WWWalker's Government Legislation Changes

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Workcover NSW Workers Compensation Scheme Changes

As of 30/6/06, the NSW State Government has forced small businesses with under $200,000 wages per year to change to a new agency for workers compensation insurance chosen by WorkCover NSW, not the company being insured. After 1 year they can change to one of their own choice. This will introduce a degree of non-competitiveness with fulfilling insurance claims and managing clients instead of rewarding better performing insurers. This will lead to higher overheads in keeping our workers safe and cared for due to bureaucratic choices rather than market driven choices for a company like ours in a very competitive industry.

The massive swapping of small businesses with wages under $200,000 per year to new players in the workers compensation field has caused huge backlogs. In May 2006, the company we deal through was getting 800 calls/day and had to move to bigger premises. Phones were ringing out and not being answered due to the overload.

Who knows how Cambridge Australia (now Xchanging now part of DXC Technology a merger of CSC and HPE Enterprise Services 4/17) won the tender when they were so under-resourced? It turns out they were moving premises in April/May and upgrading their computer systems, all with no information to their customers. Email is the best way to get through to them.

This is what happened due to a bulk movement of customers to a new player and no resources being available to cope with the demand. Small businesses are left waiting for hours or days to get through by phone. It would have been wiser to use the Internet to allow customers to update their contact details or upload forms such as wage declarations or pay their workers compensation premium via secure payment over the Internet using BPay, direct transfer or credit card. American outsourcing companies that have entered the NSW workers compensation market are seizing on opportunities to make a quick buck but are not investing in the local economy.

The NSW Minister for Small Business does not have control over this. The NSW Minister for Commerce does but seems to be pushing small businesses through the hoops to recoup costs from workers compensation rorting by tricky workers. Small businesses are paying for bigger companies' inefficiences.

Luckily Campbell resigned from NSW Cabinet in 2010 to free the position up for a better person.

Write to your local paper if this affects you. This does more good than going through politicians or bureaucrats that have vested interests in maintaining the status quo.

On 19 April 2007, we swapped back to QBE after the year expired and how happy we are now! All the dead wood is behind us now and no more badgering by a difficult department like WorkCover NSW to wear us down any more to fit in and put up with a pathetic company like Cambridge because the law said so!! 'The Law is an ass.' Freedom is a great feeling in a business. Cambridge as usual made things difficult by sending requests for actual wages twice due to a computer stuff up. We are glad not to deal any more with Cambridge. In May 2016, QBE no longer offers Workers Compensation Insurance.

Many others have left Cambridge for a better resourced insurer due to the badly handled tender to Cambridge by WorkCover NSW. WorkCover NSW and Cambridge were very difficult to get any answer from - stoney silence. This is very poor management in my opinion, ignoring the problem and hoping it will go away rather than reacting and overcoming it.

The current ALP NSW Government was not kicked out in the latest election on 24/3/07 but was in March 2011 and this kind of bungling not removed or remedied yet (2011) so it is up to individual businesses to adjust the best they can by changing insurers after the first year of hell. Cambridge did not have the resources for a massive swap and WorkCover NSW did not want to acknowledge the problem so we the little companies suffered. We fight back by moving back to a better resourced company like QBE and stop this nightmare of bungled tenders.

This is the one of the biggest rorts I've seen and smacks of complete arrogance of the NSW State Government over its citizens, the attitude of 'we know better' and 'take your medicine'. No way, not this little brown duck! We believe in choice and a listening ear or we punish the supplier by taking our business elsewhere.

Icare Workers Insurance NSW Premium Rates (ex WorkCover NSW)

From 30.06.2008, Workcover NSW has a $7500 wages threshold for taking out a workers compensation policy. Policies taken out in error cannot get a refund. We are cancelling QBE from December 2009. Minimum premium is $175.

NSW Small Business Commissioner Bill 2013 No 22

In March 2012, I met Yasmin King, the new NSW Small Business Commissioner, at Orange at DPI offices - very level-headed government official.

In May 2013, NSW Government has legislated Small Business Commissioner Bill 2013 No 22. This forces government and big busineses not to crush small businesses.

For premiums 2013-14, NSW Government also gave incentives for paying Icare Workers Insurance (ex WorkCover) ontime (5% discount) and keeping injuries down and return to work under 13 weeks (10% discount) and reduced premiums by 7.5% in 2013, all good news!

See letter from Small Business Commissioner, Yasmin King, dated 2 May 2013.

In May 2017, NSW Small Business Commissioner did an SME policy framework survey to find out better ways to get SMEs to tender to state government. I gave information re fickleness of NSW state department dealing direct with me without giving any commitment of ongoing work which led to expense of incorporation to cover WorkCover to save department going through agency and loss of other business in Melbourne from being on call for no real benefit. Better time and budget management needed to be done by department. I had to adapt my Terms to handle these overheads to stop them making me go broke. Also expensive tender document fee from local council and expensive security certification requirement for local council tender blocked me tendering and were brought up with them.

WorkChoices Industrial Relations Changes

On 27/3/06, the Australian Government introduced legislation that will force incorporated entities (Pty Ltd) to:

Following its 2012 Annual Wage Review, Fair Work Australia has increased minimum weekly wages by 2.9%. This increases the national minimum wage to $606.40 per week, or $15.96 per hour for employees not covered by an award or agreement.

In 1 July 2015, national minimum wage increased by 2.5%. The new national minimum wage will now be $656.90 per week or $17.29 per hour. see more

This will put pressure on small companies like ours to tighten controls through our project management system on bad customers trying to get lower prices, use smarter technology and outsource non-essential jobs. Managing labour costs will be essential to remain competitive.

If you run a company as working director, obviously you cannot make a claim against yourself as it would be self-defeating so this is a special case. The company must be profitable to survive.

Contractors, which is what we are, are special as they work for an amount for a specified result to be delivered at an agreed deadline using their own tools and being required to repair any problems instead of for wages so they can earn large amounts. The trade-off is there are gaps between jobs where the money has to last. As a result hourly rate and hours per week worked are averaged over a year to smooth out the peaks and troughs that come about from such unpredictable work. So there are inherent risks as well as rewards in contracting.

To reduce overheads and risks, we never hired anyone but outsource nearly everything. Australia has such a bad reputation for industrial disputes that I avoided it altogether by not hiring anyone but myself in the company making us very nimble and not bogged down by wage disputes. There are no layoffs in bad times. Being the owner, we never sack ourselves, so there is job security while profitable. We just relocate, change product or service and use technology to cope, making us very nimble, agile and able to survive better.

On 28 March 2008, the Rudd Labor Government rescinded the WorkChoices legislation and stopped further Australian Workplace Agreements from being created (more).

On 1 June 2018, minimum wage was increased 3.5% to $18.93/hr or $719.20/week.

In May 2018, freelancer.com forced Australian Web developers like me to bid at Australian minimum wage levels ($19 USD/hr) which is double the Indian rates of about $11USD/hr so Indians get all the work. Unions have moved all Internet development offshore by enforcing minimum wage.

Small Business Access to Justice

Exploited Migrant Labour on Farms, Takeaways and Franchisees in Australia

Dodgy Labour Hire Contractors on Harvest Trail in South Australia

Before 2011, Labour Hire Contractors in Riverland, South Australia were using a loophole on Harvest Trail to list unvetted dodgey jobs where the staff, usually backpackers, were not paid or paid very little plus the dodgey labour hire contractors received Australian Government subsidies for bringing workers into the area. This was shutdown by the Government by vetting all ads on Harvest Trail to make sure the labour hire contractors were legitimate and were paying their staff before allowing ads to be listed. These dodgey labour hire companies were preying on people from outside the area and backpackers and ripping their pay off and not providing group certificates to allow the workers to claim their tax back except through a statutory declaration. The labour hire contractors survived because farmers liked the low rates and did not vet them to see if they were paying their staff or not.

Backpackers Pay More Income Tax from 1/7/16 as Non-Residents now 15% tax from 2017

Forced Council Amalgamations Backfired

Immigrant 457 Visa Streamlined for Permanent Residency

In AFR 10-11 March 2012, the Australian Government streamlined 457 Visa holders seeking permanent residency by not having them resit tests.

This will lead to more immigrants and more competition for jobs. Locals stand to lose unless they rise to the occasion and create their own jobs.

This supports big business who only want to hire but not train new staff. Big business want the ceiling for 457 visas raised to 190,000 per year which would put pressure on local businesses. We are small and have to invest in our training to remain viable.

USA has tougher laws blocking migrants becoming permanent residents to protect jobs. We need to follow USA on this and not bow to big business who want quick profits rather than long term education and building up Australian workers. Australia for too long has cut corners on education and brought immigrant workers in rather than train locals which takes longer but is better for the country.

The alternative is a Banana Repubic where we use our resources to pay for immigrants to service our country. This is not healthy but with Australian Governments not willing to get the education system right, there will be a huge opportunity for skilled immigrants to take well paying jobs from less-trained locals.

Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman Request for Comment on Draft Legislation

Fair Work Ombudsman

If you are a company, you can have your books inspected to see if you meet the pay/time data requirements. Paying PAYG creates data for pay. Time records are collected from timesheets. It is hard for contractors who work for a set amount and have to monitor their own hours. Often contractors are confused with self-employed people who are sole-traders. A company, even if it has 1 staff and 1 director (the same person), must comply. It is legal to have a company with 1 director. It is a microbusiness. That requires a lot of logging and data entry to collect all the pay/time data and keep it available at the fingertips for sudden government inspection. Bookkeeping is an increasing cost for small businesses and contractors like ourselves.

We just do it ourselves to save employing an accountant or bookkeeper but it is tedious and detailed work that pulls us away from doing our job. It must be done though.

"Generally, company directors are not considered employees for the purposes of the Workplace Relations Act 1996 and its Regulations 2006, therefore as an employer you have an obligation to ensure you are complying with the act in relation to those who would (under the Act) be regarded as employees (but not for yourself)." (19/1/07)

This was a complete fizzer.

The Workplace Relations Regulations 2006 repeal and replace the Workplace Relations Regulations 1996 to accommodate the WorkChoices amendments to the Workplace Relations Act 1996 introduced on 27 March 2006. In May 2016, this legislation is no longer in force.

On 30 May 2011, the then Australian Assistant Treasurer the Hon Bill Shorten MP, Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation, released a Consultation Paper into Reporting of Taxable Payments for Contractors in the Building and Construction Industry (27/6/2011 Master Builders Association). This would create more paperwork for contractors which would require them to modernise and use Web-based accounting systems to remain viable and to comply with ATO tax law re paying tax due, like we did in 2010 due to a computer crash and allows us to do our ATO BAS and Company Tax anywhere there is internet access.

In July 2013, after Rudd coup in June, David Bradbury was Assistant Treasurer.

In December 2014, Josh Frydenberg is Assistant Treasurer.

Changing Registered Office with ATO Online Saga

Since about 2005, ATO requires businesses to call up with registered office change of address as bp.ato.gov.au does not allow for registered office to be changed online although everything else is able to be changed online. I complained in August 2013 to Ross Vasta MP but ATO rang back asking for details over phone and did not fix problem with Website processes. ATO could update registered office via SBR Web service with ASIC using Auskey authentication but won't. ATO is prehistoric. I contacted ATO SILU and got an email. My local member contacted ATO SILU and I got a phone call saying SBR ELS Gateway would be implemented in 2015.

Government Contracts: Public Liability Outrageous for Small Business

State and Federal Contracts require $10,000,000 public liability cover which costs $7500 to $10,000 per annum, despite if we got the tender or not. This is way out of the reach of a small business like ours.

To afford this, we would have to have $50,000 turnover or more per year, a long way to go. This allows multinationals to blossom and small Australian companies to waste away. Another solution is to form a consortium to group together risks and have one umbrella insurance policy. The amount of administration to achieve these kind of government contracts bogs down our business pushing us away.

AIIA is pushing for limited liability on smaller jobs rather than unlimited liabilitiy which costs so much to insure, to make going for such tenders viable. Our government badly needs overhauling in its dealing with small business contracts.

In July 2015, we increased public liability insurance with Allianz to $20,000,000 for same premium as $10,000,000 so we could setup a stall in Caboolture Square who required that level of public liability insurance.

Public Liability: Accidents caused by Negligence

In April 2018, person was injured by accident of tripping on Brisbane City Council Cavendish Rd Coorparoo footpath due to lack of warning on uneven surface. Council sent them to their insurance broker to lay claim. Council also put yellow stripe on uneven footpath to highlight it and were going to grind down uneven surface with contractor to make it safe.

This puts pressure on injured person to cover expenses and get reimbursed which is not good due to impact on their livelihood due to injury making it hard to work if standing for length of time or climb or descend stairs if lift was not working to get to and from public transport. Self employed person loses money if they take time off work to get well so this is a tricky situation financially. The injury loses them money as they work less to stop pain and it is a long procedure to get some medical treatment and reimbursement to get well. It favours heavily the defendant not the plaintiff.

Other cities like Orange NSW already mark all the tree roots and uneven areas on footpaths with yellow stripes to warn pedestrians of tripping hazards. Brisbane City Council waits for complaints before they fix their footpaths so the damage has been done to the person by the time it is fixed causing more poverty and extending the injury.

Small Claims at Local Court and Credit Card Interest Gouging by Banks (Royal Commission into Banks)

Unpaid Invoices to Small Businesses by Large Corporates and Governments

Bad Debts

If you put in a Statement of Liquidated Claim and the Defendant seeks to pay by instalments, they can pay any amount per week, fortnight or month so it can get down to $25/fortnight for up to 2 years. This will wear the plaintiff down till they give in and enter notice of discontinuance letting the defendant off and the plaintiff paying all the costs - a dead loss - instead of banking endless small cheques to get paid a small amount. Administration kills these kind of claims. Cutting losses stops the rorting and keeps the business still viable instead of being bogged down by administration for little value to the business. We are giving up on country clients as they are generally slow payers and difficult to get to pay and try to do more than they can afford so tend to bring down the creditor who is subcontracting to them unless the creditor kicks the debtor off by writing off the loss.

We decided in January 2008 to not pursue claims against slow payers or bad debtors through the courts as most times the person owing money never pays or gets off on a loophole just holding up valuable resources. So I just ring them up and eventually get money that way. The law is an ass. It pays the government not to close its loopholes as the more debtors there are, the more fees the courts make chasing them down and they get the fees no matter if the money is retrieved or not. The system is a complete failure for small businesses in my opinion. Don't waste your time in the courts pursuing small businesses. It is 99% a waste of time and money.

Credit Law Changes

The Rudd (now Gillard) Labor Government in 2009 is giving more power to the debtor than the creditor by allowing more leniency on repaying bad debts which leaves the creditor scrambling for other sources of income while they wait for the debtor to come good!

Social Security Law saying liability of a company is an income earning asset to director

This ridiculous notion that a company's liabilities are a director's assets made Centrelink deem my company's liabilities as an asset to me earning a few dollars a fortnight in March 2013. This runs in the face of the fact that the money used for the liability was in fact a liability to the director so the so-called money being earned was in fact a loss due to incoming bank interest on the director's loans that fed the company's loans. This is akin to Lehman Brothers bank debacle in USA in 2008 where toxic loans (subprime mortgage crisis) created so-called wealth but when the loans were called in the company collapsed as no-one would bail them out and the loans were not being repaid just going round in circles on minimum monthly repayments with inadequate repayments to get principal down and making borrowers pay off highest interest last causing more to be paid as interest instead of principal perpetuating impossible odds of ever paying off the loans and making the creditors huge profits over many years and impoverishing the debtor who can never catch up and buy assets just service debt.

In 2013, this made it difficult to get a bond loan because the Qld Dept of Communities thought I had cash when it was a liability to the company which was not realised as an asset to me due to cashflow difficulties.

In 2012, the Australian Government forced banks to publish the period of time a credit card loan would take to pay off with minimum monthly repayments and the amount of extra interest paid compared with paying off the loan in 2 years with much higher monthly repayments. It also stopped banks being able to solicit customers to increase their credit card limits.

Working with Children Check (NSW)

In 2010, it cost $80/3 years to have a Working with Children Check via the NSW Police as a one-person business is classified as self-employed, making teaching violin to children on my own unviable. A company of 2 or more staff has a free check. This is way too expensive. Working through a local school requires being hired as a casual teacher.

One Authority for Business Name Registration

Local Government NSW

This group is a source of government IT equipment procurement contracts and industrial relations information.

Millennials 35% of Job Market in 2015

Australian Anti-dumping Law Improvements

In February 2012, Shadow Minister for Agriculture, John Cobb, gives feedback as to why antidumping laws will protect agricultural jobs and the Australian economy from predatory companies offshore who drop prices to get market share then raise them when local companies have gone bust.

The same holds true for cheap IT developers offshore, e.g. in India, who undercut local developers sending them broke or crippling them. Internet development is very competitive and other countries undercut each other to win business using exchange rate, local wages and opensource software and operating systems to reduce costs and be more agile like we do.

Mining Tax

Australian ALP Government got the 30% minerals resource rent tax (MRRT) through Senate in 19 March 2012 which will start on 1 July 2012 (Hansard 15/3/2012). Mining companies (BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Xstrata have been making huge profits in the past 2 or 3 years from the huge growth in China of mineral processing plants and middle class economy (cars, houses, gadgets). This will aid small business (under $5M/yr turnover) with company tax of 29% (down %1).

ALP Government is doing strides to help the underdog. Liberal Party blocks anything where money is redistributed to the rest of the economy from a select few very wealthy individuals and companies. As Obama said, the trickle down effect of rich people passing on wealth is a myth. They just hoard the money so government intervention in the form of a resources tax was necessary to make Australia more equitable.

Exetel reducing agents' commissions unilaterally

In March 2012, Exetel Pty Ltd announced it would unilaterally reduce agents' commission from 7.5% to 3% from 1 May 2012. ISP Agents Talk Forum was setup by agents to fight back against the injustice of Exetel underpricing its products so taking an axe to commission to pay for it.

Mention was made of a 1987 High Court decision with NSW Coal Association that showed management could not cut basic rights of a worker:

No doubt our traditional system of industrial conciliation and arbitration has itself contributed to a growing recognition that management and labour have a mutual interest in many aspects of the operation of a business enterprise. Many management decisions, once viewed as the sole prerogative of management, are now correctly seen as directly affecting the relationship of employer and employee and constituting an "industrial matter".

In April 2012, Exetel Pty Ltd made agents get bigger orders and also improved commission for 1 short-term service.

National School Chaplaincy Programme

After much debate in 2011, the National School Chaplaincy and Student Welfare Program is being extended by the ALP Government in 2012. This is a breakthrough for commonsense and will help the mental and social health of teenagers when they are most vulnerable and prevent suicides.

In November 2014, Commonwealth reached agreement with states and territories whereby scheme will be funded by Commonwealth and delivered by states and territories. This was due to High Court challenge in June 2014 in which it was found that previous program was unconstitutional for Commonwealth to deliver so now it is delivered by states and territories.

Multi-Level Companies in USA

Multi-level companies that pay commission to agents then feed back money into a common pool to grow company bigger. These companies do not pay their bills on time.

Small Business Unfair Dismissal Code 1 Jul 2009

Cross Media Laws - Convergence Review

In June 2012, newspaper owners like Fairfax are closing paper publication units and going totally online with pay walls to generate revenue to counter falling paper sales. Australian Government is heralding tightening up laws for cross media ownership including digital media making publishers panic that the Government is restricting freedom of speech.

Since about 2005, traditional newspapers have lost heavily in classifieds to Google, other search engines and Facebook social media online advertising.

Amazon Web Services and other cloud providers are heralding a major move to the Web for online publications and ebooks so that small bloggers can compete head on with large newspaper empires for journalistic content.

Since the advent of the Apple iPad in 2010, online newspapers have taken off over paper editions.

Revision of Telecommunications Consumer Protection (TCP) by 1 September 2012 to protect consumers from Telcos bill shocks

Telcos have to warn customers when they are nearing their cap to avoid unaffordable cost blowouts.

NSW Government sue ERG for breach of contract for TCard

Because of these problems, NSW Government is not keen to invest in mobile technology. ERG has created the usual fear and loathing about hitech projects.

Two Speed Economy

The mining sector is growing much stronger than manufacturing which needs to replace old staid work practices with agile and lean methodology.

Live Export Trade to Indonesia

In 2011, Australian Government banned live export of cattle from Australia to Indonesia due to cruelty to animals which grossly affected cattle farms' sales forcing them to leave cattle ready for slaughter in Australia losing money as stock died. Greens influenced ALP to block live exports till Indonesia caught up with stunning pre-slaughter.

Local Government Recognition in Australian Constitution

This should lead to Canberra directly funding Local Governments on infrastructure projects but not block state-local government relations. This would be a huge breakthrough as state governments usually favour capital cities and ignore country areas but with Canberra funding local government country and city councils would be supported equally by Canberra not lopsided like currently via state governments who favour where the most votes are and not the obvious need of country areas over city areas.

The 7 September 2013 federal election was held 1 week too early to allow the local government referendum to be held with it so it will be held in 2014 at higher expense with another referendum.

Stolen Generation

Aboriginal issues are going to be central in 2013 election.

Inactive Bank Accounts Taken by Australian Government

Deposit or withdraw small amounts to keep accounts active or Government will take it from May 2013.

Privacy Act enhancements

Criminal Intelligence Sharing, ISP Data Retention and Data Breach Reporting

Gonski Education Reforms

Super Reform

Caretaker Period of Australian Government

Homelessness

Inquiry into IT pricing

Asylum Seekers

Nauru Detention Centre

Australian puts asylum seekers in Nauru for offshore processing instead of letting them land on Australia where they have more rights. This is supposedly to stop people smugglers.

In Canberra in 2012 I heard an Immigration Dept officer speak at Dickson Baptist Church before moving to Perth WA.

Manus Island Detention Centre

In July 2013, Australian Government moved to setup 3000 person detention centre on Manus Island to stop people being drowned off Christmas Island. The Australian Government still won't negotiate with originating countries to sort out mess that generates these asylum seekers.

In 2012, I suggested to John Cobb MP to move Christmas Island detention centre to Derby WA as it is remote and has a good aboriginal population to assimilate them but got no response.

This problem has dragged on from 2002.

Aboriginal Juvenile Detention

Brisbane Draft New City Plan 2013

Road traffic accidents in New Cleveland Rd Gumdale need more roundabouts.

RPEQ (Engineering)

In Queensland, only engineers with RPEQ may work. This means software engineers like me with a BSc not a BEE have to be recertified with Engineers Australia at a cost of $600. This makes Queensland engineering a closed shop and anticompetitive. This stopped me tendering for a TMR contract in 2012 where they only wanted professional advice from a civil engineer.

In August 2019, ABC 4Corners (Cracking up) covered construction industry shoddy workmanship due to no registration of engineers. Only Queensland registered engineers leading to many cowboys getting in and wrecking everything.

Carbon Tax / Climate Change

eBay

Browser incompatibility

Seller did not register email address with PayPal

eBay favouring seller

In August 2013 when a purchase of a battery went wrong due to payment not going through, the seller would not cancel the order and I had to wait till unpaid ticket expired. eBay terms and conditions are draconian and give all power to the seller. Only payments via PayPal using credit card are OK as direct transfers and PayPal via savings account are too risky or impossible to setup if battery of mobile for Netbank SMS is flat. I had to buy battery from Local Batteries in Capalaba in end at 5 times price to stop hell but still paperwork ground on for another week till unpaid ticket expired because seller would not cancel order.

Seller was from Malaysia with Melbourne shipping address and was as tight as hell and did not allow for error. Malaysia does not charge GST. Malaysian would not provide tax invoice only PayPal receipt making whole mess start as I then asked for the product as I had started PayPal purchase and Malaysian tried to back out because they could not provide tax invoice.

Now I cannot get order cancelled and am in deadlock with seller as they say their PayPal email address was accurate despite me sending it there and them not receiving it as I believe they gave me the wrong email address or they checked the wrong email account. There is english barrier and culture shock here.

Later at my complaint re outstanding open ticket past expiration date, eBay retrieved PayPal transaction ID to prove to seller item had been paid and to get seller to close open unpaid item case and ship item.

The stalled transaction was cancelled by eBay at my persistence and product not shipped. End of hell.

Queensland Open Data Revolution

Energy Regulation

Crazy Domains name taken over by Dreamscape Networks without notification 2011

Casualisation of Jobs

Credit Cards Compromised

Renting in Queensland

Rent via Electronic Transfer

In Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation Act 2008 (QLD) section 86 (2):

This means if the tenant paid their rent via electronic transfer on the day in the Lease Item 10 e.g. Wednesday then it is deemed paid not when the real estate agent receives it. This stops the real estate requiring a tenant to pay up to 3 days earlier to cater for slowness in the banking network.

Payment of Bond to RTA

In Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation Act 2008 (QLD):

"116 Duty to pay rental bond
(1) A person receiving a rental bond must, within 10 days of receiving it--
(a) pay it to the authority; and
(b) give the authority a notice, in the approved form, about the rental bond.
Maximum penalty--40 penalty units."

Lessors who don't pay bond to RTA are operating an unregistered residential service.

Residential Services Registration (Rooming)

Negative Gearing of Investment Real Estate

In April 2016, Government did not remove negative gearing from investment properites on eve of May budget.

Fraud

Infrastructure Australia

Infrastructure

Retail Leases

Australia Post Moving PO Box

In December 2013 at Brisbane GPO, to move a company post office box, I had to have:

I rang 131318 who had my company documents used in opening the PO Box posted to my address in Brisbane so I could formalise the closure without having to go back down to get the papers or contacting ASIC for a new copy.

This needs to be digital using Web services between ASIC and Australia Post like ATO are doing in 2015.

NBN tax

NBN Subcontractor Failure

Many NBN connections are failing in Caboolture no doubt because of pyramid structure of NBN contractors where all the money goes in admin not field workers or training of field workers. NBN should deal direct wtih field workers instead of primary contractors who take all the money.

NBN Access Providers

Only Telcos and access providers who have signed a wholesale agreement with a wholesaler of NBNCo have login access to roll out data on portal sent via email on Telco and Access Provider mailing list. If you are not in that category, unsubscribe from NBNCo Telco and Access Provider mailing list. NBNCo will not provide you with information re this hassle. I worked it out myself.

Translink Flagfall

Rail flagfall is $10 on Translink gocard. Correct fare will be adjusted when customer tags off. Bus flagfall is $5 till tag off when it is adjusted. I had to work this out myself via calls to Call Centre.

Employee Share Schemes

Inland Rail

Building Trains Overseas

Australian Dept of Education: VET FEE-HELP rorts closed

North Queensland Sugar Industry

Sensis charges Web developers for one line listing in Yellow Pages book but noone else

White Pages Listing not done by TPG Internet for Residential Listing

From November 2015 to May 2016, I tried via TPG Internet to have my residential listing inserted into White Pages. White Pages will not list it direct only via a telephone company. TPG Internet vowed they had sent the request but White Pages never received it. I fought TPG Internet for about a month to fix this but they refused and said keep waiting. Instead I cancelled my TPG Internet connection due to the stuff up with White Pages listing. TPG Internet are incompetent re listing a residential number in White Pages and would not troubleshoot the message not being received by White Pages re inserting a listing. White Pages would have nothing to do with my residential listing as they only list businesses direct now to make money.

Eventually in July 2016, White Pages informed me that TPG Internet did list my number with them after line had been disconnected back in May 2016 so I had to contact White Pages to delist the disconnected number which they did. How stupid that TPG Internet only listed my number after it was disconnected by them! TIO did not want to do anything as the number had been delisted but just wanted to know the number had been delisted. So the dumb punter is left fixing everything themselves the hard way.

Australian Bureau of Statistics IT Upgrade

In March 2015, Dwight Walker lobbied Wyatt Roy MP for Longman re upgrading ABS IT systems which had not been done since 1980s when he worked at ABS in Brisbane. Facom mainframe still in use was fit for museum! ABS was thinking of cancelling 5 yearly censuses and only doing 10 yearly censuses to pay for the IT upgrade because there was barely enough money in ABS to keep IT systems working. There were frequent breakdowns leading to statistical errors. There was no Australian Statistician for over a year from January 2014 til March 2015.

In May 2015, the Australian Treasurer allocated $250M in the Budget for the ABS IT upgrade which has led to a 5 year renovation and growth program. 3 systems were upgraded:

In July 2015, ABS is hiring Deputy Australian Statistician - Statistical Services Group to guide the ABS through its growth phase over the next 5 years! Dwight's efforts paid off!

Transfer of Web Services from NSW DPI Water to WaterNSW

Adani Coal Mine Central Queensland

Coal Mine vs Prime Farming Land in Liverpool Plains, Breeza, NSW

Political Donations Tax Deductions

Mark Ryan MP for Morayfield required a gift to ALP Queensland Morayfield Branch to attend a Queensland Budget Breakfast in July 2015. It turns out only individuals are allowed to donate so my business will just put it to general expenses and not be allowed tax deduction.

Netregistry vs TPP Wholesale Resellers

Tax Invoices for Domains and Transfer of Domain Registrar

Poker Machines Reform (Gambling)

Cashless Welfare Card

JobActive - no training paid for - over 55s long-term unemployment

No Science Minister or Funding

We need science and R&D to bring us out of the recession quicker otherwise it will be a slow recovery. Science gives big bang for the buck. Anti-science is very popular.

When I was in Canberra, I heard 18 Sep 2012 Bandt (Greens) (later in 29 October 2012 too) ask the Govt what it was going to do about research spending, with scientists from a conference in the peanut gallery. The Govt cut spending and University of Melbourne asked its graduates for money in 2013 to fill the gap created by moving money from tertiary education to secondary education.

Medicare

Rural Doctor Shortage: Charles Sturt University and Western Sydney University School of Medicine

Startups

Crowd-Sourcing Funding

Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption 2015

Uber and Taxi Industry Shakeup

Uber Eats accident and business bicycle insurance for riders

Doing Uber Eats delivery on bicycle, I had accident on 6/1/17 9pm at Hawthorne Rd Hawthorne QLD near Cineplex. I ran into driver's door of parked car as he got out when I was riding down hill to deliver food for Uber Eats.

This shook me up.

Police only want to know an injury accident via their form above.

Uber will not pay for business bicycle insurance so I have to. This should have been upfront when I started subcontracting to Uber but it had to take an accident to unearth this problem.

Uber does not pay for any insurance for any Uber Eats subcontractor despite them having flat tyres, bald tyres, buckled front wheel truing, violin and phone dropped and accident all delivering Uber Eats.

On 7/1/17, I was kicked out of their office in Fortitude Valley because I dared to confront them about their lousy attitude to subcontractors.

On 8/1/16, I discovered Uber had disabled my Uber driver account so I cannot do any Uber deliveries till this legal matter is resolved.

Uber rang me on 8/1/17 to work out protocol of why I was kicked out of office. Uber disables accounts of drivers in a dispute.

AAMI, NRMA and Allianz do not insure Uber drivers or riders.

I contacted TMR Qld. Only personal injury is covered by compulsory third party insurance. Property damage is covered by private insurance.

Legal Aid put me into contact with Bond Law Clinic for small business legal advice. Bond Law Clinic would not handle it so I did not pursue action.

I lost Uber job.

It took 17 days to get a refund on backpack deposit due to difficulties communicating with Uber - they rang me, I could not ring them, the Brisbane hub was difficult to visit, the Sydney manager took up to a week to send emails.

Copyright Piracy on Internet

TPP Copyright

Mental Health

Ice Epidemic (Drugs)

Opioid Epidemic (Drugs)

My Health Record (PCEHR)

Domestic Violence

Family Law Act 1975 - Divorce and Domestic Violence and Child Abuse

Multinational Tax Avoidance

Large IT Companies Aggressive Tax Minimisation

Diverted Profits Tax

Discount PBS prescriptions

Closure of RSRT (Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal)

In April 2016, Australian LNP Government is trying to close down RSRT but is blocked in the cross benches in the Senate. RSRT is for truck drivers road safety ensuring they are paid adequately and not have road traffic accidents due to falling asleep to achieve shipping deadlines. The LNP is trying to cut corners but will lead to poorer work conditions for owner drivers.

Right To Information for Software Tenders

In May 2016, Moreton Bay Regional Council redeveloped their business directory using an interstate developer so I tried to find out how much they paid or if it was free. It was paid. I found that out via contacting the supplier. MBRC was very difficult to get anything out of.

In 2015 and onwards, the Mayor of Moreton Bay Regional Council still complains that there are not enough local businesses hiring and 60% of workers travel outside the area to find work but MBRC still outsources large chunks of IT spend outside the area because they are so huge and want a very high level of expertise and strong finance balance sheet to deal with them. It is a no-win situation to run a small IT business in Moreton Bay.

The only way to do business as a small developer with MBRC or other state or federal governments is to use open data and write the apps at own expense and sell downloads. Nothing else works due to their gargantuan tendering systems that favour bigger companies usually based interstate, in a capital city or overseas. So rich get richer and poor get poorer.

Nepotism

Moreton Bay Regional Council suffers from nepotism in DAs in Redcliffe since 2011 or so.

Fighting Corruption using Internet

Low Income Health Care Card

Dairy Industry Price War

NSW Politicians Implicated by ICAC in 2014-2016 for Donations from Property Developers

SeatRegionPoliticianParty BeforeParty After2015 Election Result
LondonderryWestern SydneyBart BassettLPIndepPrue CarALP
Port StephensHunterCraig BaumannLPIndepKate WashingtonALP
SwanseaCentral CoastGarry EdwardsLPIndepYasmin CatleyALP
TerrigalCentral CoastChris HartcherLPIndepAdam CrouchLP
The EntranceCentral CoastChris SpenceLPIndepDavid MehanALP
WyongCentral CoastDarren WebberLPIndepDavid HarrisALP

Western Sydney Airport

In June 2018, once Emma Husar MP for Lindsay opposes draconian way Western Sydney Airport is being built, she is mysteriously implicated that she is bullying staff and her career is on line in August 2018. One has to wonder if property developers found her in the way so removed her. She was not on side with Labor Right Faction (builders).

Queensland Property Developers Donations to Politicians

Lack of Bailouts by Federal Govt

Automotive Plant Shutdown

Steelworks Shutdown

Solar Rebates

Since December 2018, solar rebates have fueled a large growth in installations. I keep getting rung up about solar installations by Indian subcontractors.

Domestic Gas Shortage and High Gas and Power Prices

South Australian Electricity Infrastructure Blackout

Queensland Rail Redcliffe Line Debacle Over Lack of Drivers

On 4/10/16 when Redcliffe Line opened, there were not enough drivers so up to 100 services on a Friday or 30 services other days were cancelled. Drivers were cannibalized from Caboolture line for Redcliffe line throwing network into chaos. The lack of drivers was due to very poor planning by central bureaucrats. Trains were running 10 mins late constantly because train could not get back in time to keep on time. Drivers could not keep up. Trains would stop all over the network and have the drivers swap to another service in complete chaos. Translink refused to admit lack of drivers. Queensland Rail knew of lack of drivers back in January 2016. Premier and Transport Minister did not know of lack of drivers till October 2016. CEO resigned in October 2016 after debacle of lack of drivers. Drivers were doing 11 day shifts and working overtime on old timetable before Redcliffe Line was opened.

Redcliffe Line should not have opened till there were enough drivers rather than put network into chaos and stuff up everyone's life. They should have rolled back to the old timetable and closed Redcliffe Line till they had the drivers.

Caboolture line now is express from Petrie to Bowen Hills stopping only at Northgate and Eagle Junction. People on in between stops have to change at Petrie to Redcliffe Line meaning crossing lines. This is very inefficient for passengers. The logic was it was easier to move trains round network if they ran Caboolture line express from Petrie to Bowen Hills unlike the all stops before. Redcliffe Line took the all stops from Bowen Hills to Petrie. During debacle, Caboolture line is doing some of those stops on random occasions such as weekends.

In October 2016, I wrote to MP for Pumicestone and Morayfield re getting new timetable to allow for lack of drivers so passengers knew what was happening. Rick Williams MP for Pumicestone said he would pass it onto minister. I also wrote in November 2016 to MPs re using sensors and transponders to track cancellation of trains so Minister would know what was happening and which lines had lack of crews. Queensland Rail were not providing minister with live data for cancellations. Translink said they could not track live data for cancellations in their MyTranslink app or translink.com.au. A new timetable was uploaded to their Website so passengers would know of cancellations rather than scanning a long page of changes on their Website.

A new timetable will start 7/11/16 which allows for less drivers. New drivers are being fast tracked and trained.

If minister does not fix this by Christmas with this new timetable he will be kicked out.

Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority Bill 2017

To stop parliamentry expenses rorts, Malcolm Turnbull setup Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority by 1/7/17.

Boundary Changes for Queensland State Electorates

Childcare and Family Allowance Reform

Smoking Loophole

In April 2017, King George Square has many smokers. Since 1 Sep 2016, Brisbane City Council classified King George Square and Anzac Square as parks so can get away with allowing smokers despite Queensland Government outlawing smoking in public spaces since December 2016. This is not healthy. This loophole should be closed by collaboration between Brisbane City Council and Queensland Government.

In 2019 smokers refused to leave outside Caboolture Square driving away buskers. They also break law at Caboolture station in non-smoking zone. Passive smoking affects others as well as smoker. Working class and unemployed are main smokers.

Overseas Retailers to Charge GST on Purchases by Australian Consumers not Businesses

Australian Government will expect overseas companies like Amazon and eBay to charge consumers GST on low value goods from 1/7/17 so that local retailers are protected from competition instead of investing in a good Website and hosting and beating overseas competition.

Local IT industry is too expensive or of poor quality through cheap businessmen wanting lowest price which causes all sorts of technical stuffups for Web developers like ourselves.

Apart from Australian Government supporting STEM and Startup Economy they generally do not support IT industry but instead support blue collar industry like mining. This needs to reverse to stop Australians having to import high levels of skills, goods and services or moving offshore to remain competitive in hitech economy.

Poor business management decisions to use poor quality hosting or do Web design inhouse to save money has sullied IT reputation in Australia causing people to import from overseas.

Big retailers want to tax people into buying local.

Overseas retailers can block Australian IP addresses to stop having to charge GST to consumers. This happens with overseas online videos that are blocked for Australian IP addresses to save bandwidth. So there will be less choice and higher prices making it harder to run a business in Australia if people shop overseas all the time.

This will not affect me as I use overseas hosting and have a registered business. The new law gave me loophole of not paying GST as I run a registered business when using overseas supplies. Supplier must request ABN of business to see if it is registered and so not be liable for GST.

This is aimed at killing negative impacts of globalisation via the Internet but does not destroy IT businesses like mine only consumers who buy overseas.

After much research on 27/6/17 I found the GST on low value goods only applies to consumers not registered businesses.

For overseas transactions, in June 2017 Amazon Web Services and Uber EATS collected ABN of businesses it sells to.

Google Pay Complexity

In April 2018, Google Pay allows business profile to be created in which ABN of business is registered when business purchases a Google Domain. More than one profile is attached to Gmail account, individual or business. My original Google Payment profile attached to my gmail was for individual for Google Play purchases.

No departments of Google connect to each other very well except using gmail account:

They will push you from one to the other to try and resolve issues and in end the online help is all they use anyway. Google has become too big to manage itself.

Centrelink Robodebt Program

Those overpaid welfare have to repay money to Centrelink. Centrelink is finding those responsible via data matching and sending out letters to repay money.

You can see why I got off dole. It is hell and does not work as I never got a job and never got trained for 2.5 years.

Gutting TAFE

Telstra Being Overcharged by Queensland Govt for Cell Tower Lease was Overturned by Court

Queensland Govt milks telcos instead of encouraging them to rollout by fair lease. This hold back Queensland in technology and is a quick cash grab. Only 40% in Queensland have ADSL showing low technology uptake and slack attitude to technology in Queensland.

Car Recall

Dual Citizenship of Federal Politicians

Data Integration

Share of GST Revenue for WA

Tightening eligibility for the R&D Tax Incentive in Company Tax Deductions

Higher Education Funding Cuts

Same Sex Marriage

Whistleblower Protection

In 2016, when person pointed out nepotism or bullying when working in AEC at local government election near Caboolture Queensland, that person was then not hired in future. Person is fearful of reporting maladministration for fear of losing job in a place where it is very hard to get work or business.

Public officials can divulge facts to media as a whistleblower with legal protections otherwise rank maladministration will continue for years to come with the public suffering.

Joseph Pulitzer once said:

There is not a crime, there is not a dodge, there is not a trick, there is not a swindle, there is not a vice which does not live by secrecy.

FIFO Workers in Mining - Psychological Stress for Profits

Queensland Smoke Alarms Installation

Since new smoke alarm law enacted on 1/1/2017, Qld Dept of Housing and Public Works social housing has to have smoke alarms replaced by 1 Jan 2020.

Caboolture social housing was done in May 2018.

GDPR Compliance

EU enforced privacy laws from 25 May 2018.

In May 2018, we setup SSL certificate on our server on AWS to comply.

Defence IT Contractors Audit

Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) analyzed Defence and found out IT contractors were doing undocumented changes from 2014-15 to 2017-18 and not been remedied.

Defence is very bureaucratic. Project management and metadata need to be used to find information re projects.

Fine for No Payslip

In July 2018, my boss did not send a payslip when I was paid and can be fined for not doing so. Boss refused to email me a payslip or say why none was sent except man was sick who normally did it. I don't mind a manual paper payslip posted out or a manual email payslip but not nil.

I manually worked out tax deducted by deducting net income from gross income.

This company forced me to redo TFN and Super Selection Form because they changed provider for payroll without consultation with the staff affected. I did this and had to buy new ink cartridge (expensive) to do so but now they won't email me a payslip because someone was sick. They should have a procedure to handle when the paymaster is away sick and train their staff on how to operate payroll software so noone suffers from lack of information of no payslip.

Pay slip came 3 days late. It is not formatted well and does not list super contributions and is called remittance not pay slip. Boss would not communicate re why there were stuffups. This is mean to employee who does right thing by company. Farmer I worked for had a better paymaster. They gave me excellent pay slips as follows.

A normal pay slip is called pay slip not remittance and includes:

Registered Tax Agent alone can do BAS or Income Tax for Another for Fee

Only registered tax agent can do BAS or income tax for another for a fee, otherwise person or corporation faces heavy penalties by Federal Court.

Freelancers should not do any tax work for another for a fee unless they become a registered tax agent via Tax Practitioners Board (quite expensive).

It is legal to do one's own BAS and income tax but not someone else's for a fee or if not a registered tax agent.

Accountants or customers are liable to report such a person or business to Tax Practitioners Board and be served with a notice of possible breach and high penalties without warning, bankrupting person or business.

Airtasker lets people request tax work but only registered tax agents can do it or freelancer faces heavy penalties.

Trading Names no longer available on Australian Business Register (ABR) from 1 November 2018

Due to change of law in 28/5/2012, ABR no longer collects or updates Trading Names.

From 31/10/2023 (previously 1/11/2018) ABR will no longer publish trading names on ABN Lookup only registered business names. ATO will keep internal copies but will not publish trading names only registered business names. Businesses will have to register a business name to remain on the ABR.

Horsemeat Scandal in Exports to Europe

Drought

Phoenix Activity in Businesses

Royal Commission into Aged Care

Murray Darling Basin Mismanagement

Anti-Money Laundering

In March 2019, I had email from blackmailer wanting payment in Bitcoin because he had allegedly hacked my email or had incriminating video from my Webcam. Digital assets such as email or Websites are at risk from such exploitation worldwide. Once a data breach occurs all the individuals listed are an easy target for exploitation.

Because Bitcoin gets around Anti-Money Laundering protection of banks it is perfect for exploitation on the internet.

Encryption Laws and Cyber Security

In April 2020, email to Bigpond bounced because my server was on Amazon Web Services EC2 and they wanted me to whitelist my domain. My domain is clean. In end I sent the email to my sister on Bigpond via gmail which did not bounce as Telstra thinks gmail has enough cred but not my AWS server. Spammers have ruined AWS's credibility in Telstra's eyes.

In 2019, encryption law amendments to Telecommunications Act introduced systemic weakness so AFP, ASIO and ASIS can gain access to check criminal activity but this killed valid ecommerce.

Having systemic weakness in encryption by law for law enforcement creates the danger of becoming a honeypot of content or customer IDs to any online merchant which any criminal with access to the systemic weakness can use to exploit and corrupt the data.

Systems have to be hardened by system admins using firewalls to ensure no penetration by criminals on online sites so they become compromised and used to send spam or hack other sites. Mail systems, Web servers, databases and remote logins have to be protected using encryption without backdoors.

Due to cyber attack on APH mail servers in February 2019, encryption was tightened too much so no emails can get through except by gmail etc not personal mail server like mine.

In August-September 2019, the irony is that emails from my personal email server to MP to fix Encryption Laws were blocked or not delivered by encryption on APH mail server forcing me to use gmail instead of my own mail server removing independence from large companies to perform IT. I will have to research mail server settings to overcome these security issues blocking my emails to MP. MP would not help me with technical information from APH IT Dept re encryption standards only saying the big email servers work but made it tough that mine doesn't work. He was very arrogant re my techical difficulties - MP for Longman.

Biometrics

Cash Ban

myGovID App for ATO BAS

From 31 March 2020, ATO BAS authentication can only be done via myGovID App not Auskey which is being decommissioned.

myGovID App only runs on Android 7+ and iOS 10+ (mobile phone or tablet from 2016). This causes need for small business to purchase an Android or iPhone for $200 or more on eBay etc before then to comply.

Before ATO BAS could be done via Auskey authentication in browser.

Photo ID is used to authenticate the user in myGovID.

Coronavirus (JobKeeper, Cash Flow Boost)

Since December 2019, Wuhan China is shutting down due to coronavirus epidemic. The flow-on is less international students and tourists from China to Australia causing slump in retail. Factories are also shutting down in China causing supply chain shortages.

In April 2020, in a program called JobKeeper, Australian Government promised $1500/fortnight/employee wage subsidy for employees of

JobKeeper extension is being scaled back in September-December 2020 and January-March 2021 (ATO 9/20).

CDDS (Chronic Disease Dental Scheme) - Dental

In 2012, failed government dental scheme CDDS (Chronic Disease Dental Scheme) led to dentists charging patients full price.

Only Greens and cross-bench support dental scheme. ALP and LNP oppose dental scheme.

Because fees are so high, dental health declines as people wait to afford to pay fee especially in rural areas or for those on low income. The longer people wait the worse dental health becomes leading to very high bills. With insurance, preventative dental care could be done and much money saved by the public and the government.

Dental care delays badly needs fixing with right legislation or insurance system to stop cost blowouts for those least able to afford it in rural areas or on low income.

Around 2015, in Queensland Centrelink health care card holders can be put on 2 year waiting list for Queensland Health Oral Health subsidy but without Centrelink health care card they have to get low income health care card from Centrelink or pay for dental care full price themselves. If they fall off waiting list because of lack of health care card they have to wait 2 years again by which stage dental health has deteriorated even more and costs will be even higher so paying full price is better than waiting for years to get government subsidy from Queensland Health. If person has dental insurance they pay less but there is overhead of dental insurance. Medicare does not cover dental care.

Created: 2 May 2006 23:04
Last Updated: 29 Dec 2020 12:11

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