Will the Turnbull Government finally move against Abbott's boy?

It has been over-long in coming and, probably wouldn’t be contemplated now by the political mates' club if this wasn’t a federal election year, but it finally looks as though another Tony Abbott appointee is about to leave the stage.

The Australian, 26 February 2016:

Fair Work Commission vice-president Michael Lawler could face unprecedented action to ­remove him from office within weeks after taking almost a year of sick leave on full pay of $435,000 a year.

Employment Minister Michaelia Cash said yesterday that she had received an independent report on February 15 into a complaint against Mr Lawler.

The report, written by barrister and former Federal Court judge Peter Heerey followed a four-month investigation.

The report deadline was ­extended by two months after Mr Lawler notified Mr Heerey in December that he needed more time to respond as he was ill.

Mr Lawler is on leave again from Fair Work.

Senator Cash said she had sent Mr Heerey’s report to Mr Lawler, with a deadline of next Friday for him to make any ­response to the final report.

The report includes recommendations on whether Mr Lawler should be removed from his position by a vote of both houses of parliament.

“I am carefully considering the report and its potential implications,” Senator Cash said.

“Before I provide further ­details to the parliament, I ­believe that, in the interests of procedural fairness, it is appropriate that I first afford vice-president Lawler an opportunity to consider the report and ­respond.”

The Heerey inquiry followed months of revelations by The Australian of Mr Lawler’s extensive sick leave and the overlap of his sick leave with his work on a legal case against his partner Kathy Jackson, the former ­national secretary of the Health Services Union.

Ms Jackson was found last year by the Federal Court to have rorted more than $1.4 million from members’ funds and ordered to repay this sum, along with another $1m in interest and court costs.

During the case against Ms Jackson, Mr Lawler on one ­occasion absented himself from work on sick leave to appear as her advocate in court. During the latter stages of the case, he moved to transfer Ms Jackson’s property into his own name before HSU attempts to freeze her assets.

The Australian Bar Association waded into the controversy last July, urging that the matter be resolved by parliament. This followed the then prime minister Tony Abbott’s claim that Mr Lawler’s large amount of sick leave was a matter for Fair Work president Iain Ross. Mr Lawler was originally appointed to the commission by Mr Abbott……

UPDATE

The Australian, 4 March 2016:

Besieged Fair Work vice-president Michael Lawler has resigned from his $435,000-a-year position in an unprecedented finale to more than a year of controversy over his extended paid sick leave.

One of Australia’s most senior members of the quasi-judicial ­industrial tribunal, with all the status and perks of a Federal Court judge, Mr Lawler has taken almost a year of sick leave while regularly assisting his partner, disgraced unionist Kathy Jackson, to fight allegations of theft.

Under the statute, Mr Lawler, 55, is not entitled to a pension ­because he has resigned before reaching the age of 60. Therefore the matter of any pension will fall under the remit of Finance Minister Mathias Cormann.

Should Mr Lawler be able to press the government into paying his statutory pension, he would be resigning with a windfall of 60 per cent of a Federal Court judge’s ­salary, close to $250,000 a year ­indexed for life.

Mr Lawler’s resignation comes at the end of a tumultuous week that has included him providing surety for a former soldier on charges of threatening a woman, and the death of another man at the home Mr Lawler shares with Ms Jackson, who last year was found to have rorted $1.4 million in union funds and still faces a criminal investigation…..

Australian Federal Election 2016: thought for the day

Turnbull’s belief that removing negative gearing will “smash the residential housing market” is one echoed with glee by the treasurer, Scott Morrision.

Both base their argument on the belief that removing negative gearing for established residences will mean – in Turnbull’s words – taking out “all of the investors. So there will only be home buyers, people who are buying it as a residence”.

As a consequence Turnbull and Morrison argue that house prices will fall.

It’s a pretty silly argument that doesn’t hold up under close examination. Even worse, it also suggests a pretty dismal assessment of the state of Australia’s housing market.

Are we to assume that the prime minister and the treasurer believe the value of Australian homes is reliant only on the ability of investors to use the system to avoid paying tax?

If so, that’s a pretty scary thought. It suggests that not only do the two top people in our government think the Australian housing market is some sort of tax-driven Ponzi scheme, but that they also want to make sure it stays that way. 

[Greg Jericho writing in The Guardian, 22 February 2016]

Australian Federal Election 2016: play up, play up and play the game.......

And this particular game is Help Yourselves & Help Your Mates before even thinking of the unpaid workers:

An ambitious sports media venture backed by an elite of Australian politics, corporate and sport figures, including Liberal heavyweights Malcolm Turnbull and Nick Greiner, has collapsed and faces wind-up action by disgruntled former employees.

The brainchild of entrepreneurs, Melbourne-based advertising executive George Tomeski and Sydney's Luke Bunbury, PlayUp was spruiked in Australia and internationally as a world first in mobile-based, sport-focused, social media.

It attracted tens of millions from a star-studded band of investors including Malcolm and Lucy Turnbull and son Alex, former Telstra chairman Bob Mansfield, pub and pokie king Bruce Mathieson and ex-test cricketers Adam Gilchrist and Steve Waugh.

Founded in 2006 as a possible online gambling app, PlayUp appeared to be in serious trouble by 2014 after burning through $75 million raised from investors between 2007 and 2011, including from BRW Rich listers Allan Myers, QC, John Higgins and funds manager David Paradice.

Documents lodged with the Victorian Supreme Court reveal that six former employees are seeking to wind up Revo, claiming they're owed $500,000 in unpaid wages and superannuation.

One of the company's shareholders, Ben Smith has joined the action, claiming $100,000 in the name of his personal superannuation fund.

The legal stoush is likely to resurrect questions about the company's finances and what, exactly, PlayUp offered to lure such a glitterati of backers.

[http://www.smh.com.au/national/turnbullbacked-sports-venture-faces-wind-up-20160116-gm7amv.html]

Sources said Alex Turnbull negotiated a secured debt status with PlayUp management in 2014, when former NSW premier Nick Greiner was chairman. Mr Turnbull is understood to be poised to strike a deal this week to sell his debt on to another party, in a transaction that will see him lose money on his original investment.

But the Turnbull family has still extracted more money from their investment than just about all of the high-profile shareholders in PlayUp.

Malcolm Turnbull was a PlayUp shareholder, buying $1 million worth of shares in PlayUp shareholder Revo Nominees in mid-2012. But in August 2013, he sold his stake after it was revealed in a Fairfax Media story that questioned whether his shares in a media company might be a conflict of interest given his role as communications minister.

Company records examined by Fairfax Media show Revo Nominees paid $921,478 when Turnbull & Co shares were transferred back to the shareholder vehicle in November 2013. At least a chunk of that is understood to have gone to the Turnbulls.

[http://www.afr.com/business/sport/malcolm-turnbulls-son-a-secured-creditor-of-failed-100m-tech-firm-playup-20160211-gmreai#ixzz413kTCK3E] 

Is Rupert Murdoch about to gobble up ten Queensland and two NSW regional daily newspapers?

It probably comes as no surprise to readers of APN News & Media’s The Daily Examiner and Coastal Views that newspapers in the Northern Rivers are battling and, Rupert Murdoch may be poised to swallow whole  APN’s print stable Australian Regional Media.

This print stable includes 12 daily newspapers and 70 community & specialist titles.

If News Corp does purchase ARM that would leave only three Northern Rivers newspapers, including the Clarence Valley Independent not in Murdoch’s control.

Echo NetDaily, 26 February 2016:

The owner of The Northern Star and other local newspapers including Byron Shire News, Tweed Daily News, Lismore Echo and Ballina Advocate has put them on the market, saying they are dragging the company down.

They join more than 100 regional newspapers and websites in Queensland and northern NSW that are are up for sale as their owner says it no longer wants to pour money into them.

APN News & Media says it is in talks about the divestment of its Australian Regional Media (ARM) business, which reaches an audience of more than 1.5 million between Mackay and Coffs Harbour.

ARM’s earnings dropped 27 per cent in calendar 2015, despite millions in cost cuts and growth in digital subscriptions beginning to replace the declining newspaper audience.

‘Further investment in this business is now inconsistent with APN’s long term ambitions and we have commenced the process to divest the business,’ APN chief executive Ciaran Davis said.

According to industry publication TheNewspaperWorks APN was asked after its results presentation, whether News Corp Australia was the only potential purchaser of the mastheads and how APN would ensure it was not disadvantaged in the sales process by News’ investment in the company. (News holds a 15 per cent strategic stake in APN.)

‘In response APN said it was talking to a number of parties, and it was too early for a price guide,’ TheNewspaperWorks reported.

Byron Shire Echo and Echonetdaily general manager Simon Haslam said, ‘This just reinforces the point that Rupert Murdoch is calling the shots at APN.’

Mr Haslam added, ‘On behalf of The Echo, I’m happy to offer to run free classifieds for APN to help them in their search for an alternative purchaser, so Byron shire is not further exposed to News Ltd, as Murdoch’s ownership increases to 100 per cent of the Byron News and Northern Star.’…..

Two Malcolms that the Liberal-Nationals Coalition not so secretly despise

The then Leader of the Opposition and MP for Wannon John Malcolm Fraser resoundingly won government for the Liberal-Nationals Coalition in 1975 and became the twenty-second Prime Minister of Australia.

At the time the general public considered him little more than a haughty silvertail and, by the time he retired from politics in 1983 even he was aware that his party considered his time in office as a wasted opportunity.

Thirty-three years later and the same Liberal Party supplied another perceived silvertail, MP for Wentworth Malcolm Bligh Turnbull, as Australia’s twenty-ninth prime minister.

This time the Liberal-Nationals Coalition desperately want their second Malcolm to waste the opportunity to drive new policy and instead urge him to pursue the far-right ideological agenda of his predecessor in office, Tony Abbott.

That Malcolm Mark Two is as equally despised as Malcolm Mark One can be inferred by this gif which is doing the rounds at the moment on the NSW North Coast………

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