Everything about the workers’ compensation scheme icare, established and overseen by Dominic Perrottet until his recent appointment as premier of New South Wales, encapsulates the disdain that the Liberal state government has for workers.
The organisation entered the public eye in July last year after an investigation by the Sydney Morning Herald and the ABC’s Four Corners revealed that it had underpaid injured workers by up to $80 million, had awarded millions of dollars of unregistered contracts to friends and ex-colleagues of executives and was on the verge of financial collapse. The next day, Perrottet defended his organisation in front of parliament, insisting that the executives were doing “a superb job”, and in fact “should be applauded for the work they have done”.
Even by the government’s own standards, however, icare is failing miserably. Several of the key performance indicators that triggered the last major overhaul of workers’ compensation in 2012 were worse under icare by 2019, a Treasury note stated. A report from the State Insurance Regulation Authority in 2019 showed that the introduction of a new claims model, which promised to save hundreds of millions of dollars and increase efficiency, instead resulted in delayed and denied treatments for injured workers, sometimes leading to secondary injuries. These failures reportedly led to 50 percent of cases being incorrectly classified.
Problems with workers’ compensation payments were identified by icare in March 2019, according to a report by consultancy firm PwC, but nothing was reported until February 2020—quite a bit longer than the five business days within which these issues are meant to be reported. It took another ten months for the organisation to publicly invite injured workers to come forward if they believed they had been underpaid.
Rather than following them up itself, in an attempt to avoid making repayments, icare put the onus on workers to pursue remediation. As of five months ago, according to icare, 32 claimants had been repaid a cumulative $428,000, out of a group of 240,000 injured workers who may potentially have been underpaid.
These problems were not the result of misfortune, and the organisation was never interested in addressing them until it became a political scandal.
While every government institution under capitalism is run like a business to some extent, icare has been more brazen in its corporate ambitions than most. According to insiders in contact with the Sydney Morning Herald, privatisation was regularly discussed, and millions of dollars were spent “professionalising” the offices, commissioning self-promotional videos and hiring inspirational speakers to further that goal.
From its inception, the organisation was a ruling-class boys’ club, with a board hand-picked by Perrottet and including long-time Liberal donor Michael Carapiet. The joint investigation by the Sydney Morning Herald and Four Corners found that procurement practices within the organisation were regularly flaunted, with millions of dollars’ worth of contracts awarded to friends and ex-colleagues of icare executives. Perrottet himself was implicated when two of his staff were found to be on the payroll of icare.
In response to all of this, Labor still managed to put its criticism in a pro-business light, shadow treasurer Daniel Mookhey proclaiming that “employers pay their premiums to get sick and injured workers back to work, not to fund the board and management’s delusions and the treasurer’s political operations”.
Meanwhile, the real victims of icare have remained invisible throughout the whole ordeal—workers like David Bruce, whose treatment for a back injury suffered at work in 2018 was delayed and denied while he was passed between seventeen case managers and suffered secondary injuries. Many do not even attempt to claim compensation for workplace injuries because the process is often more painful than the injury itself and will likely affect their ability ever to get a job again.
It all reinforces the point made by Marx and Engels that workers under capitalism are treated simply as machines, often cheaper to replace than to repair.

Chris Anderton

Perrottet’s workers’ compensation scheme was a disaster from the start

More than a billion animals perished, 3,000 homes were destroyed, and 18 million hectares were burned in Australia’s catastrophic 2019-20 summer of bushfires. But, as health experts feared, we now know that the impact on people was similarly disastrous. 
According to a study presented to the Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements, smoke from the fires affected 80 percent of the population and led directly to the death of 445 people, the hospitalisation of 3,340 and the treatment of 1,373 in hospital emergency departments. 
The Australian government bears the most responsibility for this suffering and death. It was warned to expect an exceptionally harsh bushfire season, but did little to prepare. This complacency, combined with the scandalous downplaying of the role of climate change in the unprecedented fires, prompted more than 100,000 people to rally around the country demanding prime minister Scott Morrison’s resignation, more resources for firefighters and immediate climate action.
If there was any hope that this disaster would be a wake-up call and that the government might finally heed the advice of climate scientists, the past few weeks have dashed it. In response to the economic downturn caused by COVID-19, the government has signalled its intention to ramp up investment into liquefied natural gas (<a>LNG</a>) projects as part of a “gas-fired recovery”. Such an expansion of fossil fuel extraction will lock in future catastrophes on an even greater scale.
The same politicians who travel to fire-devastated communities pretending they care about ordinary people are knowingly condemning us to a more dangerous and deadly future. Analysis by the World Weather Attribution group found that global warming increased the likelihood of last year’s bushfires by at least 30 percent. If global temperatures rise by two degrees, as seems increasingly unavoidable, similar conditions are projected to occur at least four times more often.
As it currently stands, the government’s formal emissions reduction commitment – a 26-28 percent cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 compared with 2005 levels – is not enough to meet the goals of the Paris agreement, goals which most climate scientists agree are not adequate to avoid catastrophic warming anyway. And according to resources minister Angus Taylor, Australia is not on track to meet even its current inadequate commitment. Projections from the Department of the Environment and Energy suggest that pollution will be only 4 percent lower in 2030 than it is today.
Australia currently accounts for 1.3 percent of global emissions from fossil fuel combustion, or 4.8 percent if emissions from exports are included. This is massive for a country with just 0.3 percent of the world’s population. And Australia’s contribution is set to grow: the science and policy institute Climate Analytics estimates that by 2030 Australia will have increased its contribution to global greenhouse gases emissions to about 13 percent, and that is without taking into account the gas projects announced during the pandemic.
While there is hope that heavy state intervention as part of the post-pandemic recovery will provide an opportunity for “green renewal”, signs point in the opposite direction. A leaked draft report from the manufacturing task force advising the National COVID-19 Coordination Commission recommends that the government build new fossil fuel infrastructure, such as a $6 billion trans-Australian pipeline, lift moratoriums on gas in NSW and Victoria and implement extensive subsidy schemes and partnerships to “create the market” for gas in Australia. Scandalously, several members of this task force are also major players in the oil and gas industries, and the chair of the commission itself, Nev Power, was until recently the vice-chairman of gas company Strike Energy.
The Morrison government is trying to portray the expansion of gas as a win for climate action. LNG is touted as a “bridging” fuel, helping to plug the hole left by coal as the energy sector slowly transitions to fully renewable. But the premise of the argument – that LNG has a significantly lower carbon impact than other fossil fuels – has been strongly challenged by recent studies. 
Gas extraction through fracking discharges methane, which has a greenhouse effect that is 72 times more potent than that of carbon dioxide. And the human contribution to fossil methane emissions may have been underestimated by up to 40 percent, according to one study. Fracking also has a number of other negative environmental impacts, such as poisoning public water supplies, causing earthquakes and consuming huge amounts of water.
It might seem contradictory that the government is clinging to fossil fuels when, for example, global investor groups representing more than $55 trillion in assets and a broad range of mainstream economists support policies aimed at reorienting to renewables. They argue it is in the best interests of the global economy to take the climate crisis seriously, since the effects of climate change will be far more disruptive than structural adjustments made in the here and now.
The problem is, capitalism is not rational. It is a dog-eat-dog system in which the pressures of competitive accumulation force capitalists and states to put immediate needs first. The economic downturn means that restoring profits as quickly as possible is the priority. Since there is no cheap way to reorient the fossil fuel-dependent Australian economy, long term plans get put aside for short term gains, which means locking in long term dependencies and environmental destruction. 
Capital’s interests are not society’s nor the planet’s interests. So long as it endures, capitalism will continue to threaten the natural world and everything dependent on it.

Even after the bushfires, the eco-vandalism continues

Australia is becoming increasingly authoritarian. Laws restricting civil liberties and democratic rights have proliferated under the guise of anti-terrorism, public order and combating criminal gangs. 
Prisons are more populated than ever before despite violent crime rates being at a historic low. And policing is racially biased against Muslims, Indigenous people and certain non-white migrant groups.
How do we resist the law and order agenda? That’s a question that attracted 115 people to a Sydney meeting with Greens MP David Shoebridge and Wollongong socialist activist Chloe Rafferty on 8 October.
The starting point is rejecting the rubbish fed to us by the government and the mainstream media. Law and order has little to do with making people safer. It is a means to maintain economic exploitation and oppression. 
“The law and order debate is a way for those people who have property and power continuing to protect their property, increase their property and exert their power”, Shoebridge said. 
“The rise in repressive police powers and mass incarceration today has mirrored the rise of inequality in the era of neoliberalism”, Rafferty said. As the gap grows between rich and poor, and as welfare is eroded and access becomes more difficult, “the state has responded by ramping up its own repressive powers and attacking our civil liberties”.
Governments have been able to restrict our freedoms because of the decline of union struggle and mass protest. We need to rebuild the left to push back against increasing state surveillance and the militarisation of police forces.
The meeting was a step toward this, bringing activists together from different campaigns and political groups. 
“I think we should do more of this, more of this united movement on the left, because there’s a rising right, and if we don’t stick together it’ll pick us off one by one”, Shoebridge said.

Confronting the law and order agenda in Sydney

It’s no secret that poker machines are rigged. What appears on the surface as pure chance is in fact a complex algorithm that ensures player losses always exceed wins eventually.
What’s not as well known is just how far the scam extends.
New South Wales has the highest density of pokies in the world outside of dedicated gambling destinations such as Las Vegas, according to a report released by the Gaming Technologies Association. And they are disproportionately concentrated in poorer, working class suburbs. The result is a massive upward transfer of wealth from the poorest to the richest sections of society.
Research by investigative journalist Michael West found that the Sydney suburb with the highest average poker machine losses in 2016-17 was Fairfield in the western suburbs, at $5,668 per household. The suburb with the lowest household losses was the wealthy Ku-ring-gai district on Sydney’s North Shore, at $22.50 per year. For every dollar lost to the pokies in Ku-ring-gai, $252 was lost in Fairfield.
This is only the most extreme example of a general trend. According to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald, nine of the top 10 NSW clubs ranked by total pokies profits are in western Sydney, where incomes are lower and unemployment is higher.
Most pokies profits in these areas come through registered clubs – establishments promoted as the heart and soul of communities. They provide jobs, entertainment, funding for various community projects, and they even sponsor the local footy team.
Yet at a major club such as Dooley’s Lidcombe Catholic Club, the amount of poker machine losses per member was about 38 times more than the amount spent per member on “community services” over a nine-year period, West found. In reality, community funding is just a part of their PR budget.
With more than 60 percent of their revenues coming from pokies, the big clubs in NSW are glorified casinos. And of these revenues, 20 percent comes from those with a moderate gambling problem and 42 percent from individuals with a serious addiction, according to Monash University gambling researcher Charles Livingstone.
Yet the current regulatory focus is on behavioural change and education, essentially shifting the burden from venues to players. That addiction and structural inequality are rooted in the exploitative nature of the gambling industry is ignored.
New poker machine regulations introduced by the NSW government in March were supposedly designed to minimise gambling harm by preventing the introduction of more machines into “high risk” areas.
But the first analysis of poker machine profits in NSW since the regulations were introduced forecast growth of 12 percent over the next four years. According to Livingstone, small reductions in the number of machines have practically no effect because NSW already has so many pokies that they are hardly ever all being played at once.
When it comes to regulation of the pokies industry, the state government knows on which side its bread is buttered. Records obtained by the Herald show that pokies accounted for $776 million of taxes last year, up from $414 million in 2003. 
Businesses involved in gambling, alcohol and tobacco are banned from donating to political parties. But ClubsNSW, an industry lobby group, donated more than $420,000 to the Liberals, Nationals and Labor. Registered clubs are exempt because, absurdly, they are officially non-profit organisations.
Commenting on the latest regulations, a ClubsNSW spokesperson said that the changes balance the need to reduce problem gambling while also “ensuring the viability of the state’s clubs”. 
In reality, it is only the latter concern that matters to those in power. The devastating economic and social impact of the pokies on workers and the poor will continue so long as they remain lucrative for business.

Pokies are a ruling class con

Around 5,000 union members marched through Sydney on 6 September to protest against the anti-union Australian Building and Construction Commission. The mood was energetic and confident. As the crowd gathered at Belmore Park, big cheers sprang up every time a delegation of workers marched from a nearby worksite or arrived in a bus. Yet there was also a sense of seriousness about the issues motivating the rally.
For Matt, a 22-year-old recently unionised member of the Electrical Trades Union, the turmoil in the Liberal Party was a sideshow. He told Red Flag he couldn’t care less which Liberal was at the helm; for workers, it’s always “the same old crap”. “We need change” he said, “I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t think so”. 
James, a construction worker, was direct about the issues facing workers: long hours, crap wages, and a government that doesn’t care about workers’ lives. His response: “We need to stand up for our rights”.
Many attendees commented to Red Flag about the difficulties they faced making ends meet in a context of stagnant wage growth and often precarious employment. 
A speech by construction union delegate Dennis McNamara which touched on the persecution of the union in the construction industry got a particularly angry response. He recounted a story about a site where workers were receiving $150 cash in hand for 12 hours of work. Dennis and other delegates stepped in to take the workers off the job. When the ABCC officials arrived, their first question was not about the unlawful conditions or underpayment, but about which union delegate sat them in the shed.
The strategy that unions need in response to this state of constant attack was less clear. For all the talk of union power, the general attitude conveyed in the speeches was that changing the rules by changing the government is the only way. The absence of any mention about industrial action was telling. 
With another rally planned for October, this won’t be the last workers’ protest against the Morrison government.

Thousands rally against the ABCC in Sydney

Fewer than 6 percent of all rental listings in the country are affordable for those living on income support payments, according to Anglicare’s annual Rental Affordability Snapshot. 
The scale of the crisis is alarming, and particularly severe in Sydney, where only 57 out of more than 18,000 private rental properties surveyed – less than 1 percent – were found to be affordable for those on income support. 
The report notes that, for those on Newstart or Youth Allowance, it would be “almost impossible to find an affordable home anywhere in Australia, whether regional or metropolitan”.
Avery, a single parent with two kids living in Sydney’s west, rents a one-bedroom granny flat from her aunt and divides it with a bookcase to give her kids a separate space. 
“I have a casual job but it is only nine hours a week currently – I cannot afford over $400 a week to rent a two-bedroom apartment in the area”, she tells Red Flag. “I am pretty sure I would still be struggling to afford it even working full time with the cost of two children and all the other bills.”
A property market bubble has doubled Sydney house prices in less than 10 years. Combined with record low wages growth, the decimation of public housing and concerted efforts at gentrification, this has led many workers to migrate to the outer suburbs in search of affordable accommodation.
The result is a pronounced economic disparity between inner-urban areas and the suburban fringes.
For most of the 500,000 people who travel from Sydney’s west to the city every day for work, moving closer to employment opportunities and social facilities is a pipedream.
Successive governments, both Liberal and Labor, have been selling the lie that property and rental prices are high because of insufficient supply, and that if the imbalance is fixed, the market will provide affordable homes for everyone.
But in Brisbane, the report notes, “even a ‘glut’ of rental accommodation has little real effect on the availability of properties that are both affordable and appropriate for families and individuals on low incomes. This group is increasingly struggling to find entry points to the market either as buyers or renters”.
The billions of dollars funnelled to housing investors have failed to push down prices for renters. They have just subsidised wealth accumulation as investment properties are left empty, the owners chasing capital gains, while tens of thousands of people sit on waiting lists for public and social housing. In some areas the wait time is longer than 10 years.
It’s not “supply” in general, but the type of supply, that will make a difference. We need a massive increase in public housing, not more handouts to developers trying to make a buck.

Report reveals terrible scale of Australia’s housing crisis

Hundreds of truck drivers and their supporters protested around Australia on 18 April to demand safer working conditions. With almost 40 percent of all workplace deaths last year involving a transport worker, trucking is one of the deadliest industries in the country.
The protests, organised by the Transport Workers Union (TWU) as part of an ongoing campaign, highlighted the relationship between the frequency of accidents involving trucks and the pressure placed on drivers by low wages, longer working hours and shortening deadlines.
Low cost contracts from major companies create a race to the bottom, forcing fleet operators to engage in cost-cutting measures like neglecting vehicle maintenance, skimping on training and cutting drivers’ wages.
Drivers are often faced with a choice between taking all the necessary safety precautions or doing what is required to fulfil their employers’ demands. Quite simply, the union says, transport workers need to break the rules to make ends meet.
Since the federal government scrapped a road safety watchdog two years ago, there is little stopping companies from putting profits over safety in this way. As a result, the number of people killed in truck crashes has significantly increased. In NSW there has been a staggering 92 percent increase in deaths from truck crashes in the past 12 months. 
The TWU has been highly critical of the government’s approach to the crisis. “The only response from the federal government to the spike in deaths has been to increase the number of speed cameras to catch drivers and to have police fine them over breaches”, TWU acting national secretary Michael Kaine said in a statement to media. “This will not solve the problems in the industry and it will not cut the number of crashes.”

Truckies protest unsafe conditions as deaths soar

“They’ve worked, they’ve paid taxes, they’ve paid the rent”, Patricia Corowa, Millers Point resident and Indigenous activist, told Red Flag at the Millers Point Spring Picnic on 14 September. “This is their community, their home.”
Yet one by one, the close-knit community of residents, most aged between 70 and 100, are being split up and shipped off to make way for millionaires and developers.
Their right to live in the homes they’ve long grown attached to has been weighed against the cost of maintaining the properties and the potential resale values. The state Liberal government has gone for money over human rights.
The 57,000-long waiting list for public housing was cited as a reason for the clearance. Yet all of the auctions have been of properties that have been vacant for some time, even years. Despite their having netted more than $6 million, there has been no explanation of where the money is being spent.
Photos in a local hall depict the long history of the working class area. It was Australia’s first suburb of public housing, provided for the wharfies who toiled through plague, Depression and war. After more than a century, properties in the charming heritage area once viewed as a slum are fetching more than $2.6 million.
Down by the former dock workers’ area in Barangaroo, the rumble of construction vehicles building James Packer’s casino complex signal the transformation of this harbour area into a playground for the rich and powerful. As Mike Baird, NSW premier, has made clear, “All our ministers will be salesmen and saleswomen for this state, with the job of convincing companies why they should come and set up here.”
Low-income housing just doesn’t mesh with the vision of Sydney held by big business and its buddies in government.
In the face of this despicable treatment, the resistance of the Millers Point residents has been inspiring. “We will not be moved!” protesters called out over the police line at a protest on 11 September. There’s no doubt that the state government is facing fiercer resistance from community members than it anticipated.
A combination of direct actions, social media campaigning, “Save Millers Point” merchandise and union support have produced a strong and visible campaign. The picnic topped it off with a huge turnout of locals and supporters.
The Labor Party has given verbal support, but clearly would be on with the developers if in government. When asked by Corowa what the ALP would do about the sell-off if elected, state party leader John Robertson said it would hold consultations.
Consultation would have been useful before the eviction announcement, which came as a complete shock to the community. But as Corowa related, this shock was quickly replaced with a conviction to fight. The residents of Millers Point and the threatened areas surrounding it have forcibly made their demands.
They have a mission, and a motto: No surrender.

Perrottet’s workers’ compensation scheme was a disaster from the start

Even after the bushfires, the eco-vandalism continues

Confronting the law and order agenda in Sydney

Pokies are a ruling class con

Thousands rally against the ABCC in Sydney

Report reveals terrible scale of Australia’s housing crisis

Truckies protest unsafe conditions as deaths soar

No surrender at Millers Point

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