Refocusing Energies
When change happens its necessary to adapt. And there’s big change needing big refocusing.
I haven’t written for a few weeks. Sorry about that. Or perhaps you’ve appreciated a break from my pearls of wisdom?
I’ve an excuse for tardiness (of course). Yes I’ve closed down Self Employed Australia after 25 years. And goodness. Closing something down requires a lot of work. Plus I had the cheek to take bit of a break. But now to a refocusing.
A big Hi! To all my SEA (ex)subscribers who I’ve transferred to Substack so I can keep you informed of events. You’ll have received notification of the transfer and I had indicated that I’d do this. But remember you can unsubscribe if you wish. Hopefully I’ll keep you interested however. There’s quite a lot to report on.
The government’s Loophole Bill-passed
The big event of course is what’s happened to ‘our’ self-employed status and rights with the Albanese government’s Loophole Bill. Last time I posted (12 January 2023 ) I published my open letter to ‘independent’ Senator David Pocock who took a surprise move, blindsiding everyone by voting to pass parts of the Loophole Bill with a particularly nasty anti-small business element.
Parliament resumed this week (6th February) and as I thought would happen the government moved hard and fast to pass the rest of the Loophole Bill. If I’d been in their shoes I’d have done the same thing. If there’s one thing the Labor Party is really good at, its political strategy. And they certainly know how to manage the strategies in the Senate.
The Bill that passed in the Senate yesterday (8th February) is not yet available on the parliamentary website in a consolidated version. There were numerous amendments so I’m going to reserve my full comments and assessments until the consolidated Bill is available. Plus it still needs to go back to the Lower House for passing there.
From what appears to have happened the Loophole Bill still constitutes the most brazen legislative attack against the right to be self-employed probably seen in Australia. I’ve detailed why in previous posts. See Politics is Three Dimensional Chess and Destroying Competition By Destroying Small Business.
Still I’ll hold off on full analysis until the consolidated passed Bill is available.
What I have been expecting to see is some technical tinkering with wording in the remainder of the Loophole Bill so that politicians can claim to have listened to small business concerns and have addressed those concerns. But still the substance of the anti-small business and self-employed legislative assault will (and I’m pretty sure) has locked in. But detail is important.
What’s necessary to understand is that the thrust of the Loophole Bill is to shift institutional regulation of self-employed people from the commercial and competition regulators (ACCC etc) to the employment regulator (The Fair Work Commission etc). Once this institutional shift happens, it doesn’t really matter what the fine wording of the legislation is, the destructive process is in play.
But here’s the thing. I’ve always viewed the industrial relations system as pretty much a scam, a con. The reality from my experience is that the ‘system’ isn’t really about protecting workers but rather a process by which unions do ‘wink and nudge’ colluding with selected big business to secure the businesses position in the marketplace. This is particularly so in the construction sectors.
Essentially the Loophole Bill, or rather the Labor agenda, has been designed to extend this market manipulation process across the broader economy. Have no doubt that this is a transformational shift in Australian business and the economy. I predict bad things from this. Market manipulation always leads to corruption. And on this score I’ll have something to report to you on systemic industrial relations ‘badness’ that has now been uncovered.
In the next few days I’ll provide you a run down on what is possibly the largest wage theft scam conducted in Australia. And its wage theft that involves the construction union, the CFMEU and ‘signed off’ on by the Fair Work Commission. It’s a doozy of a revelation! More soon.
Again thanks for your patience while I closed down Self Employed Australia, took bit of a break and have refocused my energies!
Thanks for your effort, a break is good every now and again and everyone deserves that. Listening to Malcolm Roberts Friday wrap he mentioned the bill and the number of pages in the act, had now gone from 850 which is already a ridiculous number few can read or get their heads around and will now be 1900 pages. That says it all imo.