Connecting you to The Business Union

Defending the right and freedom to be your own boss.

I’m about to take a step into a new journey and I’m hoping you might like to join me. Let me explain.

Background

For those of you who followed me, at least for some of my long 25-year journey with Self-Employed Australia (SEA), you’ll be aware that I like to focus on practical outcomes that defend the right of people to be self-employed, to be their own boss. This, in fact, means ‘being in business’.

In April this year we waved goodbye to Self-Employed Australia. Circumstances had moved on with the Albanese government’s new industrial relations laws defining and treating large numbers of self-employed small-business people as employees. Effectively, these new laws seek to unionise small-business people.

I decided to ‘throw my lot in’ with Red Union, a non-party union made up of nurses, doctors, teachers, police and so on. Red Union doesn’t support or make contributions to any political party. It focuses on looking after its members. Wow—how about that!!! Doing what a union should do.

The next step

Now with the backing of Red Union I’m about to do something that might seem counter-intuitive. I and a small team have been working for months to develop, and we’re about to launch, The Business Union. Yes, a union for people who are in business!

Yes, this is different. But this gives us a platform to respond to the idiotic direction that the Albanese government has chosen to push Australia on this issue.

We’re soon going to launch a new Substack site. And I would like to include you on the emailing list so that you receive updates and know and understand the campaigns we run. (You may unsubscribe at any time.) This will be in addition to my usual Ken Phillips Self Employed Substack, but with a sharper, advocacy focus.

Here are the major policy campaigns we’ll be involved in:

• Legislation to require the Australian Taxation Office to be subject to ‘rule of law’ behaviour. This will build on the long campaign we’ve run through SEA.

• Defence of ride-share (Uber, etc.) and other owner-drivers from the money-grabbing ambitions of the Transport Workers Union.

• Change current industrial relations laws to remove self-employed (business) people from employment regulation. That is, defend the right to Be Your Own Boss.

• Stop loan sharks financially ‘eating up’ small-business people who find themselves under stress.

These are all major, ambitious objectives and campaigns. You’ll soon receive the first of our new posts. I hope you’ll join us on this journey. We simply can’t sit back and allow the attacks against the right to be self-employed to go unchallenged. This is about defending the freedom to choose how we work.

Rgds

Ken