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This election is about intergenerational warfare. It’s the young hating the old!

Saturday, April 20, 2019 

In politics, fear/hatred/loathing/jealously of something motivates more than the love of something. Political parties tweak this mass psychological reality to attract voters. Demographer Bernard Salt (in The Australian) has provided an insightful analysis of how this ‘identify evil’ political game is playing in this federal election campaign.... More

Self-employed, small business people are a key in this election: Here’s why

Sunday, April 14, 2019

It's on! In this, our first election commentary, we suggest why small business and the self-employed form a key sector for the election. We take a look at Bernard Salt's 11 key electorates and sketch out the issues that we think are worth pursuing during the campaign...... More


ATO – Mongrel Bunch of Bastards – one year on

Tuesday, April 9, 2019

It is one year to the day since the Four Corners show ‘Mongrel Bunch of Bastards’ was aired. This ABC production exposed the ATO’s mistreatment of small business people. A good deal has happened in the intervening twelve months, culminating in the new Small Business Tax Tribunal..... More


Staggeringly HUGE move by Morrison Government for small business

Thursday, March 28, 2019

We were staggered late yesterday when we received the Morrison government’s media release announcing reform options to the Unfair Contract laws for small business people. If they proceed, the government is to implement our dream ‘wish list’ for these laws. A veritable "small business revolution"... More


More SEA News...

Global Self-Employment Updates
We monitor self-employment news from around the world. Full list here.

Big breakthrough in ATO treatment of small business people

Coalition government announces Small Business Tax Tribunal. This is a hugely important breakthrough

Key features:
  • Be totally separate from ATO.
  • Not involve lawyers.
  • Appoint a case manager to support the taxpayer.
  • Make decisions within 28 days of a hearing.
  • Require a payment of $500 from the taxpayer for each appeal.
And
  • If the ATO appeals the AAT decisions to the Federal Court, the ATO will pay the small businesses’ reasonable costs.
  • If there are test cases where lawyers are used, the ATO pays for the taxpayers’ lawyers.
Our commentary here.

ALP also looking to reform ATO
Our commentary here. Full story here. This includes history of our campaigning, submissions, case studies, etc.

Defend the right to be self-employed

Public sector bureaucracies along with unions are wanting to close down the right to be self-employed. We have seen these attacks before such as:

  • Contractors are ‘dependent’.
  • Sham contracting is rife.

See our responses on these arguments in 2011.  See our success at the International Labour Organisation in 2006.

And now the new attack is against the ‘gig economy’. We have new campaigns on our hands!

Self-employment challenges managerial orthodoxy

The supposed ‘rise’ of the ‘gig’ economy is causing much debate on whether its impacts are good or evil for society. But that debate is not new. In 2005, SEA's Executive Director, Ken Phillips, published his challenging book, Independence and the Death of Employment, in which he examined the fundamental changes that were occurring, even then, in the way we work and how notions about independence and the role of the commercial contract were fundamental to them. The Introduction to the book is available here. Recent arguments about the ‘gig’ economy have refired that debate.

Is your contract fair?

SEA can rightly claim huge success in achieving Unfair Contract protections for small business people. New protective legislation came into effect in November 2016—a world's first for self-employed people. Resources for checking your own contract are here.

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