Grift Watch: here’s why the government is blocking a corruption watchdog
The Prime Minister is blocking all attempts to establish a promised federal corruption watchdog despite hundreds of billions being spent on economic recovery. Here’s why.
The Prime Minister is blocking all attempts to establish a promised federal corruption watchdog despite hundreds of billions being spent on economic recovery. Here’s why.
The government’s flagged major reforms to industrial relations will be bad for workers, but to understand why unions lack bargaining power it’s essential to trace the blame back to the Accords under the Hawke and Keating Labor governments.
Barely a week goes by without a federal corruption scandal but politicians are able to operate with near total impunity because the government continues to delay its promised federal integrity commission.
Impoverished workers excluded from the Jobkeeper wage subsidies are queuing up at food banks around the country but Treasurer Josh Frydenberg refuses to expand the program despite a major bungle leaving an extra $60 billion at his disposal.
The looting of the taxpayer by fossil fuel giants under cover of COVID-19 is on in earnest, with the Prime Minister’s hand-picked coterie of corporate executives driving the country’s economic recovery without oversight, transparency or accountability.
Underemployment is at the highest level since records began following an unprecedented drop in working hours, and these numbers will worsen as the government insists on cutting spending and ignoring pleas by economists to pursue a “full employment” agenda.
Urgent “major reform of the social security system” is needed after a Senate committee found payments such as Jobseeker would need to be almost doubled to keep people above poverty levels.
Labor and Coalition MPs are joining social security experts and advocates in calling for long-term increases in government payments, as over 1.2 million Australians a month seek food relief.
The Prime Minister says a controversial surveillance app is essential for our health and freedom but digital rights, legal and privacy experts warn that, with the government’s track record, the tech may become a tool of oppression.
Australia’s unemployment safety net is below the poverty line with the vast majority of recipients having to skip meals to get by, but Prime Minister Scott Morrison indicates he will let over a million people go hungry in six months time.