Thread by @Richard_D_Boyle

PHELPS' SUPER POLICY A POINTER TO SCOTT MORRISON (Including commentary on ATO)

~ By Robert Gottliebsen
10:45AM Oct 22, 2018

"The Coalition is confirming ATO is abusing small business. Why would you recognise ATO abuses & on the other give that ATO draconian new powers?"

#ATORoyalCommission
#SplitTheAustralianTaxOffice
Growing #ATOCorruption

@LesStonehouse @SerkanTheWriter @Info_Aus @OZloop @ReinventionFail @NarelleFord @Nartster @fuwap15 @LennaLeprena @DeepPolitics @LaLegale @Petitioner007 @ProfesseurFreud @LindaDHoward @ici_cam @GregLBean

1. PHELPS' SUPER POLICY A POINTER TO SCOTT MORRISON
(Including commentary on ATO)

~ By Robert Gottliebsen
10:45AM Oct 22, 2018

"Let me offer hope for embattled Coalition leaders Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg.

It was just over 24 hours before polling opened for..."

2. #Auspol #ATO

"...the Wentworth byelection and Kerryn Phelps AM had already proved herself a first class independent candidate.

Phelps had discovered that voters in Wentworth were concerned by issues other than Malcolm Turnbull and she probably suspected..."

3. #Auspol #ATO

"...the postal votes that had been already cast were going against her.

There were two hidden Wentworth issues---one white hot, the other red-hot but complex. She chose the white-hot issue in a last-minute attempt to win."

4. #Auspol #ATO

"And so on the eve of the poll Phelps announced a policy that sent many of those Wentworth voters (both Coalition and ALP) who managed to catch up on her new stance racing to vote for her."

5. #Auspol #ATO

"Phelps declared on the Friday: 'I will encourage stable superannuation rules for at least five years to generate investment certainty and confidence'.

It was no surprise that the Saturday poll booth votes gave her more support than the earlier postal votes."

6. #Auspol #ATO

"Ironically, both Frydenberg and I helped in alerting Phelps to what was required to attract more Wentworth voters.

Phelps was not really attacking the Coalition but rather the disastrous policy of the ALP to remove the franking credit entitlements..."

7. #Auspol #ATO

"...of 1.4 million ordinary Australians battling to fund their retirement.

Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen says he will raise $55 billion over 10 years, mostly from rich retirees.
Phelps knows plenty of rich Wentworth retirees..."

8. #Auspol #ATO

"...and to a person they are laughing. They won’t lose a cent.

But the battlers can’t sleep because they are either being herded into industry funds or onto the government pension. For Australians around our land who are in, or approaching, retirement..."

9. #Auspol #ATO

"... (or who are in families where parents and grandparents are afraid) the words 'five years stability' is what the nation wants to hear.

Not surprisingly the ALP also lost heavily in the Wentworth by-election."

10. #Auspol #ATO

"In the weeks leading up to the by-election I wrote:

'While clearly the answer is “no”, he has turned his back on one of the greatest opportunities ever presented to a prime minister in a by-election.'

'As things now stand Bill Shorten is set...' "

11. #Auspol #ATO

" '...to win the 2019 election in a canter but he and his shadow treasurer Chris Bowen have made a serious mistake. Unbelievably, Morrison is letting them off the hook.'

After my commentary, on the Thursday before the poll, Frydenberg wrote..."

12. #Auspol #ATO

"...an excellent commentary in The Australian, pointing out the devastation being caused to the Australian retirement community by the Bowen mistake.

He isolated that at least 8000 people in Wentworth would be affected -- 8 per cent of the electorate."

13. #Auspol #ATO

"But he did not take that vital step of offering five years of no major change to superannuation, which is what the nation and the voters of Wentworth were crying out for.

Phelps saw the chance and acted.

The good news for Australia is that although..."

14. #Auspol #ATO

"...Morrison and Frydenberg are spending too much time dealing with party divisions and the demands of the Canberra media pack, Frydenberg is on top of this issue.

The ALP simply made a mistake in the franking credits policy --a mistake which was uncovered..."

15. #Auspol #ATO

"...by the detailed research on 2014-15 tax returns conducted by the SMSF Association and its chairman Deborah Ralston, as I set out in The Weekend Australian of September 29.

Morrison and Frydenberg need to endorse the Phelps policy..."

16. #Auspol #ATO

"...on superannuation as soon as possible.

It does not deliver them victory in the 2019 election but unless the ALP admits its error that election will be much closer than anyone currently predicts because the 1.4 million people whose entitlements..."

17. #Auspol #ATO

"...are being removed translate into about three million voters.

But the government is still vulnerable to the 'red hot' issue that Phelps decided to leave alone."

18. #Auspol #ATO

(And now for the commentary on the Australian Taxation Office... @ato_gov_au @OZloop)

#ATORoyalCommission
#SplitTheAustralianTaxOffice
Growing #ATOCorruption...

19. #Auspol #ATO

"Both political parties have now officially recognised that the Australian Taxation Office has been unfairly abusing small and medium-sized business. The judiciary has declared that the abuses stem from the fact that too many ATO officers..."

20. #Auspol #ATO

"...in the middle ranks believe that small entrepreneurs are crooks so deserved to be abused.

The ALP has responded to the abuse with a policy that will create a second commissioner to deal with small business tax appeals. It will work for a few years..."

21. #Auspol #ATO

"...but the bad culture in the ATO means that it is a temporary fix.

To its credit the Coalition also responded with a binding promise that it would establish an independent body to stop the ATO abuse of small business."

22. #Auspol #ATO

"But then the internal Coalition chaos took over and there was silence. At this stage the ALP is firmly the party of small business, but once again the opportunity is there for Morrison and Frydenberg to honour the Coalition promise..."

23. #Auspol #ATO

"...and set up a truly independent small business tax appeal body responsible to the attorney-general’s department and, even better, make all tax prosecutions stem from the attorney-general’s department.

But the chaos in the Coalition runs deep."

24. #Auspol #ATO

"While the Coalition is confirming that the ATO is abusing small business another arm has prepared draft legislation that requires all directors to be registered. That’s perfectly OK but the draft legislation has given the..."

25. #Auspol #ATO

"... small business-abusing ATO power to administer and decide who can be directors. They will rub out directors in the same indiscriminate way they have been preventing legitimate businesses operate by removing their ABN numbers."

26. #Auspol #ATO

"So, under this draft legislation, directors can be removed and no doubt many in the ATO will conclude that all directors are crooks – the same as small business.

Words fail me. Why on the one hand would you recognise ATO abuses..."

27. #Auspol #ATO

"...and on the other give that ATO draconian new powers? The register should be run by ASIC.

The Coalition needs a time in opposition to work out what it stands for."

28. #Auspol #ATO

"But if Chris Bowen does not admit error and the Coalition stops the ATO small business abuse then it’s conceivable that the Coalition will stay in power. (That’s not a prediction)." ◾️

29. #Auspol #ATO

ROBERT GOTTLIEBSEN, BUSINESS COLUMNIST MELBOURNE
Robert Gottliebsen has spent more than 50 years writing and commentating about business and investment in Australia. He has won the Walkley award and Australian Journalist of the Year award. He has a place in...

30. #Auspol #ATO

...in the Australian Media Hall of Fame and in 2018 was awarded a Lifetime achievement award by the Melbourne Press Club. He received an order of Australia Medal in 2018 for services to journalism and educational governance. He is a regular commentator for 🇦🇺

Thanks for your interest in this story of injustice & abuse @Caroleina2. To ensure justice for thousands of taxpayers & small businesses affected by #ATOAbuse an important #Petition has been created. Any assistance promoting would be greatly appreciated.

https://www.twitter.com/richard_d_boyle/status/1054944526991810564?s=21