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The supposed ‘rise’ of the ‘gig’ economy is causing much debate on whether its impacts are good or evil for society. There’s much confusion.

The author of a new book, Gigged: The End of the Job and the Future of Work, was interviewed on the USA Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) this week where the social issues were discussed. The four-minute interview can be seen here.  More...

Following the ABC Four Corners program ‘Mongrel Bunch of Bastards’ alleging Australian Taxation Office abuse of small business people, the first of three government-ordered reports was released yesterday.

The report from Small Business Ombudsman Kate Carnel states that the ATO has “serious system-wide issues” that result in “…fundamental denial of access to justice for small business.” More...

If you watched ABC Four Corners last night, the evidence of the ATO's abusing its powers against small business people was compelling.

However, it’s one thing to understand the abuse! It’s another thing to find solutions. That’s why we’ve put together, with considerable legal input, a reform agenda for the ATO.

Today we launch, The Power to Audit is the Power to Destroy. More...

The evidence mounts on the ATO’s abuse of its powers with small business people. This will culminate in the Four Corners full story this Monday, ABC 8:30.

We highly recommend you watch this. The Four Corners TV promo is here. 

There has already been considerable coverage: More...

We thought we’d been strong in our criticism of the Australian Taxation Office! But the ABC Four Corners show airing this Monday 9 April at 8.30pm takes the criticism to a whole new level!

We’ve said of the ATO that it: More...

If you didn't read it, do so. It's the ABC's report of a memo sent by the ATO to its staff. The memo tells ATO staff to report on other staff who spend too much time eating, reading the paper at work or 'fudging' their work hours. We had to ask ourselves on reading the report, 'in what century is the ATO operating? The 1800s?'

Karl Marx would rightly call ATO staff 'wage slaves.'  Charles Dickens would describe their existence as downtrodden. Frankly, what a horrid place in which to work! The ATO must be a 'paper pushing, time pressure factory'. Forget results! Dump quality! Just do your hours! But for us it suddenly explains a lot.  More...

I'm afraid we're seeing a big political swing against freedom in the workplace. The most obvious driver of this agenda is the Australian Council of Trade Unions.

Essentially, what unions want are changes to the Fair Work Act to force businesses to do deals with unions. The FWA was created by the Rudd Labor government in 2009. But it has not worked to the advantage of the unions in the way unions had expected. The key to union/business deals is that unions offer businesses corrupt deals that either (a) reduce workers' wages and/or (b) make life more difficult for the businesses' competitors. Businesses pay money to unions for this 'service'. More...

Technology is crushing traditional jobs. The command-and-control factory is being replaced by robots. Banks are rapidly removing pen-pusher jobs by the tens of thousands!!! For those with an economic bent, the Milton Friedman-type assumptions about how an economy operates are dead!

What’s taking over is the ‘gig’ economy. But what is it?  It’s pretty simple really.  More...

In the historic sector of Lisbon, Portugal, nestled quietly next to the imposing 13th Century Lisbon Cathedral is a nondescript block of a building. It houses the Museum of Aljube – Resistance and Freedom. For the naive tourist who wanders in from the intriguing, cobbled alleyways of Lisbon and not familiar with the more recent history of Portugal, the museum is a moving shake-up. The museum records the struggle against the dictatorship that governed Portugal from 1926 to 1974. This is recent history! The museum building itself housed the dictatorship’s secret police. As you move through rooms you find yourself standing in torture cells, places where murder was committed by the state in the name of the state.  More...

2017 was a hugely busy and transformational year for Self-Employed Australia on many important fronts.

Since forming in 2000 under the name Independent Contractors Australia, we have focused on one thing—advocacy for the rights of self-employed Australians. In this respect, we have had major successes even though we are entirely a volunteer group. More...