All News

You may have seen reports that the UK’s top court has decided that Uber drivers are not independent contractors. The UK decision seems to support the unions’ campaign against the gig economy. It gives the appearance of international support for Federal Labor’s anti-gig (anti-small business) policy announced earlier this month.  More...

We’ve covered before the weird laws in California (called AB5) that have made self-employment illegal. On the evidence, it seems that these laws have pushed California’s unemployment rate to 50 per cent higher than the US average. The laws came into force on 1 January this year. But it’s now impacting on Christmas.  More...

News just out is that private-sector union membership in Australia has plunged to 9 per cent of the workforce. Unions are rapidly becoming public-sector-only, with about 37 per cent of that workforce. Perhaps this is why unions are campaigning so hard to try and force ‘wage slavery’ onto all of us. They are fighting for survival.

The ACTU’s core campaign is against ‘insecure work’. It aims to impose ‘permanent’ employment on Australians. But it’s illogical. In particular their campaign has been mugged in the blink of Covid eye reality.  More...

As a group, the Victorian ALP is politically walking dead. It cannot win the next state election in November 2022.

That is a pretty big claim. Predicting an election outcome two years out is foolish by any measure. But here’s the reasoning.

In Australia’s current political environment each major party can only rely on a locked-on vote of about 35 per cent each. The task at every election is to grab enough of the remaining 30 per cent swinging voters to end up with 50 per cent plus one on election day. More...

The Victorian Premier’s Department invited us to respond to the Victorian report on the gig economy. Silly them!

The gig economy report is a con. It’s a Trojan Horse designed to unleash the dogs of (legal) war against self-employed people in Victoria and across Australia. We expressed our massive opposition to this when the report was released in July this year and Premier Andrews stated his keen support to implement the report’s recommendations.  More...

Victorians and all Australians will be pleased to see that the Victorian Covid-19 infection rate is finally falling. This raises hope that the Melbourne and Victorian lockdowns will ease up, enabling the local and national economy to move into recovery. Let’s hope.

However, while the infections are falling, Premier Dan Andrews is extending his dictatorship powers in a big way. The term ‘dictatorship’ is not used flippantly. It accurately describes the ‘Emergency Power’ laws passed in early September. These laws: More...

You start to worry that democracy in Victoria is under threat.

It’s one thing for government to impose curfews, massive lockdowns and other freedom-limiting activity based on best available medical advice. But it’s entirely different to use the Covid-19 health crisis as a cover to target a political agenda unrelated to health issues.

That is, creeping authoritarian totalitarianism is rearing its nasty head in Victoria.  More...

Yesterday the Victorian Labor government released its report into the ‘gig economy.’ The 228-page report should be read as a declaration of war against self-employed, small business people across Victoria, and Australia. This is so because a key recommendation calls for laws that would effectively make self-employment illegal.  More...

Since the Global Financial Crisis, unemployment has dropped to low levels in most of the developed world at least. That’s fantastic. It needs to continue.

One of the important factors in this positive trend seems to be the evolution of work arrangements that enable quick responses to fast-moving markets and consumers. Flexible work creates work! But this gets regulation-lovers worried. They reckon that if work isn’t controlled through government regulation, there’s got to be something wrong. Currently their focus is on the so-called ‘gig’ economy. Apparently, it’s a big ‘problem’ that needs a solution.  More...

Earlier this week we discussed the history of Uber in its global legal battles to have its drivers accepted as independent contractors. The Uber battle is at the forefront of the gig ‘question’.

Today we focus on the Australian Taxation Office and its incompetence (from our experience) in assessing employee vs independent contractor status. The ATO should learn from a significant Uber legal decision in Australia. It probably won’t though More...