Sunday, Apr 12, 2020 at 11:59
Apologies to swampy.
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"like a true lefty/greeny" Dave? Sounds like something from an IPA song sheet but in my experience those labels are usually a true reflection of an ideologically-bound conservative. I'm surprised you didn't get socialist in there somewhere. Truth be known I'd be proud to be called a Greenie but that would be doing real Greenies like many farmers, capitalists, economists, scientists and ordinary Aussies making a real contribution and impact a great disservice.
Seems to me the choices wrt media are stark. There's intelligent
well-researched and argued commentary, and then there's News Corp. I'd refer you to the annual media surveys which ask about trust, bias etc but I think the shock might be too much on top of this pandemic.
Seeing as how you brought it up, how did the RC into the unions and your mates attempts to shoot Shorten down go? In respect of nailing particular unions and individuals along with their unlawful/disgraceful conduct it turned out to be an expensive and obviously tainted fizzer. We deserved better. A community and government actually concerned about corrupt and thuggish practice would have had very wide terms of reference, chosen an independent Commissioner, and included big business in its probes. As for Shorten - I was a detractor until I saw some of his community meetings and the progressive policies Labor took to the last election. After seeing Albo's efforts to date I now know why the parliamentary Labor Party chose Shorten.
The numerous companies avoiding tax using a range of measures are
well-known to the Tax Dept, politicians and many informed and concerned Aussies Dave. Daresay after we come out of quarantine and face the enormous national debt challenge a few more complacent and ignorant citizens might also finally take some interest. I'd suggest they start at tax concessions granted to gas producers by Howard and Costello - at a cost of $90B to the national coffers.
About a third of all big companies pay zero tax in this country iirc. A little online searching and reading will help you find them. You might for example ask yourself how the
privatised Sydney Airport managed no tax on its billion dollar earnings in at least the first ten years while other privately owned airports such as Melb and Auckland did. The trick there was/is to keep the company in debt and its financing costs high. All quite legal of course. Naive doesn't begin to describe anyone who thinks that large companies like SA with many million/billions of turnover paying no tax is reasonable. Companies have used and will continue to use all sorts of tax avoidance techniques until laws are tightened. The Tories did that to some extent in the UK with their so-called "google tax" and even our Lib and Labour govts have made small steps towards fixing rorts such as profit shifting and transfer pricing. The list of large, zero and near zero taxpaying companies should you bother to find it will show there's a very long way to go.
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