Morrison’s “Summer Holiday”: no fun times ahead

Nick G.

In the wake of delivering the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO) statement, Treasurer Scott Morrison took the unusual step of channelling Cliff Richards singing “Summer Holiday”.

Defending cuts to people’s services and a blow-out in the Budget deficit to $41 billion, Morrison casually likened Government economic policy to taking the kids on a relaxing holiday:

“It’s like going off on that summer holiday: you get in the car; you know where you’re going; you don’t put the passengers at risk; you get to your destination safely. Of course there will be people chiming in from the back seat like my kids always do, saying, ‘Are we there yet? Are we there yet?’ Well, we are going to get there and we’re going to get there with everybody on board.”

So, at some point in time far, far away, the Government will return the Budget to surplus.  In the meantime, sit back and enjoy the ride!

A holiday for the rich, but not for the people

But how can Australians on modest incomes, or the many who are actually poor, enjoy the next four years in which $704 million will be taken back from alleged welfare cheats; $595 cut from health workforce programs; $472 million from aged care; and $441 million from child care?

And then there’s the $639 million cut in subsidies for pathology and diagnostic imaging.

The subsidies were introduced by Labor as an incentive to increase the number of patients bulk-billed for blood tests, radiation therapy, MRI scans and the like – all costly, but essential measures for ensuring the health of the community.

Fraud – political and otherwise

These services are currently provided by private companies. Two of the largest, who dominate the field, are Sonic Healthcare and Primary Health Care. There are probably another ten or so companies operating in this area.

The federal government, probably with some justification, has argued that the subsidies had not really increased the rate of bulk-billing and hinted that pathology companies had instead diverted the subsidies to offset other costs and to boost profit margins. Primary Health Care chief executive Peter Gregg seemed not to bother denying that this may have occurred, saying “The government has a responsibility to run the country, we have a responsibility to look after our shareholders…”

If this diversion of funds has happened then it requires police investigation as a matter of fraud.  Certainly if similar accusations had been made against a union there would have been media-centered police raids, seizure of records, and home arrests of chief executives.

But we are dealing with class justice here, so there has been none of that.

The web of shareholder influence

Indeed, there is a lot at stake for a government that upsets the pathology duopoly. The major shareholders for both companies are the same: JP Morgan Nominees, HSBC Custody Nominees, National Nominees, and Citicorp Nominees.  Just coincidentally, the same nominee companies (holding and managing the share portfolios of private investors) are the four biggest shareholders in the privatised Medibank (though which the rebates are paid to the pathology companies), and in the Big Four Australian banks.

Incestuous? No – monopoly capitalism!

So what is likely to happen while we are taken for a ride by Treasurer Morrison?

Harm and death for the people

According to the Royal College of Pathologists of Australia (RCPA), the cuts are “likely to have a detrimental effect on healthcare delivery in Australia and harm patients”.

RCPA President Dr Michael Harrison added that discouraging people from having blood tests and scans could lead to “delaying the effective early diagnosis of cancer leading to premature deaths; compromising the effective treatment of diabetes and chronic diseases; and threatening the services of rural pathology”.

So here we have a government policy that is likely to harm patients and could lead to premature deaths.  Isn’t “harm” and “death” the threat that comes from Muslim terrorists? Is this the level on which the government wants to operate?

We must put nationalisation on the agenda!

The argument between the pathology providers and the government over the reduction in bulk-billing incentives is simply an argument between crooks and thieves.

At every intersection along the road to summer camp there is a sign off to the left pointing to a different route.  It says “Tax the rich to provide services to the rest”.  Treasurer Morrison, however, is congenitally incapable of turning the car to the left.

As a companion article on this website points out, major corporations both local and multinational, are simply not paying any tax, whilst others are paying well below the official company tax rate (see “The rich and the rest: the ‘taxation transparency’ data”). 

There is no excuse for a couple of private pathology corporations to fraudulently receive taxpayers’ money to “look after” massive corporate shareholding companies instead of looking after the patients who should be their prime responsibility.

They should not be allowed to pass on reductions in these subsidies in the form of patient co-payments and closure of pathology offices in country locations.

The privatisation of Medibank has simply allowed the same massive corporate shareholding companies to bludge off the people and bleed profits from an essential service.

Pathology services and Medibank should be nationalised.

Only a socialised health care service can meet the social objectives of health care delivery.

Nationalise Medibank!

Nationalise pathology services!

The rich and the rest: the "tax transparency" data

Nick G.

Figures released today by the Australian Taxation Office reveal that 579 of the country’s largest corporations paid no tax in 2014.  They comprise 38% of the 1539 largest local and foreign companies operating in Australia.

Reflecting the control of the economy by imperialism, only 554 local companies were included in the list of companies with more than $100 million of sales in 2014, while 985, or nearly twice as many, were foreign-owned.

Foreign multinationals also had better access to scams allowing them to transfer profits to low-tax havens overseas, so that 45% of foreign-owned banking and finance companies paid no tax in Australia, compared to only 19% of locally-owned banking and finance houses.

The same was true for insurance and superannuation, with figures of 39% for foreign-owned corporations and 18% for local companies.

Of the 960 companies that did pay tax, their combined tax totalled only $40 billion with many paying well below the official company tax rate.

The release of this damning, but hardly unexpected, information by the ATO follows years of campaigning by unions, welfare groups and community associations to make the rich pay taxes.

For years, the Business Council of Australia (representing the 100 largest companies in Australia) and other pro-business lobby groups have successfully shielded major corporations, their tax obligations and their actual tax payments, from public scrutiny.

In a last ditch attempt to stymie today’s release, the government sought to have private companies exempted with the lame rationale that the release of their financial details would be a gift to would-be kidnappers and ransom-artists.

Yet the spreadsheet lists only the company name, its 2014 income, its taxable income, and the tax paid – hardly anything to be of use to potential kidnappers!

What it does do is provide a minimum of information to add grist to the mill of demands for corporations to pay taxes where their profits are made.

Unless this is done, more of the burden of providing revenue for the government will be placed on the shoulders of the people.

Ultimately, this struggle between the rich and the rest will have to be resolved by bringing private ownership of industry, finance and commerce under the control of the state in a socialist and independent Australia.

Cronulla: a tale of two times

By Jester J

(Above:  Beautiful Cronulla - no room for racists!)

On Saturday I headed for a quick body surf at Cronulla. A few parents and kids braved the shore-dump at North. The morning crew gathered at the kiosk, for a chat over coffee or breakfast. People strolled with dogs, friends or both. Pretty quiet all round, with Christmas zooming closer and a cool wind. It was ten years to the day since a riot, which the people of Cronulla, and Australia, have learned from and want to put behind them.

I'd been there days before that event. Some blokes drank as they strutted, bumping into anyone who didn't step aside, mimicking behaviour that they were allegedly protesting against. Alcohol was banned, but nearby cops laughed and chatted with them. 
       
In the surf others boasted, “We've come down from Queensland to support our brothers! We want to crush some cockroaches!” Ten years and I still remember their tone of voice and idiotic smiles. 

Australian flags decorated every available pole, while a helicopter filmed low to the water, from Voodoo to The Point, in a continuous loop. Moron smiles grew gleeful. They were news! 

Alan Jones' putrid voice filled the airwaves, encouraging everyone to teach alleged troublemakers a lesson. Miranda Devine dripped venom on “the mean streets of Lakemba” where Australia's largest mosque is situated. 

Most in Cronulla were horrified at what played that day. “100% Aussie Pride”, written in the shore's wet sand, quickly became “100% Aussie Shame”. It summed up the feeling. 

A young former professional surfer was arrested for his role in the riot. Already in fragile health, he suicided. The day's hero was a middle aged policeman, now suffering post- traumatic stress disorder.

People change

Last Saturday things were different. 

Since a 'Memorial to the Cronulla Riot' had been announced, the last of the suburb's Australian flags disappeared, confirming a long term trend of questioning and change. 

No one wanted the racists, who thought ordinary people of Cronulla incapable of learning from experience, to come. Their stickers “Australia rocks, Cronulla riots” never appeared, or if they did, disappeared quickly. Outrage and resistance grew amongst residents and the wider community. Injunctions followed, and soon a fascist 'family fun day' was the fall-back. 

Near Wanda, the most northerly and isolated beach, two carparks were closed and patrolled by numerous police. 
A mate commented, “Oh it's for the racists, eh.”

Soon a police helicopter did circuits watching for trouble instead of fanning it.

The racist triumph finally degenerated into barbecued pig for just 40 people, completely isolated from every single local.

Sucker punch

Counter-protesters fell for the fascist sucker punch. They imagined the Muslim community needed them, but that community, like Cronulla locals, had shown discipline and stayed away.  

Some anti-racists wore masks, because fascists photograph and assault them. They fought police who, despite being a key enforcer of the state, this time had been partly serving the people's needs.  Several Aboriginal protesters rightly pointed out the irony of whitefellas telling others to get out of Australia.

It suits the state to paint the left and right as equally 'radicalised', and the group were forced back on foot, three kilometres along the beach and shopping mall to the railway station, copping abuse from all and sundry.

The mate with me at Cronulla ten years ago reckoned they snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. They looked like a less reasonable mirror image of those they oppose. They knew nothing of the people or place they were going to, or the changes of ten years.

My friend knows my politics, and often criticises them. But this time he said, “That crew aren't like your lot. They're irrational. They don't respect people. You do.”

There's a time and place to take on far right politics. This wasn't one of them.

Ten years ago ignorance took to the streets in Cronulla. There's still some of that, but mostly now it comes from small groups who don't understand that the people en masse create revolutionary change. No amount of fake burqas, barbecued pigs or shouting from the sidelines can replace slow, detailed work amongst the people.

Turnbull government COPs out in Paris

Bill F.

In the course of the COP21 Climate Change Conference in Paris, the Turnbull government has been thoroughly exposed as a devious protector of the monopoly fossil fuel industry and its life-threatening greenhouse gas emissions.

In the weeks prior to the Climate Conference it was revealed that 146 countries had each proposed a target for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in their own countries.

However, these targets, called Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs), would only limit global temperatures to an increase of 2.7 degrees by 2100, well beyond Kyoto aspirations of  2 degrees and way beyond the 1.5 degree limit sought by endangered low-lying and island nations.

The target of the Turnbull government was announced as a cut in year 2005 level emissions of 26-28% by 2030, only marginally better than the current level of a miserable 5% cut in year 2000 level emissions by 2020.

While Turnbull trumpeted that Australia would ratify Kyoto II and would exceed its 2020 target, he failed to mention that this will only be possible by including emission reduction credits from earlier commitments. Much of these credits are based not on actual emission reduction measures but on the dubious claim of slowing the rate of de-forestation. In fact, emissions have risen since the scrapping of the Gillard Carbon Tax, and will increase overall by 6% by 2020, with mining, energy and transport industry pollution increasing by up to 11%.

At the Conference other developed countries such as Britain, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands and Sweden announced they would voluntarily cancel their emission reduction credits from the previous Kyoto period, no doubt under pressure from the masses mobilising across Europe.

Turnbull and Environment Minister Greg Hunt, on the other hand, obstinately wanted to hang on to Australia’s allocation of 128 million tonnes in order to scrape across the line by 2020. In doing so, they have thumbed their nose at the people of the world and the huge mobilisations across Australia.

This arrogant attitude was further illustrated by the Australian government decision to reject a communique supported by more than 30 other countries on removing fossil fuel subsidies. It came within weeks of the Turnbull government approval for the huge Carmichael coal mine in Queensland.

But then, to cover its grimy tracks, the government proudly announced a contribution of $200 million a year to the Green Climate Fund for vulnerable countries such as Australia’s close neighbours in the Pacific. This is not new money – it comes from the pathetically small foreign aid budget – recycled, green-washed, and just as stingy!

Shifting blame

On the crucial issue of how much the various countries should contribute to remedial climate funding, the Australian government sided with US imperialism in trying to re-define China, India and Brazil as “developed economies” and therefore liable to contribute much more. Unlike Australia, China and India have both made voluntary contributions already!

It may come as a surprise that the Australian government has belatedly endorsed the international call for a climate warming target of 1.5 degrees by 2100. As long as the mix of actual contributions between ‘developed’ and ‘developing’ countries remains obscure and unaccountable, the rich polluters can deflect blame onto others.

The new agreement to review each country’s progress every five years will have to be monitored by the masses and strictly enforced.

Construction workers and firefighters clench their fists

Alice M.

On 8 December, for more than 2 hours, the streets of CBD Melbourne echoed loudly with angry protests by thousands of unionists from the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union and the United Firefighters Union.

The 8,000 construction workers and 1,200 Victoria’s firefighters announced their ongoing determination not to submit to another onslaught by big business and its servants in parliament.  Several CBD streets were blocked by protesting workers.

Local and foreign big businesses in Australia are cranking up their attack on the working class.  They demand governments drive down workers’ hard won wages, conditions, and the right to organise and fight back. 

Big business is instructing state and federal governments to cut deeper into public and community spending, whilst at the same time shifting public funds to their own corporate profit making ventures.  The Business Council of Australia is leading the charge, demanding more “IR reforms and labour flexibility”, lowering taxes on big business, and increasing  the Goods and Services Tax on ordinary people.

The Trade Union Royal Commission outfit is charged with the task of crushing militant unions and weakening the resistance and fight back of the entire organised working class. 

The two separate rallies in Melbourne on 8 December sent a clear signal that the working class will not sit back and cop the assault by capital.

Construction workers’ angry protest

(Above: Setka and Riordan)

On 6 December, John Setka, the State Secretary of the CFMEU Construction (Vic), and Assistant State Secretary Shaun Reardon were arrested and charged with blackmail by the Trade Union Royal Commission (TURC).  Two days later 7,000-8,000 construction workers walked off city building sites and rallied outside the Melbourne Magistrate Court in a massive show of support for their union.  

They sent a militant message to big business and the federal government that they will not be bullied and cowed to give up the fight for health and safety on the job, and the protection of construction workers’ rights and conditions.

Dave Noonan, National Secretary of the CFMEU, told the rally, “Dealing with wages and conditions for workers is not criminality, unionism is not criminality.” 

John Setka told the rally, “Boral has killed 14 workers in the last 10 years. They are an anti-union company. They are trying to bring down the union movement… Boral has been lobbying politicians in Canberra for anti-union legislation to be passed through the Senate.

“...Grocon, who killed three innocent people for just walking down the street. Grocon, got a $250,000 fine for killing three kids.

“I didn't see them pulling Daniel Grollo over and he killed three kids. When we're representing our members, we get pulled over like common criminals. We have to keep fighting, not just for construction unions, but for all unions.”

Setka and Reardon were arrested and charged with blackmail by the TURC Federal Police in relation to a health and safety dispute with Grocon and Boral. Boral Building Materials is a US monopoly corporation with tentacles around the world. Grocon is a giant “Australian” construction, development and investment company, with head offices in Australia and US.  It is now bankrolled mainly by US monopoly finance capital.  Both represent the dominant voice of foreign owned and financially backed developers and construction companies operating in Australia. They are determined to smash the militant building unions.  

The arrests of Setka and Reardon were executed on Sunday when the two men were spending the weekend with their families.  Setka was driving with his family when he was pulled up by the Federal Police attached to TURC.  Reardon was at home with his family. The treatment of the two hard working union officials was not that much different to the arrests of “criminals” and “terrorists” threatening public and community safety.

The criminal charges and the manner of the arrests were obviously designed to demonise and intimidate not only the CFMEU, but the entire organised working class.  The arrests had the much broader agenda of threatening and harassing militant workers.

The government and big business rely on the exposure of HSU corrupt union officials to smear and demonise all of the unions.  They hope that the blackmail charges against the two CFMEU officials will be equated with the corruption in the HSU.  But their hopes have been dashed as the actions of CFMEU and HSU officials are at opposite ends of the pole. For the CFMEU there is only the health and safety interests of workers, no self-serving personal gain; unlike the condemned HSU officials whose actions were driven solely for self-interest and material gain.

The criminal charges of “blackmail”against militant unionists are opening up new scope for attacking the rights of unions to fight for the interests of workers.  Could the threat of workers withdrawing their labour (strike) during the protected period of EBA negotiations also be deemed blackmail?  These moves are well and truly on the road of state fascism.

The class bias of the blackmail charges and the orchestrated public display of the arrests were not lost on many workers.  The entire system of capitalism is founded on corruption, blackmail, thuggery and theft by the capitalist class, mainly against the working class.

The exploitation of workers’ labour power is the real theft of immense proportions, thuggery and blackmail by capital.   The biggest thieves, robbers, blackmailers and thugs are the monopoly corporations and banks who steal from the working class the products of their labour, the creators of all wealth – surplus value.  The capitalist state, comprising the legal system, police, secret services, parliament, media monopoly, enforces and protects the monopoly capitalist class robbery and its corporate gangsters. 

The repressive powers of the capitalist state against the militant working class are expanded and exposed.  The ruling class of big business has gifted the semi-fascist TURC with enormous powers of arrests, a huge array of new draconian anti-worker and anti-union laws, the wide use of secret phone tapping, special secret police, overt and covert investigations, new secret police units specifically to follow and investigate militant workers.

Everyday workers are subjected to thuggery, threats and blackmail by big business. Under capitalism the threat of losing job and livelihood, workplace injury and death hangs over most workers. Often when workers stand up for their job security, decent wages or health and safety they are threatened with the sack and blackmailed into silence and submission.

Shorten ducks for cover

Parliament is an integral part of the capitalist state in maintaining and administering the corrupt and oppressive system of capitalism. 

Some politicians go into parliament with sincere belief that they can make a real difference to the lives of ordinary people by reining in the excesses of capitalism.  Many disappear into the parliamentary swamp.  And then there are careerists and opportunists who serve capital from the first day they enter parliament. 

Bill Shorten, the ALP parliamentary leader is from the latter mould of politicians who ride on the backs of workers to get themselves bumped into parliament.  Later on the same day that Setka and Reardon were arrested and charged with blackmail, Shorten pushed himself into the media limelight and proudly announced Labor’s new and tougher IR policies to clean out “corruption in unions”, outdoing the draconian laws of the LNP government. He offered his helping hand to big business to crush militant unions.

Victorian Firefighters turn up the heat

As the CFMEU rally outside the Melbourne Magistrate Courts was wrapping up, 1,200 members of the United Firefighters’ Union of Victoria were setting off from the Victorian Trades Hall on a march to the steps of State Parliament.  

For nearly 3 years the UFU have been in negotiations with successive Liberal and Labor state governments for a new workplace agreement that would acknowledge the essential service and dangerous working conditions of firefighters.

In the lead up to the state elections in November 2014 the then Andrews Labor Opposition sought support from firefighters and their union, promising to value and respect their important essential services work by improving firefighters’ conditions, wages and the community service they provide.  

Ten days before the elections Daniel Andrews invited himself to attend a union meeting of over 1,000 UFU members where he pledged his commitment to the firefighters, and condemned the Liberal government for not valuing the essential work of firefighters in protecting the safety of the community.  

Many firefighters had put in hours of doorknocking, helping Labor win the elections in Victoria.

After 12 months of negotiations with the UFU the Andrews Labor government has stepped back from its pre-elections promises and withdrawn from negotiations.

In an impassioned and powerful speech on the steps of state parliament, Peter Marshall, the Victorian and National Secretary of the Firefighters Union, apologised to his members for being misled into believing that the Andrews Labor government would genuinely respect and value their work by finalising the EBA that “protects the protectors”.  He condemned the Labor government for lying about the Firefighters’ Union EBA claim to deliberately demonise the union.

Firefighters work in dangerous and stressful conditions, often risking their own safety and lives to protect the community.  This year firefighters are facing very dangerous dry summer conditions with high temperatures and strong winds.  

Class struggle never ceases under capitalism

The construction workers and firefighters work in some of the most dangerous work places.  Their workplace health and safety standards and better wages have been wrung from big business and its compliant governments through long and hard struggles.

Now capital wants to erode and push back the workers’ achievements in health and safety, desperate to squeeze out more profits from the labour of workers.  Cutting corners on health and safety and smashing militant unions are the main and immediate agendas of big business in these industries. 

The attacks on militant unions are igniting renewed resistance and determination by workers to fight back.  Independence from parliamentary parties by organised workers can only strengthen the capacity of the whole working class to organise and fight for its own independent agenda and a vision that frees the working class from the strait-jacket of parliamentarism. 

The never ending struggle between labour and capital is constant, and can never be reconciled under the system of capitalism.  It ebbs and flows, but is present at all times in all corners of society.  The struggle between labour and capital permeates everything and all of us, in one form or another.

The resolution of class conflict can only start to be addressed under socialism, where the working class becomes the ruling class, collectively re-building society to serve the interests of the majority, not the 1%.

Size does matter!

Louisa L.

When it comes to creating change, size matters. Last weekend Sydney-siders huddled under trees or umbrellas to beat the belting sun in the Domain, one of 2,000 climate action protests around Australia and the world.

Organisers had called for 'a colourful, family-friendly event, with art, music and dance creating a vibrant and united display of people power', and they got it! Those in Paris were banned from protesting, but we gathered for them. Paris had empty pairs of shoes, but here over 40,000 pairs of soggy feet  sank in the mud of newly laid turf.

Everywhere handmade signs or giant banners of landscapes threatened were held aloft. There were coral reefs on communal heads, complete with clown and puffer-fish, while a sinking lighthouse hat topped with pipe-cleaner keeper was a solo effort.

Pacifika peoples gathered in numbers, their wealth of culture displayed with both dignity and flamboyance. Most came straight from church, a compelling force now roused.

Josephite nuns flanked Latin American troupes and unions, while a 'fossil-free train'  brought over 400 people from Wollongong, entertained by local musicians. Others came from further afield.

Unstoppable truth

Good will enveloped people. Some chatted, some focussed on the speakers. All were riveted by music symbolising the march's spirit. Deni Hinds, Darren Percival, Ursula Yovich, Wendy Matthews and choir invoked past struggles in powerful voice, “There ain't nobody goin' turn me round!”
When it came time to march, drummers beat rhythms as protesters danced, slogged or just marked time, by now at least in blessed shade. Bands and choirs serenaded. Giant Turnbull and Abbott puppets covered their ears with huge hands as the march poured its message past.

It took almost an hour and a half for the last of the marchers to make it to nearby Macquarie Street, the closest road to the Domain, but by then, even though the first marchers had long dispersed, the whole of Circular Quay right up to the Opera House was filled to capacity. Nothing on Macquarie Street moved. 

Spontaneity unleashed by organisation and clear demands make a mighty force. Country-wide, worldwide, these were the biggest climate marches in our history. After all the lies and deliberate disinformation, truth rises, unstoppable.

And 60.000 marched in Melbourne on Friday 27th November:

Essential Service Workers Take Action on Two Fronts

Ned K.

What have contracted out water utilities workers in South Australia employed by Allwater and contract cleaners employed by Limro Cleaning at Parliament House Canberra have in common?

Both groups of workers provide an essential public service. Allwater workers prepare broken fresh water and sewage pipes and operate waste water plants. Contract cleaners at Parliament House ensure a clean and healthy environment for elected members of parliament and the thousands of people who visit the building.

Both groups are taking strike action to defend their living standards. 

Allwater workers are taking action to prevent the partly French-owned Allwater from stripping away a week of annual leave, programmed days off and rostered days off in exchange for a measly 1.5% per year pay rise.

Contract cleaners at Parliament House are fighting to win a new Enterprise Agreement which maintains above award conditions won in the Clean Start Fair Deal For Cleaners campaign and for a modest wage increase.

Both the contract cleaners and water utility workers have something else in common. They are working for private for-profit employers as a result of decisions by federal and state governments to privatize essential services.in the 1990s.

The contractors in water utilities and cleaning industries win contracts from governments promising to provide the services at a cheaper cost than directly employed government workers.

Competition between contractors results in the successful tenderer winning contracts on unrealistic prices so the ones who pay for this are the workers.

In the case of Allwater workers, the parent company Suez is on track to make 3 billion Euros in profit in 2017 worldwide. All of its profit comes from the exploitation of labour of water utilities workers across the world.

In the case of contract cleaners in Parliament, the contractors’ profits come from increasing the workloads of cleaners and freezing their wages for the last three years.

What the bosses in both these contrasting situations did not bargain for is the spirited resistance of these workers. 

According to the economic rationalist, neo-liberal script, privatization and contracting out was meant to nullify workers collective strength and break up the working class strength.

The script has gone off the rails in the case of Canberra cleaners and Allwater workers.

They are a shining example to other workers that no matter what industry you work in, daring to struggle and take collective action is possible and the only way to push back the attack on workers' living standards.