Saturday 20th of April 2024
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poor "Auntie" ...

poor "Auntie" ...

 

The ABC’s censorship of Emma Alberici in response to pressure from Malcolm Turnbull comes at a time when the national broadcaster’s mainstream media competitors are also increasingly failing to properly inform Australians.

Far from being, as alleged by the ABC, too opinionated, Alberici’s piece (available here) is a collation of straightforward facts - levels of profit versus wages growth in recent years, the fact that few companies pay 30% tax, the high level of investment despite our “uncompetitive” tax rate, the minimal role tax plays in business investment decisions, the comparative performance of investment and wages in Australia, and Canada, where company tax rates were reduced significantly, the decline of real wages in the UK where company taxes were also cut, the Congressional Budget Office analysis showing Australia’s tax rate is relatively low compared internationally; the relatively negligible economic benefits identified in the government’s own modelling, the fact that we’re projected to remain in deficit for several years yet.

 

 

Sure, there was a gratuitous targeting of the salary of Alan Joyce, but otherwise none of these facts are disputed. Indeed, they’re well-known. Crikey wrote about the Canadian and British experiences, and the CBO report, eleven months ago, and no one said boo. I’ve repeatedly asked the Business Council of Australia to explain why wages growth in the UK and Canada so significantly underperformed wages growth in Australia despite their cuts to company tax, and the BCA has refused to respond. Likewise, it’s noteworthy about the hysterical response to the article that no one disputed the facts. The Financial Review, which has led the attack on the ABC, today ran a piece it headlined “Our ABC perpetrates a tax fraud” that it claimed “debunked” Alberici’s work. It was a strange “debunking” - the piece skated over nearly all of the facts in Alberici’s piece and dismissed them as “anecdotes” and “red herrings” that the authors are “not buying” because they’re at odds with economic modelling. 

 

 

This is “fake news” territory, to insist that real-world evidence from other economies that have implemented the policy you’re defending is merely “anecdote”, while economic modelling - based on ridiculous assumptions like our lack of debt, and full employment - is a better guide to reality. Then again, the AFR was already deep into denial when it comes to tax cuts. There appears to be an editorial prohibition on any mention of the extraordinary level of share buybacks going on in the US fueled by Trump’s tax cuts - now running at more than twice the level they were a year ago. You’d think that the AFR, in seeking to make the investors who read it as well informed as possible, would regard the dramatic increase in share buybacks by some of the biggest companies in the world as newsworthy, but clearly not. 

 

 

The only “tax fraud” being perpetuated here is the one by the government, business and media cheerleaders like the AFR - the broad daylight transfer of over $60 billion from taxpayers to the world’s largest corporations under the verifiably false pretences that the money will be used to increase investment and wages. It’s a quite brilliant fraud, too: corporations don’t even have to hire an array of expensive tax lawyers like the Deloittes partner who wrote the AFR piece - they just have to chip in some money to Liberal and National Party coffers and get the politicians to do the heavy lifting of reducing their tax burden.

 

 

Fairfax, the owner of the AFR, of course can print whatever denialism it likes about the company tax cuts it will benefit from, should it ever achieve regular profitability again. As corporations, media companies can say what they like, and long may they do so, even if as a result Australians have less trust in our country’s media than virtually any other people. The ABC is different. It is funded by taxpayers and is rightly held to much higher editorial standard than private media companies. That’s why it is by far Australia’s most trusted media outlet.

 

 

But the decision to cave in to government pressure and censor one of its most senior journalists, coming just days after the extraordinary decision to hand back to the government a trove of cabinet documents without sharing them with its audience, will undermine that trust.

 

 

The ABC is looking increasingly like a state, not a national, broadcaster.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

a diet of beetroot and root and root...

Turnbull's attack on Emma Alberici for daring to tell some uncomfortable truths is indicative of a global pattern of undermining public institutions and censoring independent journalism, writes Mr Denmore from Failed Estate.

WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT an analysis of corporate tax policy would set so many pulses racing?

Perhaps it was a form of group therapy for the nation after weeks of seeking to shut out images of the Member for New England Barnaby Joyce indulging in "country matters".

But ABC journalist Emma Alberici’s analysis piece criticising the need for corporate tax cuts in Australia when so few companies pay any has certainly provided a needed distraction from our recent diet of beetroot.

 

Read more:

https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/turnbull-comp...

a fraud called Mr Browder?...

If any Australian politician ever wanted to shirtfront Vladimir Putin they'd do well to speak with Bill Browder.

The British-American hedge fund manager, described as the number one enemy of the Russian President, has helped six countries introduce Magnitsky Acts — laws that have infuriated Russia's leader by punishing criminals and human rights violators who have flourished under his regime.

There are now Magnitsky Acts in six countries and Mr Browder has launched his campaign for Australia to introduce its own version of the law.

"I would like to find a multi-party group of advocates to join me in Australia, in the way I have done it in the US, UK and Canada, to put a Magnitsky Act to the Australian parliament," he told 7.30.

Magnitsky Acts work on the principle that Russian fraudsters make their money at home and then spend and invest their ill-gotten gains in Western countries.

Read more:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-02-20/australia-should-introduce-magnits...

 

According to Russia, Mr Browder is a "MAJOR fraudster"... who parades for "justice"...

A group of MEPs have urged Cyprian authorities not to cooperate with Russia on an inquiry against the man behind the Magnitsky Act, William Browder. Now, a Russian lawyer claims that Browder himself arranged this petition to hide data on his operations.

Browder, a US-born British investor and the founder of Hermitage Capital Management, fears that his fraudulent investment schemes involving offshore assets in Cyprus would be revealed to European authorities if Cyprus continues to cooperate with Moscow on its probe against him, Natalya Veselnitskaya, a Russian lawyer who conducted her own investigation into Browder's operations, told RT. She added that Browder is actively trying to paint the investigation against him as politically motivated.

Read more:

https://www.rt.com/news/410008-browder-cyprus-offshore-investigation/

 

Why did not the ABC (Australia) showed or even mentioned the "controversy" about Mr Browder to show "balance" like it demanded about the Emma Alberici comment on Malcolm's tax cuts fiddles?... Ah, yes the ABC had Geoffrey Robinson taking about whatever "human rights" that had no relevance to the issue that Browder was pushing... We cannot let "our" media, especially "our" ABC fall for these clever tricksters.

Read: 

http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/34662

Please

Please visit:

https://www.rt.com/politics/407647-chief-russian-prosecutor-asks-us/

no factual errors...

Crucially, the editor’s note did not concede there were any factual errors in the analysis piece. Weekly Beast understands the ABC’s editorial policy managers found no significant issues of accuracy but did find issues with tone and opinion. ABC journalists are permitted to analyse but not to give an opinion on an issue they cover. An accompanying news story was quickly amended after two minor accuracy issues were identified – CSR doesn’t have a sugar division and GPT is a property trust so should not have been identified as a company that paid tax. The analysis piece was taken down against Alberici’s wishes.

The ABC has strongly denied any political interference and Gaven Morris, director of news, says an editorial review started early on the day of publication, Wednesday, before they received any complaints. But it took two full working days and several crisis meetings of news management for the article to be pulled down late on Thursday, indicating the ABC was scrambling in the wake of huge pressure externally and internally. Sources say Morris didn’t contact Alberici directly until late on the day of publication.

While the battle between Alberici, the ABC, the government and Labor over the piece was played out in the headlines, internally at Aunty the ructions have been no less severe. Some news managers had originally congratulated Alberici over the piece and many journalists are disappointed that Morris did what they describe as a “pre-emptive buckle”.

ABC bosses will appear before the Senate estimates committee next week. Among the the questions they may have to answer is if Alberici was promoted to chief economics correspondent and given more responsibility after Lateline was axed last year why did management not back her when she was under attack? And why was the series approved for publication by ABC business editor Ian Verrender and the ABC’s own lawyers and website editors if it didn’t meet editorial standards?

A spokeswoman declined to confirm Alberici had retained a lawyer. “The ABC does not comment on internal staff matters,” she said. “Complaints handling unit Audience & Consumer Affairs is investigating the formal complaints lodged over the original analysis piece and will report its findings in due course.”

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/feb/23/abc-faces-more-questions-a...

on track with the official version...

After a report on East Goutha's glorious rebels being bombed by the nasty "REGIME" of Syria, the ABC "news moved spontaneously" to a horse race... Apparently Winx or whatever horsey won the wonder mile for the 100th time... Of course there won't be any remonstration by the authorities in charge of "balance" in regard to the Syrian effort to regain its legitimate territory which the US has take away by furnishing weaponry to the "rebels" which are our friendly al Qaeda... Remember Al Qaeda?... No? If you don't ask "what's the heck (the fuck!)", you have been taken prisoner by "the news", this institution of lies and horse racing for the ignorant news addict.