As the Government junked its promise to reform gambling ads before the Election, Michael West looks at the two faces of Sportsbet.

This article is the third in the Michael West Media multinational tax dodging series for 2025. Janus, the two-headed Roman God is the patron of this series.

Janus could see forwards and backwards and inside and outside using his two heads. The practices of this ‘Roman god of doorways and transitions’ are worshipped by the multinational tax fraternity in Australia which strives to give information to the Tax Office with one head while the other head gives exactly the opposite information to the Federal Parliament and the public.

Our first article, Foxtel: transactions you can’t trust, tax evasion you can’t ignore, revealed that Foxtel generated $14B income over 5 years with zero income tax paid.

With one head, the Janus-faced Foxtel broadcasters of Sky News are demonise welfare bludgers. With the other head, Foxtel revels in corporate welfare bludging itself by cheating Australia’s tax base.

Our second article, News Corp lies to Parliament in lobbying putsch to change media laws exposed the activities of Foxtel’s other head which tells the Government, straight-faced, how they pay income tax while Netflix does not.

Our third article here is about Irish bookmaker Sportsbet whose one head goes out to $9,000 lunches with Communications Minister Michelle Rowland while its other head is busy depleting the bank accounts of its customers.

The Sportsbet business model relies on the chance that their customer base is always about to lose. On average, Sportsbet’s business causes its customers to experience financial losses. Sportsbet claims that losing money is a source of entertainment for these people.

With one head, Sportsbet’s website proffers a commitment to safer gambling. With another head, Sportsbet promotes the notion that problem gambling is fun. A recent class action against Janus-Sportsbet alleges that it actively promoted an illegal live betting service resulting in millions of dollars of losses to customers.

A $600m black hole

Sportsbet also has form with its Tax Office storytelling because $600m of the company’s wagering income is mysteriously absent from its tax returns.

Sportsbet reports its net wagering income to the ATO. But Janus-like, it reports much lower net wagering income to the ATO than the income (revenue) that it discloses to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).

How much lower is the net wagering income reported to the ATO?  Based on MWM calculations there is an income deficit of $0.6 billion over the 5-year period 2019 to 2023. That’s half a billion in net wagering income that seems to have gone missing from Sportsbet’s filings with the ATO.

The table below shows the numbers.

Source: Wally the Chartered Accountant

There are plausible reasons why total income reported to the ATO might differ from revenue reported to ASIC. These reasons do not appear sufficient to explain the $0.6 billion deficit.

The deficit is $1.4B before GST because GST is not included in total income reported to the ATO but it is included in revenue.

With one head, Janus-faced Sportsbet recognises revenue gross with the GST included. With another head, Sportsbet declares in its statutory financial reports that it complies Australian Accounting Standards including this one: “Revenues . . shall be recognised net of the amount of goods and services tax (GST)”.

Net of fishing nets

Perhaps Sportsbet’s audit firm, KPMG, might explain Sportsbet’s duplicity or maybe they just need to do some extra training on the meaning of “net of the GST”.

The word “net” as used in accounting standards is not like a fishing net. It doesn’t mean include it, or catch it in the net and drag it in. Net of the GST means not including the GST.

Another reason for the deficit might be that Sportsbet recognises revenue for outstanding bets whereas total income reported to the ATO is limited to realised bets, that is, realised gains and losses from betting activities.

Outstanding bets on December 31 (Sportsbet’s financial year-end) could include bets on which football club will win the Premier League title in the United Kingdom, which is usually determined in May each year.

Janus

Outstanding bets become realised bets when the gambled-on event has occurred. A deficit of $0.6B is highly unlikely to be explained by outstanding bets. This is because over a five-year period, outstanding bets should wash out to a significant extent.

So, the question remains, why is there a $0.6B deficit in the income that Sportsbet reports to the ATO when compared to the income it reports to ASIC?

Sportsbet’s latest marketing campaign champions the AI that customers can use to make bets. AI being referred to here as the “actual intelligence” of other punters (including punters that lose) rather than artificial intelligence. We are encouraged to bet with Brad, even if Brad might be the biggest loser of all time.

AI is Artificial Income

When it comes to Sportsbet’s tax affairs though AI would be better described as “artificial income”.

Has anyone at the ATO cast a sceptical eye over Janus-faced Sportsbet’s income or are staff too busy preparing briefs of evidence to prosecute whistleblower Richard Boyle?

ATO and ASIC formguide

Check out the form guide ATO and ASIC!

Start with the Parliamentary Report of June 2023 entitled You win some, you lose more which finds that:

• Sportsbet is grooming children and young adults to gamble.
• Sportsbet is wreaking havoc in Australian communities with saturation advertising.
• Sportsbet has a business model of shunning winners and targeting gamblers that lose.

Next is Sportsbet’s accounting practices including:

• Revenues gross including GST.
• Cost of sales gross including GST.
• Nondescript items in the statement of cash flows.
• Fantastical goodwill recognised to inflate share capital.

And perhaps the biggest red flag of all: Sportsbet has a propensity to stroke the egos of Labor party heavyweights for commercial advantage. Janus-faced Sportsbet likes to offer lavish meals of praise to heavyweights like Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Birthday Girl Communications Minister Michelle Rowland under the guise of engagement.

These meals are equivalent to giving bonus bets to politicians. But not only do the politicians get fed, the media companies which rely on gambling advertising get fatter too.

Here at MWM, we would prefer to honour the late Labor party member for Dunkley, Peta Murphy; a Labor party stalwart. She was the driving force behind the Parliamentary Report of June 2023 which espoused reform to gambling advertising.

Peta Murphy would be horrified that more than 18 months after the release of her Report, the Labor government is yet to respond to it. Now, it has been shelved till after the Election.

Should the ATO and ASIC trust what Janus-faced Sportsbet has been telling them about their income? Based on the actual intelligence in this article, Brad says no.

Sportbet doesn’t just groom children with gambling ads, it grooms regulators too

This post was originally published on Michael West.

Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation has misled the Australian Parliament and is liable to prosecution, not that government will lift a finger to enforce the law. Michael West reports.

Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation has misled the Australian Parliament. In a submission to the Senate the company claimed “Foxtel also pays millions of dollars in income tax, GST and payroll tax, unlike many of our large international digital competitors”.

However, an MWM investigation into the financial affairs of Foxtel has shown Foxtel was paying zero income tax when it told the Senate it was paying “millions”. The penalty for lying to the Senate is potential imprisonment, although ‘contempt of Parliament’ laws are never enforced.

The investigation found NXE, the entity which controls Foxtel, paid no income tax in any of the five years from 2019 to 2023. During this time it generated $14 billion of total income. The total tax payable across this period is $0. The average total income is $2.8 billion per year.

Foxtel Submission to the Senate Environment and Communications Legislation Committee Inquiry into The Broadcasting Legislation Amendment (2021 Measures No.1) Bill

Why did News Corporation mislead the Parliament? The plausible answers are in its Foxtel Submission to the Senate Environment and Communications Legislation Committee Inquiry into The Broadcasting Legislation Amendment. 

In May 2021 – which is also where the transgression occurred – the media executives for the American tycoon were lobbying a Parliamentary committee to change the laws in their favour.

By this time, Netflix had frog-leaped Foxtel Pay TV subscriptions in Australia and Foxtel was complaining it had to spend too much money on producing local Australian content under the laws of the time. Also that Netflix paid almost no tax.

They were correct in this. Netflix, which is a big-league tax dodger itself, was by then making bucketloads of money in Australia but with zero local content requirements. Making television drama and so forth is expensive. It is far cheaper to pipe foreign content through your channels online. As Netflix does.

Foxtel: transactions you can’t trust, tax evasion you can’t ignore

The misleading of Parliament by corporations is rife and contempt laws need to be enforced, as demonstrated routinely by the PwC inquiry last year. Corporations and their representatives routinely lie in their pursuit of corporate objectives.

As if democracy is to function better the information provided to Parliament needs to be clarified, beyond doubt, as reliable. Former senator Rex Patrick has made the point in these pages.

Rex Patrick: has the Australian Senate lost its mojo?

Even in this short statement to the committee of inquiry (published above), there are other misleading statements. Like many companies defending their failure to pay adequate income tax, Foxtel claims that it “paid millions” in GST and payroll tax.

Companies don’t ‘pay’ GST or payroll tax. They collect these taxes on behalf of governments.

A Netflix Original: Dreams of Theft Downunder

Further to the contempt of Parliament, so little disregard for the laws of Australia are shown by corporations that the local American boss of a small gas fracking company Tamboran Resources, controlled by a US oil billionaire didn’t even bother turning up to give evidence when asked.

This despite being rewarded with millions in public grant money.

Gas fracker Tamboran grabs government cash, snubs Senate, scurries off to tax haven

Politicians need to muscle up, as did Greens senator Nick McKim did when grilling former Woolies boss Brad Banducci for prevaricating over providing evidence to the supermarkets inquiry.

Gas fracker Tamboran grabs government cash, snubs Senate, scurries off to tax haven

This post was originally published on Michael West.

As the Same Job Same Pay showdown over labour hire loopholes kicks off in Court today, there is the matter of a BHP $2.5B wage theft nobody wants to touch. Michael West reports.

Simon Turner and James Joseph were both injured at BHP’s Mt Arthur Coal. One blue collar, the other white. Turner was a coal miner who drove coal trucks, Joseph was a human resources executive who worked a keyboard.

Despite their different roles, both were covered under the Black Coal Award at the time of their injuries. Both were at first ‘mysteriously kept’ from the safety regulators, both are now at loggerheads with BHP, both have been threatened, both have had their personal lives left in tatters in their pursuit of justice.

And both were dismayed to find just before Christmas that the mining juggernaut, its constellation of lawyers, unions and labour hire firms – and even the government – had successfully petitioned the Court to bury documents relating to what they describe as Australia’s largest workplace scam; the multi-billion dollar wage theft of thousands of coal workers.

This action is set down for hearing in the Fair Work Commission this morning as BHP locks horns with the Government over its Same Job Same Pay laws.  

BHP wage theft cover-up in the shadows of Christmas

Despite efforts by BHP and the mining lobby to cover up what Simon Turner calculates is at least a $2.5B wage theft (the labour hire scam which the new laws have sought to address), it is possible to piece together enough evidence to demonstrate an historic wage fraud.

At the heart of Turner’s action against BHP is the matter of who actually employed him. “All the documents [we] tendered into court [in a 2019 class action by coal workers] showed Chandler Macleod was the true employer,” says Turner. 

Excerpt of “Altobelli judgement in CFMEU V HVEC

“This would have been a win for me and everyone in the coal industry if this was cited in court, if Justice Michael Lee [of the Federal Court] had been aware of it,” he told MWM.

“And it exposes a load of fraudulent workers compensation claims – that they are all underpaid and that they [BHP and its labour hire firm Chandler] have misled the courts multiple times over many years.”

What is the evidence for Simon Turner’s claim? There is the matter in the Fair Work Commission in March 2015 filed by the CFMEU against Chandler Macleod for illegal casual employment under the Black Coal award. The Union told the Commission that all their Chandler Macleod employees were employed as casuals under the Award.

Again burying the evidence trail, this matter was settled by way of a confidential deed for one person a day before the Fair Work Commission approved a brand new agreement on June 4, 2015 between the CFMEU and Chandler which added in the casual classification – the very casual classification that was not permitted under the Award, “and that the CFMEU had stated must be kept out of the coal mining industry”. 

The Altobelli Ruling

“In December 2015, the CFMEU then filed a matter against BHP’s HVEC (Hunter Valley Energy Coal) for adverse action,” says Turner. “This is the matter where Judge Altobelli ruled in 2017 that Chandler Macleod (ABN 052) was the true employer.” 

Yet, fast-forward to March 2018, and when Turner saw the defence brief by BHP in his class action he noticed BHP and its lawyers had inserted Ready Workforce as first defendant. “I was never employed by Ready Workforce (ABN 037). This is 2 years after the Altobelli decision in which BHP Hunter Valley Energy Coal was the defendant”.

BHP’s defence in Turner class action claims Ready Workforce was the employer

“I didn’t know who they were,” says Turner. “They never paid me, Ready Workforce never paid my weekly wage, PAYG tax, compulsory super contributions or the compulsory Coal LSL payroll levy.

“There was no document trail. I’d never heard of them. No one had any knowledge of a 2007 Ready Workforce agreement that somehow suddenly applies in 2014/15. And there was no evidence put forward to the class action in the BHP defence.

“Ready had no contract at the Mt Arthur Mine; it never invoiced BHP HVEC and never received payments from BHP HVEC.”  

“The Court had the payslips, they had the Tax Office documents [showing Chandler was the employer] but these were never put into Court”.

The proof

Another former coal miner involved with the action confirmed this to MWM. Sam Stephens also worked at Mt Arthur. 

“Like Mr Turner, I too possess two sets of PAYG summaries from my former employer for the same year. The original shows that I was employed by Chandler Macleod, the other carries a different employer ABN while all the financial details remained consistent with the original.

“When I informed the Attorney General Mark Dreyfus and the Treasurer Jim Chalmers regarding this matter and other issues surrounding my personal records as held by the ATO in August of 2022, via email, I eventually got a phone call from someone in Treasury.

“The official response? The matters that you raise are private legal matters between you and your former employer”.

Black Hole: CFMEU, governments, BHP, black coal giants in $2.5B worker wage swindle

A thing of culture

It is not convincingly contested by the mining and big business lobbies fighting the Government over Sam Job Same Pay that labour hire companies have been deployed to suppress the wages of their workers.

It is the sheer complexity of the system which is in favour of BHP and the mining corporations. This complexity, the financial muscle to hire endless lawyers, and transparency, which are used as the weapons.

According to former Mt Arthur Human Resources executive turned whistleblower James Joseph:

“I recall over my 13 years, when there’s a ‘top secret wages governance project’, they would typically sign legal, HR and senior leaders up to a confidentiality agreement. This created complications with internal transparency of what the true issues versus the actions needed to be.

“Internal governance for employee wages needs a lot of work. My previous roles were highly focussed on this. Apart from improving the processes, I think more empathy for employees (present and past), to ensure payroll compliance, is critical for the organisation”.

Paid $400 per week

For these coal miners the matter was personal. Thanks to BHP’s sleight of hand with the labor hire rort, Turner was being paid $400 a week workers compensation by icare (Insurance and Care NSW) who legally can’t insure the at-risk occupation of a coal miner.

“I was covered by an icare policy that classified my at-risk occupation as an office worker and paid $28,000 per year, a pittance compared with the $137,000 stipulated under the Black Coal award.”

It was even more galling that he had broken his back on site at Mt Arthur and, amid a cover-up, was pursuing compensation. His story here:

Same Job, Lame Pay: BHP and the black coal wage swindle

So, what did happen? There are big bucks at stake for BHP and its labour hire associates and that’s why they have fought so hard to bury the evidence trail.

“This [Federal Court matter in 2019] was one class action but it would have spread to Queensland – Adero [Turner’s lawyers] had another 7 class actions in the pipeline – claims against Workpac, Onekey, Tesa and Chandler Macleod”.

Simon Turner was the lead plaintiff in the BHP Mt Arthur claim where another 1200 workers at that mine alone should be entitled to compensation. 

Why was the evidence of the real employer never established in court in the class action?

Case mysteriously discontinued

“[Justice Michael] Lee got the docket in March 2020. He didn’t know about any of this because the earlier Altobelli court ruling was not submitted and we never got to discovery,” says Turner. “The case was discontinued. The barristers advice says that it can’t go any further because of the 2007 agreement [cited in the BHP defence].” 

The lack of political will to solve this wages rip-off is easily explained. The Coalition has been silent because it will not stand up to BHP. Likewise Labor, although they have addressed the scam with their Same Job Same Pay laws which the mining companies are now complaining about and challenging in the FWC.

The issue runs more deeply however. If the workers were found to have been underpaid by the courts, that would present a large hit for the Government. For, the erroneous calculation of wages affects the insurance and long service leave entitlements (Coal LSL) of every worker.

Revenues from insurance and LSL go to government and the unions … and the profits from this revenue have risen over the years via reinvestment of these proceeds. It is a lot of money.

BHP declined to respond to questions for this story.

Stay tuned.

The BHP whistleblower and the secretive plan to turn Hunter Valley coal into lakes

This post was originally published on Michael West.

Ice Hockey Australia has cancelled the world championships in Melbourne as host, claiming Israel’s presence would make it too dangerous. Sandi Logan reports.

Ice Hockey Australia (IHA) says the inclusion of Israel in the world championships in Melbourne in April has made it too dangerous for players and fans, so has suddenly cancelled its hosting arrangements.

“Anti-Israel protests and activities (in Melbourne) have escalated significantly since we were awarded the championship and there are now significant concerns regarding safety and security of the event,” announced IHA president Ryan O’Handley in a leaked confidential eMail to his board on 28 December.

“Victoria Police advised us that there was a high chance of an incident occurring during the championship due to the escalating anti-Israel sentiment in Melbourne.”

No threat, says VicPol

Victoria Police’s major events team is taking no responsibility for the organiser’s about-face hosting the event – for Australia, Serbia, Holland, Belgium, UAE, and Israel – and denies it ever advised “there was a high chance of an incident occurring”. It also denies it advised IHA to cancel the event.

“Victoria Police spoke with Ice Hockey Australia and provided feedback about current protest activity,” a spokesperson said. “Any decision to cancel the event was one for Ice Hockey Australia.

“We understand people are concerned following this incident (at the Adass Israel Synagogue on 6 December), however there are currently no known or specific threats to any Victorian organisation, infrastructure or event. Police encourage people to go about their daily business,” the spokesperson added.

That’s certainly not the story O’Handley and IHA’s paid staff are circulating. Rumours had been rife for weeks that European teams were holding back from booking flights but it was the Israel team’s general manager Felix Kozak who first spoke about his players’ concerns – or lack thereof – for their safety and security.

“Australia is a safe country,” Kozak said. “There was zero security in Croatia when we last competed in an IIHF world championship there, and minimal security in Serbia last year. We had one Serbian guard with a gun,” he said.

“Not politically motivated”

While IHA’s president is at pains not to offend the Israelis – “I want to emphasise this decision is not politically motivated,” O’Handley wrote – his capitulation to both real and imagined security risks has prompted some in the ice hockey community to question why Australia bid for the event earlier in 2024, only months after the October 7 Hamas attacks.

“The Israel Government, its defence force, Mossad and any number of interests connected to Benjamin Netanyahu had been waging a by then brutal seven-month campaign against Hamas, against Gaza, against Palestinians – military, civilian and NGO cohorts – in an unrelenting daily bombing campaign,” said one longtime former administrator, “when Ice Hockey Australia put its hand up to host the event in April 2024. They knew back then Israel’s national team would be playing. 

“This seems to me to have been a poorly considered, premature strategy to get back into international ice hockey’s good books without considering that securing the teams, transport, accommodation, venue, and everything in-between would have added $200,000 to their budget.

Did they have the money?

“They’ve come to the realisation too late in their planning they’ve bitten off more than they can chew and they’re now trying to shift the blame, manufacturing an excuse the weekly largely peaceful protests in Melbourne against Israel’s bombing campaign of Gaza, and then the fire attack of the Adass Synagogue have led to police warning them not to proceed. 

“We all know that’s a lie.

“The police have clearly said they simply provided feedback about current protest activity and did not make any predictions or speculate about what the protest temperature might be in April 2025,” he added.

Another longtime ice hockey organiser speculated IHA had withdrawn because it had neither the funds for the security required, nor the support of an estimated 100-150 volunteers required for a major event such as a world championship – an event which offers teams the chance for promotion to higher divisions, ultimately leading to Olympic eligibility.

A Victoria Police member familiar with its major events operations said police operational support and venue security for the September Land Forces Expo in Melbourne, an event that attracted daily protests including protestors punching horses, and hurling projectiles at police, cost the Victorian Government hundreds of thousands of dollars in extra wages, including support from NSW Police. 

Police violence at Land Forces, extreme media distortions, a shame on Victoria

Aside from the thousands of dollars wasted on travel to Europe by the IHA bid team, the secondment of venue staff to the organising committee, and the additional costs now required to be paid by national team players traveling to a new venue – likely in Europe or the United Arab Emirates – there is a possibility the international federation will sanction Australia for withdrawing so late.

No update on synagogue firebomb

Meanwhile the investigation into the synagogue fire continues to be investigated by the Joint Counter Terrorism Team.

“At this stage there’s no further update and the investigation remains ongoing,” a Victoria Police spokesperson said.

The Australian Federal Police, which stood up a special operation – Avalite – to investigate anti-Semitism, echoed the Victorian response.

“The AFP has no update at this stage and further comment will be made at an appropriate time,” a spokesperson said.

Interestingly, the cancellation of the world ice hockey championships is part of a very small collection of Australian events ditched since the October 7 attacks: the Palestine Film Festival was cancelled; an Australian business delegation cancelled its conference (in Israel); and Myer cancelled the unveiling event of its Christmas window displays in November.

Questions were put to Ice Hockey Australia and the International Ice Hockey Federation, but neither have responded before deadline. 

—–

The text of the confidential eMail sent by Ryan O’Handley below. Optional extra/attachment to which you might want to link.

“Subject: STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL – Update on Hosting World Men’s Championship in Melbourne 

30 Dec 2024

Hello everyone, 

Earlier today, correspondence was sent to the IIHF Council stating that we will be unable to host the 2025 WM Div II World Championships due to safety and security concerns associated with Israel as a participant. As you are all well aware, anti-Israel protests and activities have escalated significantly since we were awarded with the Championship and there are now significant concerns regarding safety and security of the event. In mid-October, Victoria Police advised us that there was a high chance of an incident occurring during the Championship due to the escalating anti-Israel sentiment in Melbourne. By the end of October, the venue and the District Docklands precinct also expressed their concerns to us regarding the safety and security of the event. This prompted us to begin correspondence with the IIHF regarding these concerns and the escalating anti-Israel activities in Melbourne. Then, as you are all likely aware, there was an arson attack on a Synagogue in Melbourne on December 6th. Subsequent discussions with the venue and precinct occurred, along with a thorough risk assessment and consideration of all of our options. It was concluded just prior to Christmas that we could not host due to significant safety and security risks associated with Israel’s participation. I want to emphasize that this decision is not politically motivated. We have a good relationship with the Israel Ice Hockey Federation and have participated with them in many IIHF divisions without any issues. Our decision is based entirely on the fact that the safety and security of participants, the venue and precinct staff, and the general public cannot be assured to a reasonable level due to the current environment in Melbourne. The IIHF Council will meet December 29th and determine how to proceed. In my discussions with them so far, they have been very appreciative that we have brought the issues to them promptly and very supportive of the situation. It is my understanding that they will offer the hosting rights to another country in our division in the first instance and they have not suggested we will be sanctioned in any way. Our organizing committee has been working extremely hard and we were all excited to be hosting for the first time since 2011. However, the safety and security of our athletes, volunteers and hosting partners is our primary concern. As always, feel free to contact me directly if you have any questions or concerns. Please keep this information confidential until the IIHF makes a decision and we can issue a public statement.

Best regards, 

Ryan 

Ryan O’Handley 

President / Director

The man who won’t lie down: Australian ice hockey still getting snowed

This post was originally published on Michael West.

Despite the outcry from Big Coal, the government’s Same Job Same Pay laws are derailing the ‘labour hire scam’. But, as Michael West reports, BHP’s wage theft cover-up continues.

The clean-up operation was swift and silent. In the shadows of Christmas, the Fair Work Commission granted secrecy orders to BHP, the unions, and a gaggle of its labour hire companies.

“The Fair Work Commission had asked for all the financial documents, the contracts between BHP and its labour hire companies,” says coal miner Simon Turner, who has been in dispute with the parties for the best part of a decade. But these orders mean ‘let’s keep it in-house, only the Commission and the parties can see it’. That means that all the union members paying their money can’t see anything. How do they know they are getting represented fairly?”

And there are plenty of ‘parties’. Besides the lawyers for BHP, the Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU post split) and a myriad of labour hire companies, are the lawyers for Employment and Workplace Relations Minister Murray Watt.

Fair Work Commission email disclosures

The retinue of blue chip law firms: Freehills, Mallesons, Holding Redlich, HFW and Minters show the big end of town is throwing a lot of money at shutting down public visibility of the contracts between BHP and its satellite of unions and labour hire firms.

Why? BHP and other big coal miners such as Peabody, Glencore and Rio have deployed labour hire companies to short-change their workers, with the cognisance, says Turner, of the union since 2010. Under the Black Coal Award, casual labour is not permitted. So the labour hire companies were used by the mining corporations to legally distance themselves, defuse their risk to legal claims, for underpayment of wages.

“We should have been paid, from 2014 onwards, $137k a year under the Black Coal Award, but we were being paid $60k. That was while I was going to work at the Mt Arthur mine. While I was on workers comp, it was $400 a week – $20k a year. They could not have done this without labour hire because BHP’s Enterprise Agreements don’t allow casual employment.”

The former coal miner from Newcastle broke his back in a workplace accident at Mt Arthur in 2015 and has been fighting for compensation ever since, although yet to no avail.

Same Job, Lame Pay: BHP and the black coal wage swindle

The Labor government knew the wage theft was a problem and moved to legislate its ‘Same Job Same Pay laws when it came into office. However, they are retrospective. So, those coal workers who were employed as casuals on a fraction of the Black Coal Award, remain underpaid.

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Turner estimates the cost of the wage theft at around $2.5B. “There were thousands of workers employed – from 2010 onwards – as casuals.

“We all worked the same full-time hours, whether directly employed by BHP or other. I was employed under the Award but they don’t want that out because it shows that every deal the union (MEU) approved was under the award value. Every labour hire mining agreement was below the award value.

“We know from previous FWC decisions that (labour hire firm) Chandler Macleod was making $1k per person per week. While i was working, BHP was paying them (labour hire) $2,500 per person per week a week and we would get $1k less – roughly $1,500 less tax.

“When the EAs were done the union would negotiate it with Chandler Macleod (or other labour hire firms). Not BHP. But they had to know what the BHP contract price was because if it was a true EA which was above the Award then BHP would have to pay more.”

It is the details of these contracts which have been buried by the FWC confidentiality orders.

“Why would BHP not just do it themselves? It’s the filter between them and legal action. BHP says we have no control over Chandler Macleod [and other labour hire firms]? Because the contract between BHP and Chandler Macleod [and other labour hire] mandates casual employment.”

Two other interesting points about the FWC confidentiality orders: they show that the minister is intervening as a party to the secrecy, and secondly that two of the labour hire firms mentioned in the orders are actually owned by BHP itself.  

Black Hole: CFMEU, governments, BHP, black coal giants in $2.5B worker wage swindle

This post was originally published on Michael West.

Blue chip business lobby the Australia Israel Chamber of Commerce is associated with funding illegal settlements in Israel and sponsorships by notorious Elbit Systems whose weapons are deployed in war crimes. Yaakov Aharon reports.

Israel’s “innovation ecosystem will be supercharged” by the war, Dave Sharma said. Indeed, the bloody rubble of Gaza has been a human testing ground for drones and all manner of new military technologies.

Sharma, the Liberal Party senator and former ambassador to Israel, was addressing corporate moguls at the 2024 summit of the Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce (AICC). 

The Chamber is, perhaps with the exception of the Business Council of Australia, this country’s preeminent big business lobby; holding regular junkets, summits at lunches at ritzy five-star hotel ballrooms where business leaders deliver their speeches before packed audiences spending thousands of dollars per table.

It is the premier networking organisation for Israel in Australia and high-tech is at the vanguard of the lobbying. The ‘Start-Up Nation’ begins with the Israel Defence Force’s (IDF) intelligence units.

While the soldiers are given unlimited access to the army’s deep pockets and free reign to innovate, the subjects of the experiments are the Palestinian people. And the illegal military occupation of Palestinian land is being richly monetised.

The Chamber’s role in this is to showcase military products on Australian shores where they are marketed as “battle-hardened”. 

AICC sponsors include Elbit Systems, Israel’s leading weapon-maker

AICC media-hungry yet shy about their member list

The Chamber’s objective is to promote collaboration between the two countries. It describes itself as “Australia’s pre-eminent international Chamber of Commerce and one of the country’s most prestigious and active national business organisations”, with over 1,000 member companies.

Despite its sizeable media presence, finding public information about AICC proved difficult.

There are at least 9 AICC ABNs according to the ASIC database, but the profiles rarely interlink with ASIC Connect, nor do they show up easily in searches. Often their ASIC profile lacks basic compliance like a ‘company extract’.

The Chamber’s website disclosures also lack these details.

The majority of AICC businesses, including the NSW Division, are membership-based body corporates. So they are tax exempt.

The AICC NSW Division is one primary AICC entity. It’s is formerly known as – and simply trades as – the name AICC, has three separate ACNs, and hosts the annual summit.

It is standard for business councils to list their members. The Business Council of Australia and Minerals Council of Australia do this, but the AICC does not.

Much of the Chamber’s website has been scrubbed since the outbreak of the war in late 2023, specifically the defence industry sponsorships. 

However, it would be unusual for a business council to be handing out free favours. The allure of membership and sponsorship of the Chamber includes invitations to its prestigious events and junkets, and an expectation that your business’s interests will be represented and advanced. 

A ‘non-political’ organisation

The AICC 2023 summit. L-R Jillian Segal, Mark Dreyfus, Mark Leibler, Anthony Albanese. Source: Twitter

While the Chamber describes itself as non-political, it achieves its objective of advancing business alongside cultural and social outcomes through “connecting ideas, knowledge and people.”

Every living Australian prime minister has addressed the Chamber multiple times, while Israeli president Isaac Herzog addressed the summit in 2021 and 2022.

Fundamentally, however, the ‘non-political’ Chamber promotes continuing trade with a pariah and rogue state.

The International Court of Justice has determined that Israel racially dominates Palestinians with a two-tiered legal system, has continuously and illegally annexed Palestinian land, and is plausibly committing genocide.

In July 2024, the Court ruled that member states are to “abstain from entering into economic or trade dealings with Israel … which may entrench its unlawful presence in [Palestinian] territory”.

But Israel’s national identity is its military power. Its national exports are the tools of the military occupation. To a hammer, everything is a nail.

Funding illegal settlements

For example, the AICC’s associate the Israel-Australia Chamber of Commerce (IACC) directs 35% of its funds to government districts with illegal settlements. Its chair is (ret) Major General Ido Nehushtan, a former commander of the Israeli Air Force, and currently engaged in the arms trade as president of Boeing Israel and a consultant for Elbit Systems.

According to the Israeli Ministry of Defence, the arms industry makes up 10% of Israeli exports.

A submission by the AICC to the Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade noted that a further 10% of exports are related to cybersecurity. 

The submission urged a Free Trade Agreement with Israel, arguing it would “increase defence cooperation” and citing the example of the Australian-Israeli joint venture Rafael Varley Group’s Spike LR2 missiles.

When then-Minister of Defence Christopher Pyne addressed the AICC in 2018 he delivered a comprehensive outline of the bilateral arms trade, including the same Rafael Varley missiles.

The former minister, who is known for his sense of humour, opened his speech with a joke: AICC chairperson Jillian Segal “always seems to be following me around”, gets “a lot of good information out of me”, and it is important to stay on her “good side”.

The military mindset

Unit 8200 in action. Source: IDF Spokesperson’s Unit

The 2024 AICC Summit’s headliner was AICC patron saint NYT bestselling author Saul Singer. His book “Start-Up Nation: The Story of Israel’s Miracle’ is Israel’s adopted bible for whitewashing war crimes with feel-good capitalism.

In the book, Singer quotes an IDF intelligence officer:

“In Israel, one’s academic past is somehow less important than the military past. One of the questions asked in every job interview is where did you serve in the army?”

The driving force behind many Israeli start-ups – least of all the defence and cybersecurity industry – is the signals intelligence Unit 8200, equivalent to the USA’s National Security Agency or the Australian Signals Directorate.

AICC chairperson and Special Envoy To Combat Antisemitism Jillian Segal led a junket in 2022, where they “saw the impact of an Army system which enabled a mindset of accountability and responsibility … [particularly] the elite Unit 8200.”

This year’s Summit promoted a speaker as a former Unit colonel.

The Unit is equipped with nearly unlimited access to the military budget with minimal oversight provided by commanders. 

The IDF’s AI ‘kill list’

The latest hotshot project of 8200 is AI-generated kill lists. The Lavender program deems Palestinians as ‘terrorists’ according to a point-ranked system and feeds those lists to the army’s drone operators.

If a low-ranking private has an opportunity to kill a Palestinian on the list it is considered an order as if given by a commanding officer, even if dozens of civilian deaths are inevitable.

The Lavender kill list often feeds into the ‘Where’s Daddy?’ AI program, which notifies Israeli drone operators when a person on the kill list is most vulnerable to a drone strike: the moment they are at home with their children.

Antony Loewenstein writes in his book, The Palestine Laboratory, that “8200 watches every Palestinian, regardless of their involvement in the resistance”.

The Unit can eavesdrop on any phone call, SMS, and email in Palestine. When the messages reveal a personal secret – closeted sexual identity, an extramarital affair, or an invisible illness – 8200 sees it as a tool for blackmailing a potential informant.

Essentially, Loewenstein writes, 8200 marks IDF’s targets; who by fire, and who by blackmail.

Monetising the Occupation

Many of the Unit’s ventures are taken by recent graduates straight into the private sector. 

80% of alumni are offered jobs three months before finishing their service, job offers can read “meant for 8200 alumni”, and alumni earn 20% more than the industry average. 

Cybersecurity start-ups that promote themselves as having been founded by alumni from 8200 and other intelligence units feature prominently among AICC’s past and present sponsors. They include CISCO, Votiro, Skylight Cyber, Cyberark, Check Point, Claroty, Nice, Orca Security, Razorlabs, Wix, and Wiz.

Other defence industry sponsors include Elbit, Elbit Systems of Australia (ELSA), Forcepoint, El Al, and drone-maker Aerobotics.

The Israeli company Cisco has been among the Chamber’s most dedicated and consistent sponsors for over a decade. It also has multiple $100m contracts with the IDF, seven hubs in Israel’s illegal settlements, and has installed 10,000 CCTV cameras around Jerusalem, including occupied East Jerusalem.

Aerobotics, also Israeli-owned, ensures a constant presence of ‘large’ surveillance drones over civilian Palestinian areas, preempting an attack, and readying to provide the IDF with the critical information. It has recently fast-tracked the development of its Iron Drone Raider in response to escalating war.

Victoria invests

The former Chairperson of Young AICC Brad Gofman (2016-2024) simultaneously managed Invest Victoria projects in UK, Europe, and Israel (2018-present). 

Invest Victoria opened an office in Tel Aviv in 2017 through an exclusive agreement with the IACC and the AICC, who ‘deliver services’ of their sponsor Elbit Systems to the office. 

A pair of ‘Victoria-Israel Defence Industry Opportunities Webinars’ in 2020 were co-promoted by the IACC, Israel’s Ministry of Defence, and Invest Victoria.

In 2021 Elbit Systems of Australia (ELSA) returned the favour, setting up an office in Melbourne. For a short time afterward, Gofman managed the defence policy for Invest Victoria.

Weeks later, Australia’s Army HQ directed the Department of Defence to cease using Elbit’s command and control system, claiming the Israeli company had designed a backdoor through which they could spy on and access the computers.

More recently, in April it was an Elbit Hermes 450 drone that murdered Australian Zomi Frankcom and six other World Central Kitchen aid workers in Gaza. The drone hunted the aid worker’s cars down as they traveled along an IDF-approved route, switching cars three times in an attempt to shake the drone off.

Australia’s sovereign wealth fund, Future Fund, did their best to hide that they had invested heavily in arms dealers, including Elbit which made a 172% return.

AICC has also been addressed by then-Future Fund chairman, David Gonski, and by current head of private equity, Alicia Gregory. In 2017, Gonski went back for seconds, taking Future Fund director Michael Wachtel on an AICC junket to Israel.

A junket sweetens the network

In the first half of this year alone, the AICC had organised seven delegations to travel to Israel. Every AICC junket involves at least one geopolitical briefing.

Australia’s former spy boss David Irvine led the AICC Security Delegation to meet with his Israeli counterparts in 2016. Irvine was then-chair of the Cyber Security Research Centre (CSRC) – which sits within the Australian Signals Directorate – and a former head of ASIO (2009-2014) and ASIS (2003-2009).

The junket was addressed by think-tank analyst Efraim Inbar on the topic of How He Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. Inbar has consistently called for Israel – which illegally owns nuclear weapons itself – to be on the aggressive front foot in preventing Iran’s nuclear program. “With each day,” he wrote in 2006, “Iran grows closer to acquiring nuclear weapons.” 

Irvine’s successor at the CSRC, Abigail Bradshaw, addressed the 2020 Summit, before rising the ranks to become boss of the Australian Signals Directorate.

In 2014, when Jillian Segal was a new director at both AICC and the National Bank of Australia (NAB), the AICC organised the bank’s Israel junket.

The delegation met with Carmi Gilon, the former head of Israel’s internal security agency Shin Bet, who had fled Denmark only months before, fearing his arrest for torturing Palestinian detainees.

The former IDF chief of staff, Gabi Ashkenazi, also met with the NAB junket, despite that he was laying low following a Turkish court having issued international warrants for his arrest. It was alleged that Ashkenazi was responsible for a 2010 incident, where the IDF murdered nine activists onboard an aid flotilla headed for Gaza.

Spying on single mums

Cellebrite’s HQ shares sponsors with AICC: Cyberark and Intel. Source: Jack Guez/AFP

The IACC sent a delegation of its members to the 2020 Summit which included Cellebrite’s Australian sales rep.

Cellebrite is a multi-billion dollar Israeli spyware company founded by 8200 alumni. It specialises in cracking phone passwords from afar, extracting data and GPS tracking, and reading deleted messages on encrypted apps like Signal.

The company has signed 160 contracts with the Australian government.

ITnews reported that Services Australia and the Department of Education had used it to spy on single mothers receiving Centrelink payments.

What’s the scam?

In March, while the Government was downplaying its trade and military connections with Israel, the AICC moved offices to an upgraded suite in Westfield, a premium is one of AICC”s most committed sponsors. The Chamber’s 2023 Financial Report, submitted in April, reads:

“There was a major terrorist incident in Israel on the 7th of October 2023 which has resulted in a war which could escalate further. The ongoing effect of the crisis on the Chamber’s operations cannot be ascertained at this time.

Subsequent to year end, the Chamber moved offices and incurred expenses of approximately $100,000. A grant application will be made in respect of the security component of these expenses which were approximately $70,000 and the Directors expect that the grant may cover some or all of the security expenses.”

Jillian Segal’s many hats: Special Envoy for Antisemitism and Israel lobbyist extraordinaire

This post was originally published on Michael West.

BHP whistleblower James Joseph has come forward with a raft of allegations against the Big Australian, one of which he says exposes clandestine negotiations with former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to turn Hunter Valley coal mines into lakes. Michael West reports.

“I’d be very careful if I was you”. BHP whistleblower James Joseph was warned on the afternoon of June 5, 2024 by a fellow BHP executive about coming forward with allegations against his company, implicating BHP’s most senior executives and directors. 

A year prior, Joseph had come forward with a litany of allegations against The Big Australian; from corporate malfeasance and competition law breaches to the cover-up of investigations, bullying and harassment and failing to report serious injury to the NSW safety regulator in accordance with mining regulations.

This follows news earlier this month of a class action by Jan Saddler’s law firm against BHP and Rio Tinto for widespread sexual harassment in the workplace which alleges the companies used confidentiality agreements to stop female employees from speaking about sexual harassment at work.

Instead of being protected as a whistleblower however, the 39-year old HR executive endured what he describes as “extreme retaliation”: death threats, a break-in at his home, the ‘cold shoulder’ at work, a large number of job declines for lesser positions, withholding of urgent medical care and relentless workplace and legal bullying. It is the sort of payback familiar to other whistleblowers who have chosen to come forward.

There is no allegation here that BHP itself was specifically involved in these acts. The ecosystem of Big Coal is expansive, embracing a satellite of corporations, unions, lobby groups, labour hire companies and insurers. And at a time when the coal sector is in the twilight of its existence, the vested interests are as powerful as ever.

Black Hole: CFMEU, governments, BHP, black coal giants in $2.5B worker wage swindle

In his last 6 months of employment, James Joseph was even instructed to only speak to BHP legal representatives (Herbert Smith Freehills), who took over the handling of the ‘Ethics Point Investigation’ into his allegations. 

“It was a completely unheard of approach,” he says. As an HR boss himself, the most senior in NSW, Joseph was well acquainted with the tactics of corporations managing prickly situations with employees. “I had led 200 investigations himself in various roles with BHP”. 

He had recorded, and agonised over reporting the myriad of breaches as a whistleblower for some time but it was a private visit to the Mt Arthur mine site by former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull in December 2022 which he says was the final straw.

The Turnbull visit

“The straw that broke the camel’s back was the Turnbull visit. Alarm bells started going off. Confidential visits on a mine site do not exist; everything needs to be logged in the operational visitor log book. I realised it was untoward when a fellow colleague expressed their concern about knowledge of the visit ever ‘getting out’.”

There is no allegation here of wrongdoing by Turnbull. He is a private citizen, an investor pursuing a corporate deal with BHP. Rather, it was the failure by the mining giant to adhere to its own safety regulations which concerned Joseph.

Malcolm Turnbull at Balmoral Beach with BHP executive Sarah Bailey – Manager Approvals, Land, Access, Heritage & Environment

Mining companies take safety seriously. “They are strict,” he told MWM. “If there is an explosion, a wall collapse, fire, flooding or any type of accident at a mine site, the company is accountable. It has to account for everybody on site. So the concept of an undisclosed visit … we should never have them”.

From conversations with his peers, Joseph subsequently became aware that BHP was in negotiations with Turnbull over a plan for energy transition at Mt Arthur, one of the largest coal mines in the country. At that time the modification was yet to be submitted to the NSW Planning Dept. 

Mt Arthur and Hunter Lakes

The mooted project is vast, a plan to turn the mine into lakes and deploy pumped hydro along with solar and wind farms to transition the coal mine into an enormous renewable energy hub. If it proceeds, it may be the biggest infrastructure in Australian history. The secrecy worried Joseph too. Malcolm Turnbull has a property in the vicinity but BHP does not own the land; it is a mining lease, and there is no talk of a tender.

Located just south of Musselbrook in the Hunter Valley, Mt Arthur is the biggest coal mine in NSW, stretching 7,000 hectares, churning out some $2B a year in income from thermal coal alone, exporting 15,000 tonnes of coal. 

BHP whistleblower James Joseph

Due to close in 2030, the BHP board and management have been deliberating about the future of the site, as has the entire industry, amid the inexorable transition to renewables. This is no secret, but what is a secret is the actual plan for the multi-billion-dollar mine site rehabilitation.

The pumped hydro plan has been mooted to the local community, that is to turn the Hunter into lakes, and fill the residual mining voids with water. But it is not just about renewable energy. The lakes could be recreational too, a tourist attraction with water skiing and boating.

It is a similar project to what is happening in East Germany where old coal district of north-eastern Saxony is becoming the largest chain of artificial lakes in Europe.

Why the secrecy?

But the issue according to Joseph is the secrecy, planning sequencing and suspiciously termed ‘community consultation’. There is no tender, no modification approval (yet), no finalised public proposal. But apparently there is a lot going on behind the scenes. And here is the rub.

Concerned about proper process, Joseph came forward with his allegations. “And what happened? I went home for the weekend and spoke to my wife about it, and others. And I knew that if I didn’t blow the whistle, I was as bad as them. I just thought it was shady”.

He believes the board of BHP must have approved the plan. “We can’t prove that but it is in their Risk & Audit Committee charter [approving site visits] who, would you believe it, is also the same committee that overseas Whistleblower reports. 

Even a colleague who shared the office next to Joseph urged him to inform her if he blew the whistle saying “James if you do report it, let me know, there are a few ‘higher ups’ I will need to inform”. Joseph never spoke to this colleague again (and now is forbidden to) under legal instruction.

“A BHP Asset President would never bring a VIP like Turnbull onto site without higher ranking executives being aware because it would constitute a breach of conflict of interest (policy). The Board would probably be involved,” he says.

BHP’s Beijing scandal

“Why Board level? In 2015, we got done for corrupt dealings in regard to our foreign government dealings, associated with the 2008 Beijing Olympics. [It was a breach of] the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.”

The Beijing saga was a global embarrassment for the mining giant. The company was hit with a $US25m fine by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The bribery scandal occurred under then chief executive Marius Kloppers. BHP had treated 60 government officials and their spouses to luxury hotel accommodation at the Beijing Olympics – most of them from Asia and Africa – in an attempt to entice foreign government and regulatory approval for mining projects.   

Kloppers’ successor Andrew Mackenzie had to clean up the mess and expressed deep regret. “That was 7 years later,” says Joseph. And the aftermath left BHP scarred, and particularly sensitive to reputation damage.

“[As a result] they set up the Risk & Audit Committee specifically to deal with these matters – to demonstrate to the market that they were on top of it. The committee has experienced almost complete turnover over the course of Joseph’s internal investigation, and is now chaired by former KPMG Audit executive, Michelle Hinchliffe. 

Joseph claims the investigation has not been properly executed. “Key witnesses were never interviewed”, he says. “It was a cover-up”.

“BHP’s charter says any government official or VIP must be approved for site visits. At the time Turnbull was also a board member at Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue Future Industries, he was later appointed chair of International Hydropower Association and is a former Prime Minister, indeed the political architect of the troubled Snowy Hydro 2.0 project. He clearly should have been approved for a site visit”.

Turnbull stepped down from the board of the Fortescue subsidiary in January 2023. Did Fortescue chairman Andrew Forrest know of the BHP visit? This is unclear. And if so, was Fortescue involved in the BHP plan for this new energy transition? 

Did they know a whistleblower might come forward? Joseph had come forward internally  prior to the community engagement sessions, prior to the modification application (submitted 14 months later), and only three weeks after a visit of NSW Minister Courtney Houssos to Mt Arthur. 

Biggest project in Australia’s history?

The sheer scale of the proposed transition deal makes it a sensitive issue. If you use Snowy Hydro as an example, that’s already at $12B from original price estimates of $2B.

Then there is the immense regulatory challenge; the environmental and First Nations’ approvals which would be required to flood the area, potentially putting indigenous heritage under water. The community engagement feedback seems to be a mixed bag. 

James Joseph knew in April 2023 that confidential pumped hydro talks were underway. “I was accountable for shaping the NSW workforce strategy as HR manager and I was kept in the dark. Now I know why they never wanted to have this conversation or share the information with myself and other managers, because what they were doing was questionable – amounting potentially to competition breaches.”

Then there is the political sensitivity. China is at the vanguard of pumped hydro technology yet the political implications of doing such a large deal with the Chinese, let alone any foreign group, are significant. China already has its foot on a lot of assets in the Hunter Valley including mining and wineries.

BHP has significant sway with the Coalition and Turnbull has cultivated strong ties with Labor and is a major new energy investor so a joint venture is plausible.

But for expert opinion

Ecologist and water scientist Peter Hughes says the Lakes proposal is a pipe-dream, at least the recreational part. 

“With the Lakes proposal and the use of the mine voids, I’ve reviewed at least 4 proposals and every few years the NSW Minerals Council does a report. There is no new data. I’ve seen proposals that all of the mine voids can be used. It’s not viable for any recreational use and never will be.

“The groundwater in the Hunter is highly saline and very high in heavy metals. It’s highly toxic for animals. I’ve written letters to them explaining this to them. In Germany it is different. The groundwater must be much cleaner, and there’s high rainfall.

Hughes, who worked 25 years with the NSW EPA and done Environmental Impact assessments on every coal mine in the Hunter Valley and written most of the Environment Protection Licences.

“There is potential for pumped hydro. There was a CSIRO report into the potential for pumped hydro which found it plausible. All you need is a hill more than 100m high. We’ve put the kibosh on the recreational proposal at least four times. Pumped hydro is potentially viable but they have a major problem with it – the water quality. The water is highly corrosive which would clog up the machinery. So technically I think it is unlikely.

“I would say they are trying it on again. They have probably submitted again to the EPA but it’s a dog with fleas.”

To ever get it approved, says Hughes, they would have to get DA consent under EP&A Act, an Environment Protection Licence from the EPA, Water Access Licenses under Water Management Act, and possibly Aboriginal relic destruction licences from NPWS.

To make the water quality viable, what they would have to do is put it through a purification plant before they pump it back up the hill to the turbine. We are talking about a reverse osmosis desalination plant which is extremely expensive and power hungry. It could eat up the majority of the power which the pumped hydro plant is producing.

It’s an uphill battle. And not just for BHP but all the Hunter Valley mines. “This is why they have been quietly trying to sell their mines,” says Peter Hughes. “The license says that they have to return the land to its pre-mining state. This is an enormous impediment; it involves billions in rehabilitation costs.

“This is why they keep running it up the flagpole”. It allows them to go into negotiations with buyers and say we have got all the NSW ministers on board. This guy (James Joseph), it’s no wonder they didn’t want him around”.

This post was originally published on Michael West.

What’s not to love about Molly the Magpie and Peggy the Staffy? But scratch the surface, and you’ll find a circus-sideshow some even have the temerity to call a scam. Andrew Gardiner reports from the battle zone.

It has all the ingredients of a culture wars cause célèbre: an overbearing ‘Nanny State’, curtailing the freedom of an average Aussie couple who reportedly rescued ‘Molly’, a loveable abandoned magpie-turned internet sensation.

Then there’s the narrators: shock jocks anxious as always to parlay controversy into ratings, country crooners clambering aboard this burgeoning bandwagon and a state Premier determined to distract punters from headlines of a youth crime ‘crisis’.

The only thing missing was a side hustle. Or was it?

Shock jocks politicians and celebrities rallied behind the couple that re-homed Molly the Magpie

For anyone who’s just emerged from a coma, here’s the tale of Peggy and Molly, unlikely interspecies ‘intimates’ who took

Australia by storm. Who better to kick us off with the tabloid side of this tale than The Project’s Sarah Harris: “Molly the Magpie and Peggy the Staffy might seem like a strange pair, but from the moment paw touched claw, their unlikely friendship began to blossom.”

Molly, the abandoned magpie who fell from a tree back in 2020, was adopted by a couple from the Gold Coast hinterland, Juliette Wells and Reece Mortensen, who owned of the other star of this show, Peggy, a Blue Staffordshire Bull Terrier.

“The little bird soon formed an unbreakable bond with Peggy, along with their other Staffy, Ruby … even learning to speak their language [by barking],” Harris gushed on Channel 10.

Enter (stage left) the villain

Of course, every good yarn needs a villain. Enter Queensland’s Department of Environment, Science and Innovation (DESI), which seized Molly in March, saying the couple didn’t have the required permit to care for native wildlife.

Cue the inevitable outcry from politicians, celebrities and media, which in turn generated 150,000 signatures on multiple petitions. Ever the spruiker, then-Queensland Premier Steven Miles weighed in, calling for a “common sense” solution from DESI and pushing for a happy ending for Molly’s legion of fans.

Queensland Premier Stephen Miles with Peggy and Molly, Juliette Wells and Reece Mortensen

By mid-April, politics had trumped policy. “This morning (DESI) advised me that Juliette and Reece can secure the appropriate license (for Molly),” Miles announced, before heading to the family’s home for a grinning photo shoot (above) with the magpie perched on his shoulder.

The tug-of-war for Molly is far from over after a conservation-conscious litigant had a win in the Supreme Court, but the Magpie (who is male, despite the name) remains with the couple. In what remains a delicate dance for politicians and bureaucrats, his fate may ultimately rest with Queensland’s new Premier, David Crisafulli.

Go forth and FundMe

A cause is not a cause these days without a GoFundMe (and merch). Books, scarves, a crowdfunding page and a planned animated series are shown here.

Peggy and Molly tick all the social media boxes: they’re cute, they’re cuddly and they perform for the cameras. It’s no surprise, therefore, that the pair have amassed more than two million followers across the platforms of Meta.

Like death, taxes and the monetisation of a Facebook phenomenon, along came the merchandise. And a book, Be Kind, Be Humble, Be Happy, is by most accounts doing a brisk trade at Amazon, Penguin and Angus & Robertson, from around $14 to $25 a pop.

Then there’s scarves, bandanas and, I kid you not, Peggy and Molly: the animated series. The merch features words commonly associated with the pair and images not of them but, rather, caricatures derived from “artistic inspiration” (creative license) which skirts DESI restrictions on using Molly for commercial gain.

A house in it

But the pièce de résistance was a crowdfunding page – “Peggy and Molly: Interspecies Friendship” – which has raised more than $100 thousand dollars from across the globe. Organised by a third party, the GoFundMe aimed to help Juliette and Reece buy their then-Coomera home after the landlord gave them notice so he could auction the place.

“They always had plans to buy the rental home, but with the previously unseen rise in housing prices, it’s just no longer a viable possibility. Molly has grown up in their home (and he) is now following his natural instinct and being very territorial, which hinders the family from being able to relocate,” the GoFundMe page read.

So there you have it: the six figure sum was for Molly the Magpie, not Juliette and Reece, but $100k wasn’t nearly enough to buy the house or stave off their moving out. So much for Molly’s “territorial instincts”.

What will happen to the $100k? It’s believed the couple are “renting to buy” another place not far from Molly’s original home, but with housing prices going through the roof and the GoFundMe no longer accepting donations, they’re at long odds to afford this place too.

DESI arcs up

In April, DESI laid down strict conditions for Molly’s staying with the couple, including that they “not conduct activities for commercial purposes with the magpie”. So what happens to the proceeds from all this commerce?

“The magpie’s real image, photograph and the bird himself cannot make a profit (and) we are mindful that no images of the real magpie be included in any way other than artistic inspiration,” the couple’s Sydney-based manager said, referring to the animated series and, presumably, the merch.

So far, DESI has accepted this “creative license” explanation* but does it pass the pub test?

MWM reached out to both the couple and their manager, Chelsea Bonner, for an answer to these and other questions, but had not heard back by publication time. We are not suggesting any of the trio have acted unethically, illegally or in breach of the DESI agreement with these merchandising and fundraising activities.

Vicious cycle: how internet trends drive the legally-dubious market in wild animals like Molly the Magpie (right). Images: Social Media Animal Cruelty Coalition (SMACA, left) and Facebook

Of course, Peggy and Molly’s ‘mateship’ isn’t all barking and belly scratches. Sources from the world of ornithology have told MWM that Molly is hard wired to be “the boss” of any pecking order and is almost-certainly territorial in his daily dealings with Peggy.

“Molly’s instinct will be to harass (dominate) Peggy, but the dog won’t put up with this forever. The moment Peggy loses patience, Molly could actually be done for,” one knowledgeable source told MWM.

Whether or not he’s happy at the couple’s home, as the tabloid narrative suggests, the fact remains Molly was taken from his natural environment (accounts differ on whether he was ‘rescued’) before being placed in alien surrounds, assimilated with a small pack of dogs and unveiled as a performing, barking internet oddity.

The Big Top

“There are parallels between Molly’s fate and that of a circus animal. Sure, he doesn’t have a chain through his snout (beak) but he’s entertaining and amusing audiences as if he’s under the big top,” one source told MWM.

Then there’s the issue of copy-catting, and the normalisation of keeping wildlife at home. According to SMACA, monkeys dressed in baby clothes (which you can find on the internet) or magpies with their wings clipped are often “suffering, manipulated for the camera and living in unnatural conditions.”

“Yet, these videos and images are portrayed as ‘cute’ and funny. Worryingly, they are also promoting the keeping of wild animals, meaning more people are likely to buy them as pets, causing more suffering,” SMACA’s website added (see flowchart above).

“The reason why (Molly’s) case is important is (that it’s) a precedent to all Australians that you can do this. If you get enough likes on social media, the government will override its own experts and start saying, ‘it’s fine’,” lawyer Jack Vaughan, who was involved in the recent Supreme Court case, said.

The pub test

‘Molly the Magpie’ isn’t up there with black emancipation or the suffragette movement as a cause to inspire the masses, but it did entertain, amuse and, later, anger punters when the so-called ‘Nanny State’ got involved. Have Juliette Wells and Reece Mortensen followed the path Eric Hoffer (above) described, by taking their own mini-movement and turning it into “a racket”?

We’ll have the answer to that when we know two things. First, what will happen to $100k crowdfunding dollars, ostensibly to buy Molly a ‘forever home’ but perhaps not even enough for a deposit.

The second question is whether DESI – which may yet seize Molly back after courts revoked the couple’s license – belatedly stiffens its stance on “artistically inspired” ‘Peggy and Molly’ merch.

Does it pass the aforementioned pub test, or is it, in fact, a grift? Perhaps politics will decide.

Editor’s Note: the book Be Kind, Be Humble, Be Happy appears to show actual images of Peggy and Molly, but MWM was unable to confirm this.

Bupa, Medibank give massage therapists an unhappy ending 

This post was originally published on Michael West.

Ever enjoyed a relaxing remedial massage at the office? Maybe it’s time to check in on the people untangling your knots. Zacharias Szumer irons out the industry snarls.

At a recent ‘wellbeing expo’ organised by your correspondent’s workplace, employees were invited to enjoy a ten-minute massage from one of five ‘massage angels’. 

The angels were ‘back by popular demand’ and ready to give a hands-on demonstration of the heavenly perks of signing on with one of the company’s ‘wellness partners’.

To help readers decode the HR jargon – this meant that, to reach the corner to which the angels had descended, employees had to pass a Medibank table staffed by several reps. 

Insurers ‘price gouging’ with secret premium hikes

Corporate remedial massage is sometimes simply a benevolence that management or the HR department blesses upon their tired and overwrought workforce.  

In other settings, it’s a promotional opportunity for companies like Medibank and Bupa – as private insurance covers remedial massage. 

But how heavenly are the work conditions for our ‘angels’?  

He said that he was told to take it or leave.

MWM has recently chatted with four therapists who say their industry is rife with exploitation, safety violations, and an absurd degree of micromanagement. 

A bum deal at Bunnings 

In August last year, Theo (not his real name) arrived at a Bunnings Warehouse presuming he’d be massaging employees in a private space. 

The 31-year-old, who’s been in the industry for three years, was surprised to be asked to set up his chair near the check-out and give massages to customers and their children – as well as employees.

Much of this work is arranged by subcontractor agencies – even if Medibank or Bupa are the ultimate ‘corporate wellness partners’ – so Theo reached out to the agency that had given him the Bunnings job for help.

Private massage at Bunnings check-out

He said that he was told to take it or leave. If he chose the latter, he wouldn’t be paid for the hours he’d been booked.

“Despite my reservations, I decided to attempt to accommodate the revised arrangement,” he wrote in a subsequent complaint letter to the agency. 

However, he encountered “numerous unsettling issues” in his first hour, such as staff members making “inappropriate jokes that created an uncomfortable atmosphere for both myself and the clients”, Theo wrote. 

He again asked to be relocated to another area, to which Bunnings finally obliged, sending him to the following location:  

A more private Bunnings massage

After protesting once again, he was asked to leave. 

He says he doesn’t blame Bunnings itself – save for one “overzealous manager” – but rather the agency, and by extension the private health insurance companies, for not setting firmer boundaries. 

The agencies “want the least friction possible while making a booking”, he says. 

“They just ask time and place and then send us in there blind to deal with problems”. 

‘Suck it up’

In July, Theo complained to his boss about being set up “in a kitchen area in an open plan office, being interrupted and harangued by employees all day, and having to perform massages where clients had no privacy whatsoever)”. 

His boss then told him to “suck it up” and continue working on the job – which he was carrying out on behalf of private health giant Bupa.  

The boss later sent a defensive reply, saying she was under considerable stress and that this was “the 1st & only time I asked you to ‘suck it up’”. 

Several other massage therapists have told MWM that such problems are relatively common – as is being asked to deliver massages for hours in stationery-cupboard-sized rooms without windows, or without access to the bathroom or a sink to wash their hands between massages.

Lowest acts are just the beginning

Mathew (also not his real name) said his agency and the insurance company showed little interest in helping during a booking in which, once a week, he was required to massage in the janitor’s storeroom of a hospital. 

Finally, after six weeks, he was moved to a room next to the mortuary. 

Through an observation window, he watched dead bodies being prepared before someone politely suggested closing the blinds. 

Therapists are told that, should they have any issues at a job site, they should call a special Bupa or Telus (a Medibank contractor) hotline, but MWM has heard that calls to these numbers are rarely answered. 

“I don’t even bother,” another massage therapist, who we’ll call Jessica, told MWM. 

“It did work once, but apart from that, the other times when I tried to call them: no answer”. 

‘Sham contracting’

Several massage therapists told MWM they have the worst of both worlds: the precariousness of being independent contractors and the lack of freedom of employees.

This situation is often referred to as “sham contracting” and Association of Massage Therapists Executive Officer Rebecca Barnett told MWM says it’s “a very broad issue across the entire industry”. 

“Subcontracting is promoted heavily to massage therapists as a flexible, lucrative, be-your-own boss proposition,” she said. 

“In reality, though, subcontractors are often subject to a huge degree of control that would suggest that they’re actually in an employment relationship, but without the security and stability that a guaranteed income brings.”

“We’re independent contractors, but we can’t negotiate with them,” Jessica says. 

“It’s almost like negotiating with terrorists. You try to have a discussion and then it just goes nowhere. It goes absolutely nowhere,” she says, adding that therapists who raise issues often get offered fewer jobs in the future. 

Same Job, Lame Pay: BHP and the black coal wage swindle

Some email threads seen my MWM show workers arguing with these companies for weeks or even months about payment claims.   

They are not paid for the time – usually at least 30 minutes – that it takes them to set up at these corporate jobs. 

“Self-promoting” is also prohibited. 

This means that, if you’re an employee who receives a great massage from a particular therapist and wishes to have another, the therapist has to inform you to speak with the private health insurer. 

MWM has seen messages from Bupa to the massage agency, and from massage agency to therapists, in which they are told off for such self-promotion. 

Holistic solutions

Parking it

Other emails show workers endlessly haggling with bosses over parking issues because they aren’t provided with parking, are given incorrect information, or are told to park illegally and move their cars during their fifteen-minute breaks. 

“Bupa does not & has never paid for parking,” one employer tells Theo in an email message, recommending that he carry his massage chair and other equipment with him on public transport. 

While not getting your parking paid for is pretty low in the grand scheme of worker hardship, it does look a tad skimpy considering the international healthcare giant made over $1 billion in profit before tax last year.

Shelton – who’s been a massage therapist for 26 years and has been doing corporate jobs for just over a year – says that, after getting “glowing reviews” from clients, arguing over a $20 parking fee with agencies is a real pain in the arse. 

“It’s like you always have to follow up on it. You always have to prod and poke because, like I said, that thumb is kept on the scale that tips everything in their favour,” he said.

Shelton agreed to use his own name because he’s about to leave the industry.

“I love the work itself. I love what I do. But it’s just ‘Well, shit, what am I going to be up against now?’”

Corporate ‘wellness washing’  

The massage industry attracts caring people who can be particularly flexible when it comes to the demands of those above them – meaning that they’re particularly vulnerable to exploitation, Theo says. 

Due to the relatively high hourly wage – around $45-$60 per hour – it also attracts many workers with poor English who may lack an understanding of their work rights. 

(Corporate clients reportedly pay around $100 dollars an hour for a massage therapist.)

Barnett says her organisation has only recently become aware of “ridiculous working conditions” in the corporate remedial massage sector and is concerned that there’s a double standard at play.  

“Private health funds have rigorous standards of practice for massage therapists who provide treatments that can be claimed by their clients through private health insurance. 

“This includes working from suitable clinical facilities, sanitation, and comprehensive client intake and record keeping processes.” 

“To me there seems to be a problem if the same rigour is not being applied in these corporate wellness packages.” 

“It’s also a problem that the labour of massage therapists is being unfairly exploited, apparently in terrible working conditions, in the service of what might be termed corporate wellness washing.”

We take all concerns seriously

In response to these complaints, a Medibank spokesperson told MWM: “We take matters of workplace health and safety seriously and will undertake a review with our suppliers regarding these concerns.”

Bupa told MWM that it had “strict guidelines and processes in place to help ensure safe working environments and care for health professionals, our customers and clients.”

“We take all concerns seriously and are committed to addressing and resolving any issues promptly,” a Bupa spokesperson said. 

To extend a small olive branch – your correspondent isn’t suggesting that all massage therapists hate this corporate work.  

In fact, one ‘massage angel’ he spoke to at his company’s wellness expo said he loved it. 

One particular highlight, he said, was giving a massage to Anthony Albanese in the Qantas Chairman’s Lounge.

Editor’s Note: following Zach’s landmark investigation into the Wellness sector, MWM has engaged independent advice from PwC Wellness Services Procurement which is expected to hand down its report in mid 2025.

Under current Wellness procedures, overseen by MWM Global Vice President of Human Resources, Johnnie, all employees are encouraged to pursue the DIY approach to workplace massage. “Our Process Improvement Taskforce Team is evaluating a range of outcomes but US Government research has found DIY to be the only way to consistently ensure a happy ending,” said Johnnie.

This post was originally published on Michael West.

With ex-partners suing them, the parliament grilling them, the government firing them, AFP investigating them, and media lambasting them, the scandal-ridden PwC has their lawyers pick on an academic. Marcus Reubenstein reports.

Andy Schmulow, an associate professor from the University of Wollongong, has made a name for himself, calling out the wrongdoings of the Big Four accounting firms, particularly PwC.

It’s been rich pickings for Schmulow over the past couple of years, who’s posted on his LinkedIn account scathing and totally justified commentary on the ethically questionable practices of the big end of town.

In March of this year, it was all too much for PwC, which took great offence to a 463-word Schmulow LinkedIn post in which he advocated that PwC’s Australian boss Kevin Burrowes, who’d spent his first 16 years with the company in the London office, should be kicked out of Australia.

To boot, he offered an opinion that an AFR report describing Burrowes as having a “resting bulldog face” was accurate. As loose as defamation laws are, you can’t be sued for expressing an opinion.

The AFR’s Neil Chenoweth broke the tax scandal story in January 2023, and within four months, PwC’s Australian boss, Tom Seymour, was gone. After Kristin Stubbins stepped in as interim CEO, Kevin Burrowes was shipped in from the Singapore office to clean up the mess.

Ziggy plays for time: PwC’s dual ‘independent reports’ a dual whitewash

Burrowes has been dubbed an enforcer and has had to front up to senate inquiries to answer ‘please explains’ as to his firm’s conduct. Following one such appearance, Chenoweth wrote: “Burrowes has a terminal case of resting bulldog face. On this occasion, a bulldog that has just tasted something exceptionally unpleasant.”

PwC directed its PR flacks to get on the phones to demand the deletion of those unkind words, the AFR refused. Eight months ago, Schmulow posted his tome on LinkedIn where he referred to Burrowes appearance clearly denoting “resting bulldog face” were the AFR’s words not his.

Social media policy breach

Under Australian law there is no recourse to have such posts deleted nor to commence any proceedings against the author. PwC’s lawyers, Allens stepped up with a plan of their own: complain to the University of Wollongong (UOW) about Schmulow’s post, claiming it breached the university’s social media policy.

It was a classic case of high-priced lawyers “trying it on” with a complaint couched in legalese alluding to Schmulow’s post being defamatory.

Whether they knew it or not – and one suspects the lawyers at Allens may well have known – Schmulow was informed about the complaint but had no right to see it because it was confidential.

Whilst not a criticism of UOW, it erred on the side of caution and when asked by Schmulow to show him the complaint he was eventually handed a heavily redacted version with more black ink than text. Not one to back down, Schmulow made an application under New South Wales’ freedom of information law, the Government Information (Public Access) Act, to see what PwC was saying about him.

That application led to the release of the PwC complaint last month, eight months after it was first lodged. There is an irony about this insofar as Schmulow’s criticism of PwC was in the public domain, yet its heavy-handed response was private and confidential. Presumably not for legal reasons but merely to satisfy the university, Schmulow amended references to two names, and his post remains online for all to see.

Allens wrote to UOW claiming, “The statements made in relation to Mr Burrowes and (a PwC partner) are factually incorrect and are likely to cause both professional harm and personal distress. Further, one of the statements made in relation to Mr Burrowes includes disparaging comments about Mr Burrowes’ appearance.”

Having finally seen the complaint, Schmulow says, “The gist from me is that the complaint refers to a post that makes assertions, all of which are verifiable. So, the complaint is a complaint without a cause, putting it in under confidentiality would only serve to conceal that.

What is the purpose? To my mind it is to intimidate me into silence.

It’s almost as if the lawyers have nothing to do.

On November 4, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) visited PwC’s Sydney office making polite inquiries as to whether it had breached secrecy laws by disclosing confidential Australian Taxation Office (ATO) information to corporate clients.

AFP officers spent several days at the PwC offices, with partners and staff having been reassured in a memo from Burrowes, “Despite the potential for distraction, let’s all encourage our teams to continue business as usual and remain focused on their important work with our clients and in the community.”

PWC – a slap on the Wrist | The West Report

An endless lawyer fest

Last month, it was revealed that PwC fired up the lawyers lodging a counterclaim in the NSW Supreme Court against ex-partner Paul McNab, who was named by PwC as one of four partners associated with ATO leaks and is suing his former employer for unpaid entitlements.

Aside from McNab, seven other partners (now ex-partners), named and shamed by PwC for their part in the scandal, have either settled or commenced their own proceedings against the firm.

With the greatest of respect to sharks, the lawyers began circling once there was a drop of blood in the water about the tax scandal; now, it’s feeding a frenzy.

Why would PwC have one of its sharks slip into Wollongong Harbour to bite off the head of a lone academic? Did Schmulow breach confidentiality agreements, hand out sensitive government information to his colleagues and clients or give conflicted evidence to parliamentary committees? No, he quoted someone else who had called PwC’s boss an unkind name.

Unfortunately for PwC, Schmulow might not have the face of a bulldog, but he certainly has the fight of one. It’s a lesson for PwC and next time they brief the shysters at Allens someone is going to have to step up and say: “you’re going to need a bigger shark!”

Privacy: hackers and spammers put your data at risk. What to do?

This post was originally published on Michael West.

One rule for the unions, another for business. While Nine Entertainment mastheads have been battering the CFMEU, when it comes to similar practices by developers, they look the other way. Marcus Reubenstein with the story.

The CFMEU construction division is smouldering in administration following reports of links to organised crime aired by Nine Entertainment. But for years, property developers have been burning themselves to the ground, rising from liquidations, often back into the hands of the original developer. One developer, with liquidations in its past, is heading up a $500m project in Wollongong linked to Nine Entertainment’s biggest shareholder.

The Wollongong city skyline, south of Sydney, is set to undergo a major transformation with plans before the city council for a three-tower mixed commercial and residential development, the tallest of which is planned to be 39 stories. Valued at $500m, the WIN Grand mixed-use precinct is the biggest ever development in Wollongong.

The site was purchased for $70m by a company called Level 33, which has completed a number of developments in Wollongong and Sydney’s south. The vendor was Birketu Pty Ltd, owned by Bermuda-based billionaire media tycoon Bruce Gordon, who is the single biggest shareholder in Nine Entertainment.

While the Nine mastheads reported on the transaction, there was hardly a deep dive into Level 33, rather a warm and fuzzy reference to it as a “family-owned company” with a solid track record in Sydney and the Illawarra region.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Birketu, which was heavily involved in the planning phase, will maintain an interest in WIN Grand, quoting Birketu and WIN chief executive Andrew Lancaster, saying, “We will take a large part of the commercial aspect of the site when it is completed.”

Lancaster was reported as saying Level 33 was selected from a field of 20 developers who lodged expressions of interest to buy the site and that “Level 33 are experts at residential and mixed-use commercial development, and we are pleased they share our vision for the site.”

While Nine Newspapers did disclose the largest shareholder of its parent company was the vendor, which will continue to have involvement in the development, there was scant attention paid to the track record of the purchaser.

Can the con be stopped? CFMEU whistleblower on gangsters, unions and workers entitlements

Mainstream media look the other way

Just like the CFMEU, the directors of Level 33 and its associated companies are no strangers when it comes to having the corporate undertakers knocking on their doors. That didn’t rate a mention in Nine’s reports.

Contrast this to the hiding Nine gave the CFMEU. Since the announcement in July that the administrators were heading off to the CFMEU, the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age have filed more than 90 stories about the union, with the AFR chiming in with another 60 connected to their “Building Bad” investigations.

An ASIC search shows there are at least 19 different entities with variations of the company name “Level 33” with nine cancelled and one under external administration. The registered address of what appears to be the group’s parent company, Level 33 Construction Pty Ltd, is PricewaterhouseCoopers Group 2 in Sydney.

Eddy Haddad, who delivered glowing quotes to Nine Newspapers on the Wollongong deal, is the sole director of Level 33 Construction Pty Ltd.

A consultant who’d worked for Level 33 in 2023 was hardly complementary, telling MWM,  “Level 33 doesn’t pay its bills”, but added, “that’s nothing unusual in the property industry.”

One of its previous associated companies is North Shore Property Developments Pty Ltd, of which Haddad’s brother John was the sole director. North Shore Property Developments was first registered as a company in March 2010 as Level 33 Pty Ltd, changing its name in 2012.

The company was wound up in 2015, but not before Eddy Haddad picked up four apartments in a development in the affluent Sydney suburb of Lane Cove for $1.62m. That was in 2014. Haddad undertook renovation works and, just before the liquidators arrived, sold the apartments and two garage spaces for a total of $4.069m.

The company having gone into administration, leaving the Australian Taxation Office to stand in line, claiming it was owed $5.8m.

In Federal Court proceedings brought by the ATO, it was revealed another two units in the Lane Cove development were sold for $800,000 to the wife of a plumber who’d worked on the project. However, the court found “no consideration for the transfers was provided, and no money was paid.” That transaction was completed just four months before the liquidators were called in.

Developers rising from the ashes

Phoenix activity is the process of liquidating a company to escape debts, particularly employees’ wages and payments to subcontractors and to the ATO, with the directors then rising from the ashes with a new company after transferring any useful assets out of the liquidated entity.

A 2018 PwC report estimated phoenix activity was costing Australia’s economy up to $5B per year, with ASIC and the ATO reporting an estimated $1.6B lost in unpaid taxes. The ATO, ASIC, and the Australian National Audit Office are all grappling with the practice.

The ATO has set up a Phoenix Taskforce, nabbing one property developer that wound up companies six times in five years, leaving behind $160m in unpaid debts.

As for the Deed of Settlement in the winding up of the John Haddad-controlled North Shore Property Developments that was negotiated by disgraced liquidator David Iannuzzi. In 2019, the Federal Court handed Iannuzzi a 10-year ban as a liquidator. The ATO labelled him “a phoenix enabling liquidator”. The court investigated 23 companies liquidated by Iannuzzi, all of them clients of Banq Accountants and Advisors Pty Ltd, an accounting firm in the southwestern Sydney suburb of Punchbowl.

Evidence before the court revealed that for most of the life of the Haddad-controlled North Shore Property Developments, its registered address was that of Banq Accountants and Advisors.

An investigation by The Guardian reported the ATO estimated Banq liquidated at least 120 companies that had monies owed to the taxation office, potentially as much as $165m. That same investigation alleged that among Banq’s clients were individuals with connections to the Comanchero bikie gang.

With big money involved in construction and development, it’s not just corrupt unionists holding out their hands. While Nine Entertainment relentlessly went after the CFMEU, it’s given the kid glove treatment to a transaction involving its major shareholder and a developer with a corporate history that hardly aligns with Nine’s characterisation of it as a “family-owned company”.

Black Hole: CFMEU, governments, BHP, black coal giants in $2.5B worker wage swindle

This post was originally published on Michael West.

One rule for the unions, another for business. While Nine Entertainment mastheads have been battering the CFMEU, when it comes to similar practices by developers, they look the other way. Marcus Reubenstein with the story.

The CFMEU construction division is smouldering in administration following reports of links to organised crime aired by Nine Entertainment. But for years, property developers have been burning themselves to the ground, rising from liquidations, often back into the hands of the original developer. One developer, with liquidations in its past, is heading up a $500m project in Wollongong linked to Nine Entertainment’s biggest shareholder.

The Wollongong city skyline, south of Sydney, is set to undergo a major transformation with plans before the city council for a three-tower mixed commercial and residential development, the tallest of which is planned to be 39 stories. Valued at $500m, the WIN Grand mixed-use precinct is the biggest ever development in Wollongong.

The site was purchased for $70m by a company called Level 33, which has completed a number of developments in Wollongong and Sydney’s south. The vendor was Birketu Pty Ltd, owned by Bermuda-based billionaire media tycoon Bruce Gordon, who is the single biggest shareholder in Nine Entertainment.

While the Nine mastheads reported on the transaction, there was hardly a deep dive into Level 33, rather a warm and fuzzy reference to it as a “family-owned company” with a solid track record in Sydney and the Illawarra region.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Birketu, which was heavily involved in the planning phase, will maintain an interest in WIN Grand, quoting Birketu and WIN chief executive Andrew Lancaster, saying, “We will take a large part of the commercial aspect of the site when it is completed.”

Lancaster was reported as saying Level 33 was selected from a field of 20 developers who lodged expressions of interest to buy the site and that “Level 33 are experts at residential and mixed-use commercial development, and we are pleased they share our vision for the site.”

While Nine Newspapers did disclose the largest shareholder of its parent company was the vendor, which will continue to have involvement in the development, there was scant attention paid to the track record of the purchaser.

Can the con be stopped? CFMEU whistleblower on gangsters, unions and workers entitlements

Mainstream media look the other way

Just like the CFMEU, the directors of Level 33 and its associated companies are no strangers when it comes to having the corporate undertakers knocking on their doors. That didn’t rate a mention in Nine’s reports.

Contrast this to the hiding Nine gave the CFMEU. Since the announcement in July that the administrators were heading off to the CFMEU, the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age have filed more than 90 stories about the union, with the AFR chiming in with another 60 connected to their “Building Bad” investigations.

An ASIC search shows there are at least 19 different entities with variations of the company name “Level 33” with nine cancelled and one under external administration. The registered address of what appears to be the group’s parent company, Level 33 Construction Pty Ltd, is PricewaterhouseCoopers Group 2 in Sydney.

Eddy Haddad, who delivered glowing quotes to Nine Newspapers on the Wollongong deal, is the sole director of Level 33 Construction Pty Ltd.

A consultant who’d worked for Level 33 in 2023 was hardly complementary, telling MWM,  “Level 33 doesn’t pay its bills”, but added, “that’s nothing unusual in the property industry.”

One of its previous associated companies is North Shore Property Developments Pty Ltd, of which Haddad’s brother John was the sole director. North Shore Property Developments was first registered as a company in March 2010 as Level 33 Pty Ltd, changing its name in 2012.

The company was wound up in 2015, but not before Eddy Haddad picked up four apartments in a development in the affluent Sydney suburb of Lane Cove for $1.62m. That was in 2014. Haddad undertook renovation works and, just before the liquidators arrived, sold the apartments and two garage spaces for a total of $4.069m.

The company having gone into administration, leaving the Australian Taxation Office to stand in line, claiming it was owed $5.8m.

In Federal Court proceedings brought by the ATO, it was revealed another two units in the Lane Cove development were sold for $800,000 to the wife of a plumber who’d worked on the project. However, the court found “no consideration for the transfers was provided, and no money was paid.” That transaction was completed just four months before the liquidators were called in.

Developers rising from the ashes

Phoenix activity is the process of liquidating a company to escape debts, particularly employees’ wages and payments to subcontractors and to the ATO, with the directors then rising from the ashes with a new company after transferring any useful assets out of the liquidated entity.

A 2018 PwC report estimated phoenix activity was costing Australia’s economy up to $5B per year, with ASIC and the ATO reporting an estimated $1.6B lost in unpaid taxes. The ATO, ASIC, and the Australian National Audit Office are all grappling with the practice.

The ATO has set up a Phoenix Taskforce, nabbing one property developer that wound up companies six times in five years, leaving behind $160m in unpaid debts.

As for the Deed of Settlement in the winding up of the John Haddad-controlled North Shore Property Developments that was negotiated by disgraced liquidator David Iannuzzi. In 2019, the Federal Court handed Iannuzzi a 10-year ban as a liquidator. The ATO labelled him “a phoenix enabling liquidator”. The court investigated 23 companies liquidated by Iannuzzi, all of them clients of Banq Accountants and Advisors Pty Ltd, an accounting firm in the southwestern Sydney suburb of Punchbowl.

Evidence before the court revealed that for most of the life of the Haddad-controlled North Shore Property Developments, its registered address was that of Banq Accountants and Advisors.

An investigation by The Guardian reported the ATO estimated Banq liquidated at least 120 companies that had monies owed to the taxation office, potentially as much as $165m. That same investigation alleged that among Banq’s clients were individuals with connections to the Comanchero bikie gang.

With big money involved in construction and development, it’s not just corrupt unionists holding out their hands. While Nine Entertainment relentlessly went after the CFMEU, it’s given the kid glove treatment to a transaction involving its major shareholder and a developer with a corporate history that hardly aligns with Nine’s characterisation of it as a “family-owned company”.

Black Hole: CFMEU, governments, BHP, black coal giants in $2.5B worker wage swindle

This post was originally published on Michael West.