CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
If you at home are shocked by the fact that multinational companies and super wealthy individuals are involved in tax avoidance and fraud to the tune of billions of dollars, well wait until you hear this!
Sean Stevens, a 45 year old divorcee and father of two from Ipswich is living off $474 a fortnight on government benefits!
In the wake of International Consortium of Investigative Journalism’s (IJIC) ‘Paradise Papers, comes this shocking revelation by the Daily Telegraph and A Current Affair, after a 3 day long investigation discovering the latest dole bludger that people should hate.
The partnership between the DT and ACA, as part of the National Consortium of Shithouse Journalism (NCSJ) can confirm that Stevens, after working for nearly two decades in the construction industry is now claiming welfare that is coming out of your pocket!
Although the amount of tax that could be recouped from a concerted effort to crack down on tax avoidance could probably pay for most of the country’s social security bill, surprisingly the commercial media organisations aren’t interested in making it a national issue.
A Channel 9 executive, who didn’t wish to be named, told the Advocate, “That people don’t care about all this financial mumbo jumbo, they just wanna know about terrorists, sorry, muslim refugees and those bloody dole bludgers ripping our hard earned straight out of our pockets.”
People with noble hearts will tell you that the media is the “fourth estate.” However, unlike the Betoota Advocate most of our countries journalistic establishments are owned by large media conglomerates or ‘magnates’, who unsurprisingly may have their own commercial interests first and foremost in their minds.
So in a way it its somewhat understandable that the nation’s commercial papers, radio and TV stations are unashamedly uninterested in reporting upon tax avoidance that could arguably be described as fraud.
Because, who wants to know about billions of dollars, of what’s effectively Australian citizens money being siphoned out of the country through offshore accounts and shell companies, when you’ve got local scumbag Sean Stevens bludging his way through life and rorting the social welfare system?
Thanks for a great article on ACA and the Daily Terror
Another perspective:
FULL EMPLOYMENT, THE OECD, A CURRENT AFFAIR and PUBLIC BETRAYAL
The early 1970s was a difficult time for business. A commitment to a full employment policy initiated by Curtin, Chifley, Evatt and Coombes was recorded in Hansard in 1945. This policy actually ran from 1942-74. Anyone who wanted a job could have one in any of a range of public service agencies. I started work at the end of this period but experienced this ease of shifting jobs.
Why was it a difficult time for business? If you could walk away from a private sector job that you thought wasn’t treating you fairly, you could easily pick up a public sector one. This meant the private sector had to pay more to attract you back. A workers’ paradise.
This could not last. There was a coordinated movement by business interests, government, think tanks and the OECD to reverse the situation. Their first task was re-engineering public awareness. The Australian public, who had lived through the full employment period, understood that Government had perfect control over the level of unemployment. Throughout the period, Menzies was desperate to ensure that true unemployment never rose above 2% (the 2% allowed for people waiting for the right job or switching jobs. eg frictional unemployment),
The OECD realised that acceptance of unemployment could only come if people could be convinced it was out of Government control. The OPEC crisis created a diversion. The rise in oil costs that washed through the economy raised the general price level. Suddenly we had rising inflation and unemployment. Our Government used this as the excuse to abandon full employment.
There was a second part to the story. An economist working at the ANU, Heinz Arndt (father of sex therapist Bettina Arndt) was sent to the same OECD think tank to come up with other ways to make the Australian public ACCEPT unemployment. He found a Canadian report that suggested if you can convince the Australian public that unemployment is the unemployed person’s own fault then the public would accept it
The next step was to invite the Packer and Murdoch empires to commence their demonisation of the unemployed. This has now continued for 40 years.
So it was interesting to see that A Current Affair continued these attacks last night. Interestingly, just after that program over on the ABC, Australian Story ran the first of a two-part series on Mike Willesee, the creator of A Current Affair. The program started in 1971. In 1973 a new producer joined the show, Peter Meakin, who featured in last night’s program. When Meakin joined the program took a sharp turn to the right and the vicious attacks on workers, unions and the unemployed began.
So, if you are unemployed or under-employed, despite what neoliberalism tells you, your success or failure in this system does NOT depend solely on your own effort. You have had some “help” from some very powerful people and not all of it helpful, The people you meet on the street who will say without much thought, “You can get a job if you want one”, did not come up with this idea themselves. They are the victims of a planned, hateful and very successful program to propagandise the Australian public