#fourcorners

10 years of Liberal/National federal governments stripped the public service of 15, 000 jobs and opened the door for consultants PwC, KPMG, EY, and Deloitte to feast on government contracts to the tune of billions of dollars. Coalition responsible for consulting crisis, as insider mates shuffle jobs between government and the big 4 consultancy/auditing firms to ensure the flow of business and big bucks. Four Corners has revealed the incestuous relationships in the Department of Defence and KPMG via whistleblowers telling their story about what has been going on. Pigs with snouts in the trough comes to mind as an analogy about what has been occurring. “It has been the Coalition's official benchmark for "responsible management" since 2015; a target that prime ministers Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison also pursued. More than 15,000 government jobs were abolished as a result.” - (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-13/has-federal-budget-2021-ended-coalition-war-on-public-servants/100133980) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pduOqZPnqVc

Dishonest & Dodgy Coalition Governments Dealing Billions To Consultants

The lack of transparency is a major issue and questions have to be asked whether this was a deliberate strategy by the Coalition in government. Outsourcing, what has always been the work of government through the public service, means that these consulting firms are not scrutinised to the level government departments usually are. The Abbott, Turnbull, and Morrison governments moved much of their work of government to these private consulting firms. Public funds normally allocated to the trusted public service were diverted to these private companies. The PwC tax scandal has shown clearly that these firms are not to be trusted with sensitive and confidential government information.

“Former KPMG partner urges royal commission into consulting industry following damning report into PwC scandal” - (https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/jul/06/former-kpmg-partner-urges-royal-commission-into-consulting-industry-following-damning-report-into-pwc-scandal) “PwC Australia has sacked eight partners, including its former CEO Tom Seymour, over their direct involvement in or knowledge of the tax leak scandal which has engulfed the consulting firm.” - (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-07-03/asx-markets-business-live-news-july-3/102553582)

Neoliberal Coalition Oversees Erosion Of Ethics  & Professional Standards

Overcharging and extending contracts is rife in the consulting sector and via these government contracts they have gone to town. Tens of billions of dollars have been siphoned off into the hands of these firms and their insider mates of the Coalition. Scott Morrison has a lot of questions to answer re-Robodebt and PwC was involved in this illegal debacle as well. It is time that these people were brought to justice and prosecuted. The erosion of ethics and professional standards has been overseen by the Coalition in power. Screwing the taxpayer out of money and feathering the nest of private individuals has been happening on a very large scale. “Collins had breached a series of confidentiality agreements made with federal Treasury and the Board of Taxation that gave him access to various consultative forums as a senior partner in the local branch of a global accounting firm. Information obtained during those processes was used to brief local and international tax partners or staff on what the government was doing in specific areas of taxation. It was publicly known that Collins had shared knowledge that he should not have shared, as was the fact that his former firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers (now PwC), was given a disciplinary penalty that required it to tighten up training and procedures.” (https://www.themandarin.com.au/219292-damning-emails-reveal-former-pwc-peter-collins-multiple-breaches/

Liberal Vision Of Australia All About Wealth At Any Cost For The Few These people at the heart of these big 4 consultancy firms have earned millions of dollars. They live in big houses in exclusive suburbs worth millions of dollars, and they drive very smart cars. Insider trading is illegal and yet these accountants have trod an inside track thanks to their Coalition mates in power. A decade of Coalition governments has overseen the massive expansion of private consultants taking over the public service. Liberals screwing the Australian people for their own advantage. Profits and avoiding public scrutiny by Abbott, Turnbull, and Morrison are at the heart of this betrayal of trust. “The previous Coalition government spent $20.8bn outsourcing more than a third of public service operations, an audit has found. The federal government released the findings of the Australian public service audit of employment on Saturday, which examined the hiring practices and associated costs of 112 public service agencies, excluding the CSIRO, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and parliamentary departments. It found the equivalent of nearly 54,000 full-time staff were employed as consultants or service providers for the federal government during the 2021-2022 financial year – the equivalent of 37% of the 144,300-employee public service.” - (Stephanie Convery, The Guardian, 6 May 2023) Conservative voters in Australia are hoodwinked into voting for the Coalition on the basis of socially conservative policies. Meanwhile, we are all shafted via insider trading for their mates and plum government contracts for wealthy friends in the consultancy business. Hundreds of millions of dollars of public funds being siphoned off into the hands of these dubious individuals. Donald Trump and the Republicans have written the modern rule book for this grifting behaviour in government in recent times. Trump is a hero for these conservatives combining billion dollar grift with authoritarian power to keep any dissenting voices in check. Look at the list of questionable activities undertaken during the Abbott, Turnbull, and Morrison governments. - Climate change and global warming – the Coalition has put back Australia at least a couple of decades via their inaction and manipulation of government policies in this space. - Consultancy Crisis/Gutting the Public Service – tens of billions of dollars going into private hands via overcharging, wasteful practices, and neutering public scrutiny and the voice of the public service. - Robodebt – the Robodebt scheme was cooked up by Scott Morrison and was illegal, but put into practice anyway. 500, 000 Australians were wrongly accused of owing large amounts of money to the government. People killed themselves in despair over this! A settled class action has cost taxpayers $1.6 billion so far. A Royal Commission was scathing in its condemnation and recommendations for further prosecution against those administering the scheme. Scott Morrison, of course, denies any wrong doing and responsibility for something he instigated. - Sports Rorts – pork barrelling taken to another level, as Coalition ministers direct spending to swing voter seats in a bid to shore up support for their electoral cause. Australians in Labor seats miss out on investment into their infrastructure because of where they reside and the political bellwether situation. - Uluru Statement from the Heart – 10 years of Coalition government denied this call from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians for a place at the big table. Whenever Liberal/National governments come to power they invariably dismantle and defund Indigenous bodies and programs, which were established by Labor governments to close the gap. Whether it is politics over concern for First Nations’ people or just out and out racism the end result is the same. Is it any wonder that First Nations’ Australians want a Voice to Parliament written into the Constitution. Peter Dutton is leading the No vote against the Voice in the referendum. The Nationals also oppose it. Mean spirited, racist, and, generally, lacking compassion are all ways to describe this behaviour. - Housing Crisis - Where has all the social housing in Australia gone? Neoliberal economic policies have given everything over to the private sector and the profit motive. Needy and vulnerable? Tough luck, you're stuffed in Oz these days. - Corporate Profits Driving Inflation - A concentration of corporate power via takeovers and mergers means that price setting is rife in Australia. Bugger all competition (where and what has the ACCC been up to?) in the banking sector, supermarkets, audit firms, airlines, real estate, mining, energy sector, and everywhere you seek to do business is an oligopoly. Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of Money Matters: Navigating Credit, Debt & Financial Freedom ©WordsForWeb

The real estate business in Australia is a sacred cow. Home ownership is the great Australian dream. The residential property market is the most inflated sector in the nation at around 380% over the last few decades. The RBA does not include real estate prices in its inflation figures. The ABC’s Four Corners program exposed a few of the common practices within the industry, which are contravening consumer protection laws. Real estate in Australia: Sacred Cow enshrined shonky business practices. Collusion between agents representing buyers and sellers is one glaring example of this.

Real estate in Australia: Sacred Cow enshrined shonky business practices.

Four Corners Expose Real Estate Shonks

Buyers and sellers are being manipulated to feather the nests of the agents and their businesses. There is a general rule of thumb in Australia and that is wherever there is a big bunch of money there will be scumbags ripping people off. Real estate agents have never had a good reputation from the outset. Of course, there are exceptions to the rule. Endemic underquoting attracts buyers like flies to a carcass on a hot day. It also pisses people off as they see their hopes and expectations shattered. Something like 90% of real estate agents are doing this according to consumer affairs inspectors.

Useless Toothless Tigers & Fair Trading Inspectors

Did you know that Australia was home to the toothless tiger? This animal lives in every government protection agency. There are streaks of these animals supposedly watching over sectors and keeping them in line. Consumer rights and human rights are big on lip service in Australia but have zilch in the way of any real power. Fair trading is a bad joke in Australia, especially when it comes to real estate transactions. The characters representing the real estate industry in NSW and QLD shown on the Four Corners program were almost Dickensian in their abilities to tell bald faced lies and keep a straight face.

Industries in Australia like to have powerless government agencies watching over them. The sacred cow real estate sector laughs all the way to the bank at the Fair Trading inspectors fluffing about impotently under their feet. A billion dollar industry enshrouded in rampantly inflated property prices, which pumps up the Australian economy on speculation steroids. Did you know that banks create money out of debt? That our commercial banks literally create money out of thin air every time someone borrows a bunch of money? A hyperinflated property sector inflates our economy with non-GDP generated liquidity. The big four Australian banks are right up there with the biggest banks in the world on the back of a wildly inflated domestic property market. Australia doesn’t make anything, our manufacturing sector has been shrinking for decades. A few multinational mining companies dig up millions of tonnes of rocks for export to China. The rest of the economy is based on massively inflated property changing hands. The sacred cow called real estate runs amok in every capital city across the land.