Pearls and Irritations

Michael West

MICHAEL WEST. Why are we still pursuing the Adani Carmichael mine?

Why, if Adani’s gigantic Carmichael coal project is so on-the-nose for the banks and so environmentally destructive, are the federal and Queensland governments so avid in their support of it?

Adani employs the lobbying firm Next Level Strategic Services.. The director of this lobbying firm is Cameron Milner,who was Bill Shorten’s Chief of Staff, former ALP State Secretary in Queensland and who helped run the last election campaign of the Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszcuk. The co-director of the same lobbying firm is David Moore who ran Campbell Newman’s successful 2012 election campaign

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Oct 6, 2017
MICHAEL WEST. Tax base eroded by backdoor deregulation of Australia’s labour market and jump in foreign contract workers

The biggest failure of public administration since the formation of the Commonwealth of Australia in 1900. – Australian Tax Office insider

The result of having the wrong system where taxes are too high and a labour market which is over-regulated. – Liberal Party insider

We are talking about the broad, state-sanctioned, backdoor deregulation of Australia’s labour market, which has gathered pace as employers increasingly sign up foreign workers, not as employees, but as contractors. (more…)

Sep 29, 2017
MICHAEL WEST. Goldman Sachs & News Corp tax tricks as Canberra claims battle won

Peering at the local accounts of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp and Goldman Sachs … is the government’s claim to have sorted multinational tax avoidance correct? As they gaze down from their glass eyries, partners of the Big Four accounting firms must be chuckling. (more…)

Jul 7, 2017
MICHAEL WEST. Gas crisis? Or glut? Why Japan pays less for Australian LNG than Australians do.

It is bizarre that gas customers in Japan buy Australian gas more cheaply than Australians. Some of this gas is drilled in the Bass Strait, piped to Queensland, turned into liquid and shipped 6,700 kilometres to Japan … but the Japanese still pay less than Victorians. (more…)

Mar 14, 2017
MICHAEL WEST. Australia’s march to corporatocracy.

Confounding the familiar government narrative of reckless spending binges by Labor, the Coalition actually has the record of greater profligacy when it comes to showering billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money on external consultants. (more…)

Mar 1, 2017