Proposed bail legislation in the Northern Territory will make it easier to incarcerate young people accused of committing minor offences.
The new law will make it harder for children between the ages of 10 and 17 to get bail before they receive a trial. The changes will overwhelmingly affect Indigenous youth.
As it stands, Indigenous youth make up 96.9 percent of all young people in detention in the Northern Territory. This is despite the fact that they comprise 44 percent of the population aged between 10 and 17.
With an imprisonment rate of 843 per 100,000 people, the NT jails more people per capita than the US or China. Of those imprisoned, 86 percent identify as Indigenous.
In a Facebook rant posted on 17 May, NT chief minister Adam Giles announced the proposal, saying that he had “had enough” of “rogue youth” and that the government would attempt to push legislation through the following week.
In response to Giles’ announcement, the Australian Bar Association said that the proposed laws would “further exacerbate Australia’s disgraceful Indigenous incarceration rates”.
Numerous reports have detailed the treatment meted out to youth by prison authorities in the NT. In August 2014, prison guards at the former Don Dale youth detention centre used tear gas on a group of young people who were protesting against their systematic abuse at the centre.
In September of the same year, a government report found that youth at the detention centre were subject to “inhumane” solitary confinement and the “inappropriate” use of restraints.
In 2000, under NT mandatory sentencing laws, a 15-year-old Indigenous boy was sentenced to 20 days in detention for stealing school supplies worth less than $100. While in custody, he committed suicide. These proposed laws, if passed, will increase the likelihood of such tragedies.

Kostas Rologas

New NT law will increase Indigenous incarceration

The Turnbull government wants to give private job agencies control over the incomes of unemployed people. A bill, currently before the Senate, proposes handing job providers the power to dock the Centrelink payments of unemployed workers for crimes such as failing to sign a jobs plan on the spot or not updating their résumé.
Job providers will be able to “fine” Newstart recipients 10 percent of their payment for each day that they are deemed to have engaged in “inappropriate behaviour”. Private providers will also be handed the power to define what constitutes “inappropriate behaviour” in an unemployed person. 
With the dole already $391 below the poverty line, for many unemployed workers, a 10 percent deduction of their income support will place them in severe financial distress.
“With the dole already $391 below the poverty line, for many unemployed workers, a 10 percent deduction of their income support will place them in severe financial distress”, Owen Bennett, from the Australian Unemployed Workers’ Union, told Red Flag. 
“By proposing that job agencies should be given new unprecedented powers to financially penalise unemployed workers, the Turnbull government is sending a clear message to the employment services industry that these tactics are not only acceptable but should be intensified”, Bennett said.
One of these job agencies, US “welfare business” giant MAX Solutions, recorded an annual revenue of $US1.7 billion in 2014.
The latest attacks come on the back of legislation passed last year that significantly expanded Work for the Dole. Under the larger scheme, all adults between 18 and 49 who are receiving Newstart are required to participate.
“Work for the Dole is the centrepiece of the government’s punitive approach to the unemployed”, Bennett said. “Under this program, unemployed workers are forced to do humiliating unpaid menial work … who, under the threat of this humiliating program, become inclined to accept any work at any condition.”
The Work for the Dole scheme has been shown to have a negligible effect on assisting job seekers to find work. According to a recent Senate estimates hearing, the program, which costs $1 billion a year, increased the likelihood of participants getting off income support payment by only 2 percentage points. The government has rejected all calls to scrap or change the program.

Job agencies to get unprecedented powers

There has been a dramatic increase in the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children being removed from the care of their parents in Western Australia.
A report by the Department for Child Protection and Family Support has found that in the year from 30 June 2015 to 1 July 2015, of the 4,503 children that have been taken, 52 percent are from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander backgrounds. This is despite them being just 6.7 percent of the state’s child population.
While the numbers of non-Indigenous children removed grew by 3 percent, the number of Indigenous children removed grew by 9 percent over the year – and by 56 percent since 2010.
But it’s not just Western Australia – 20 percent of children in out-of-home care nationally are Indigenous.
The latest figures come almost two decades after the Bringing them home report revealed that up to 50,000 children and their mothers had suffered, “the humiliation, the degradation and sheer brutality of the act of forced separation”.
The final chapters of Bringing them home warned that the policies of the then state and federal governments were creating the conditions for a new Stolen Generation. Two decades on, that warning has become a reality.

WA government taking more Aboriginal children

One in five corporations with annual profits greater than $100 million paid no tax last year, the Australian Tax Office has revealed.
Michael Cranston, one of the ATO’s deputy commissioners, revealed the figure to a Senate hearing into corporate tax avoidance.
Corporations avoid paying tax by what is euphemistically called profit-shifting. Basically, they move profits overseas to tax havens in places like Singapore, Switzerland, Ireland or Vanuatu. An ATO report last year found that, in 2011-12, more than $60 billion was moved to tax havens.
An Australian Financial Review investigation last year found that Google alone shifted “an estimated $8.9 billion in untaxed profits from its Australian operations to a tax haven structure in Ireland in the last decade”.
The revelations about tax avoidance come as the federal Liberal government pushes to make sure that corporations do not have to disclose publicly what they pay in tax.
The irony abounds. While companies are free to seek tax asylum for their profits, human asylum seekers languish in concentration camps on Manus Island and Nauru. And the government wants to hide both profits and refugees from the public.
A report by the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling, entitled Living Standard Trends in Australia, estimates that “the gap in the living standards between the richest and poorest grew by around 13 percentage points” over the last decade. And the authors “project a further widening by 10.4 percent over the coming decade”.
To rub salt into the wound, sections of business are pushing to lower the corporate tax rate. At 30 percent, the corporate tax rate in Australia already is one of the lowest in the OECD.
Business has support from the Liberal Party and the ALP. Speaking at the AFR Tax Reform summit, Labor’s shadow treasurer Chris Bowen said: “I would like to see the corporate tax rate come down over time”.

Big business avoids tax, yet wants to lower rate

Officially, the 10 highest-paid CEOs of Australia’s largest 100 companies were paid a combined total of $99.63 million in 2014. But new data show that this figure significantly understates reality.
Research conducted by the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors (ACSI) has found that the top 10 CEOs made a combined total of $171.4 million last year.
Not only are CEOs more overpaid than we thought, they are doing their utmost to hide how overpaid they really are.
The council’s annual survey of ASX 200 CEO remuneration notes: “For CEOs in the ASX100, average realised pay in 2014 was $5.63 million, compared to average reported pay of $5.01m”. Most of the undisclosed pay comes from stock options.
Best at hiding their wealth is Chris Rex of Ramsey’s Health Care. In 2014, his actual pay was $30.8 million, compared to the $9.1million that was reported.
Not far behind is Louis Gries of James Hardie. While the company’s annual report said he received $12.6 million, the actual figure was $20.8 million.
It’s a bit surprising that James Hardie only managed to come second in the cover-up stakes. They’ve had a lot of experience. For decades the company denied that asbestos was dangerous and continued to produce it despite knowing its harmful effects. More recently, the regulatory body ASIC fined James Hardie executives who had lied about the amount of money that would be required to compensate asbestos victims.
The latest findings by ACSI also show that gap between CEO pay and the average wage is about the same as it was in 2007, a mere 94 times the average wage.

CEOs even more overpaid than we thought

Austerity is wrecking the lives of millions of people around the world. But the global ranks of the super-rich continue to grow.
The annual Capgemini and RBC Wealth Management World Wealth Report estimates that the number of “high net worth individuals” (HNWI) – which it defines as those with investible assets of US$1 million or more – grew by 6.7 percent to 14.6 million last year.
Not only are there more of them, but their wealth also increased. Combined total wealth reached a record high of US$52.62 trillion in 2013 and continued to climb in 2014 to US$56.40 trillion. By 2017, combined total wealth of this millionaire class is estimated to rise to US$70 trillion.
A fraction of this wealth, about US$30 billion, would solve world hunger. According to the World Health Organization, the cost of providing every person in the world with a “regulated in-house piped water supply with quality monitoring and in-house sewerage connection with partial treatment of sewage” would be US$136.5 billion per year. In other words, the world’s millionaire class has accumulated enough to provide the latter for more than 400 years (at current cost and current population).
As has been the pattern for the last few years, the Asia-Pacific and North America lead the ranks of the rich. Located primarily in Japan and China, there are now more HNWI in the Asia-Pacific region than in North America. In 2014, the number of HNWI in the Asia-Pacific grew to 4.69 million; their wealth increased 7.2 percent to US$15.82 trillion.
While the total population of Australia represents just 0.33 percent of the world’s population, its share of HNWI is 4 percent. The total number here is 227,000 – up from 180,000 in 2011.
So much for the end of the age of entitlement.
While the rich are getting richer, this is only half the story. There are now many more super-rich, and their wealth is growing faster than the humble rich. Ultra-HNWIs – those with more than US$30 million of investable assets – grew by 8.6 percent. They account for 35 percent of all HNWI’s total wealth.
But it is not all roses for the rich. The report notes: “[W]ealth expanded at moderate rates in 2014, the second slowest rates of the last five years, and more modestly than 2013”. Yep, that’s right, the rich are getting richer but not fast enough.
The report identifies another problem. The rich are hoarding their cash to fund their extravagant lifestyles. “HNWIs continue to keep large amounts of cash on hand, primarily as a way to fund their lifestyles and ensure financial security.”
Slow world economic growth continues to put pressure on the living standards of workers around the world. But these parasites just can’t get enough.

The global rich just keep on taking

A recent International Monetary Fund staff discussion note has found that the weakening of unions has resulted in rising inequality.
Inequality and Labour Market Institutions found, unsurprisingly, that attacks on unions mean less bargaining power for workers. That negatively affects their capacity to fight for better wages and conditions.
Between 1980 and 2010, union density declined from 47 percent to 31 percent in the sample of advanced economies that the researchers studied. Over the same period, the richest 10 percent’s share of national wealth grew by approximately 40 percent.
“We find evidence that the erosion of labour market institutions is associated with the rise of income inequality, notably at the top of the income distribution”, wrote the authors. “Our key findings are that the decline in unionization is related to the rise of top income shares.”
Declining union density also has enabled governments to cut welfare by limiting “workers’ influence on redistributive policies, thus contributing to the rise of net income inequality”.
The discussion note is careful not to encourage more progressive policies, however. Co-author Florence Jaumotte, in an interview with IMF Survey Magazine, said: “Our findings don’t constitute a blanket recommendation for more unionisation or higher minimum wages. Assessment of whether reforms to labour market institutions are appropriate needs to be done on a country-by-country basis, taking into account possible trade-offs with other macroeconomic priorities”.
But prevailing “macroeconomic priorities”, neoliberal in character, have pushed down average real wages by 2.3 percent in Italy, 4.1 percent in the United Kingdom and 23.6 percent in Greece.
The IMF used a number of complex economic models and equations to come up with the report’s tentative findings. But there is a simple equation for our side: attacks on workers + rising inequality = the need to unionise and fight.

Revelation! IMF links union decline to rising inequality

On Saturday 5 July, around 150 people rallied outside Parliament in Melbourne. They came to stand in solidarity with the Greek people, against austerity and to say Oxi (no). It was a dank day, but nothing could dampen their determination.
The protest was one of hundreds held across the world since the referendum in Greece was called.
Handmade signs and banners littered the demonstration and most had one thing in common: the word Oxi. This is despite the organisers saying that the rally had been called neither in support of a yes or no vote in the referendum.
The tone of the demonstration was set early on. One of the first speakers, claiming the rally was neither for a yes or no, was regularly interrupted by people calling out “Oxi!” Eventually, individual voices joined together in a spontaneous chant of “Oxi! Oxi! Oxi!” This chant would start up again and again throughout the demonstration.
Greece has been ravaged by austerity for the last five years. Common themes dotted conversations with the plumbers, nurses, clerical workers and students who assembled on the street.
People spoke of the rise in unemployment, cuts to basic social services and attacks on workers and students. They spoke about the array of powerful forces allied against the no vote, from the politicians in Europe to the rich in Greece, and the media campaign selling their line.
But they also spoke proudly of resistance, over the past five years and the need that it continues if austerity is to be beaten back.

Oxi wins the day at Melbourne solidarity rally

Despite almost 25 years of uninterrupted economic growth, inequality in Australia is rising, a new report has found.
<a href="http://acoss.us4.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=dc75dd1bc5b82d27349ef82b9&amp;id=cf53469d32&amp;e=490622a0c6">Inequality in Australia: a nation divided</a>, published by the Australian Council of Social Services, outlines the Australian chapter of what has become a global story of disparity.
“Over the 25 years to 2010, real wages increased by 50 percent on average, but by 14 percent for those in the bottom 10 percent, compared with 72 percent for those in the top 10 percent”, the report says.
Most of the wage growth among the lowest income earners, the report finds, has been a consequence of more people finding work or moving from part time to full time. By contrast, those on high incomes have received wage rises and bonuses.
“Over the last 20 years”, the report says, “the share of income going to those at the top has risen, while the share flowing to those in the middle and at the bottom has declined … Average weekly disposable household income for the bottom 10 percent was in 2012 $496 while for the top 10 percent it was $4,189”.
Wealth
Income inequality has contributed to growing wealth inequality. “The average wealth of a person in the top 20 percent increased by 28 percent over the past 8 years, while for the bottom 20 percent it increased by only 3 percent”, ACOSS estimates.
The top fifth of households now hold 61 percent of all wealth, while the combined wealth held by the bottom 40 percent is just 5 percent.
Yet these statistics tell only part of the story. The majority of the wealth of the top end of town is held in shares, investment properties and superannuation. For the bottom 20 percent, most of the wealth is “made up of low value assets like vehicles and home contents”.
“The rate of rising inequality in Australia has been faster than many other comparable countries”, the report says.
Liberal MP Steve Ciobo, commenting about the report on the ABC’s Q&amp;A program, said: “I think we have a classic example of statistics … and lies, lies and statistics as they say”. He went on to say, “Look, what I am saying is that I think that it focuses on particular things”.
Facts
Facts are stubborn things. The particular findings of ACOSS were confirmed earlier in June by Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre research.
Beyond our means? Household savings and debt in Australia estimated that the richest households have 200 times more savings than the poorest. And the latter’s savings are declining. The richest 7.6 percent now have more savings than the all the other households combined, said the report.
The growing wealth divide has been aided and abetted by government after government. As ACOSS notes, “[A] series of tax changes over the 2000s, particularly tax cuts … have largely benefited people on higher income”.
The Liberals and the bosses want to continue to increase the wage and wealth divide. Attacks on penalty rates and rising unemployment will only further deepen the divide.

A class-divided nation

A new report has found that savings inequality in Australia is at record levels.
Beyond our means? Household savings and debt in Australia, released by the Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre, found: “[T]he richest 20 percent of households have an estimated average of $1.3 million in savings. This is more than 200 times the average of the poorest households, which have on average $5,900 in savings”.
This massive chasm is further illustrated by the fact that the richest 7.6 percent have savings “more than the total of all the other households combined”.
Professor Alan Duncan, the centre’s director and one of the report’s chief authors, said that it shows “a huge gulf between the top and the bottom – bigger than what is observed when looking at income alone”.
The record levels of savings inequality comes at a time of record levels of private debt. “Household debt has been growing at an annual rate of 10.3 percent over the last 20 years and now stands at over $2 trillion”, the report says.
Household debt is three times what it was 20 years ago, and savings are declining – particularly in the poorest households.
Unsurprisingly for a report sponsored by a subsidiary of the Commonwealth Bank, the report argues for cuts and austerity: “Government expenditures will inevitably be cut and users will have to contribute more, even if most ideas for reducing costs are being met with opposition”.
As the report shows, inequality, so much a feature of the system around the world, is more and more becoming a feature of Australia.
While workers and the poor have had to reach into their savings just to get by, those at the top of society continue to accumulate more and more wealth.

New NT law will increase Indigenous incarceration

Job agencies to get unprecedented powers

WA government taking more Aboriginal children

Big business avoids tax, yet wants to lower rate

CEOs even more overpaid than we thought

The global rich just keep on taking

Revelation! IMF links union decline to rising inequality

Oxi wins the day at Melbourne solidarity rally

A class-divided nation

Savings inequality at record level

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