ginia (the loyal one). Guests other than the Rineharts were left to bid for a morning tea with Murdoch columnist Janet Albrechtsen and friends, or a visit to Murdoch’s Fox News studios in New York. Each sold for $20,000. One of the IPA’s chief laments has always been that a left-wing, latte-sipping, chardonnay-quaffing, politically correct intelligentsia is wrecking the country for the rest of the population. Coincidentally, this theme has also been the driving obsession of Murdoch’s other key voice in this country, the Australian. On 13 May, the two mouthpieces joined as one, with the IPA hosting the Melbourne launch of The Lucky Culture, a book by the Australian’s opinion editor, Nick Cater. The Lucky Culture is not exactly fresh, being more or less a slap-together of commentary pieces Cater has been flogging ad nauseam on his pages over the years. And the launch was the fifth in a week – were it a boat, you’d be suspicious: all that champagne against the bow, and still no one knows if the thing can actually float. Still, the chagrined old white men of the IPA shuffled in droves to hear Cater, an Englishman, affirm that generations of Australians were being over-educated to the point of disagreeing with them. Down with mass university enrolment; it only breeds leftist group-think. Australians have been dumbed-up, as it were – the country would be much better off if we’d all been left to think for ourselves, or, rather, if we’d all been left to let the old conservative elites continue to do the thinking for us. Meanwhile, Rupert Murdoch continues to twiddle with our collective IQ via his daily tabloids in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Darwin, Hobart, Cairns, Townsville, Geelong and beyond. With this in mind, the Monthly welcomes the arrival of the Guardian to Australia’s online media landscape. Call us stupid, but we reckon an educated readership isn’t such a terrible thing. John Van Tiggelen Editor