LL:DDV: Environmentally sustainable investment seminar
Earthworker seminar Where is your superannuation scheme investing your money? If you think this matters, come to the Earthworker seminar between 4 - 6 pm on Thursday, 11 November, Old Ballroom, Victorian Trades Hall, Lygon Street Carlton. Earthworker is the union-green caucus auspiced by the Victorian Trades Hall Council. The seminar is about ethical investment, with the focus on how to achieve environmentally sustainable investment. Speakers will be: Ann Byrne, National Manager, Superannuation Trustee of Australia (STA) Erik Mather, Portfolio Manager, Westpac Investment Management Michael Pitcher, Environmental Systems Co-ordinator, Schiavello Commercial Interiors. Entry: $5 ($3 concession, including Earthworker members) If you are a superannuation contributor, or a Trustee, come along and join the debate. For more details contact Earthworker on 9639 7688, or Jan Lacey on 9254 1930. Membership of Earthworker is open to organisations and individuals. Individual membership is just $20. Jan Lacey Jan Lacey Information and Welfare Officer National Tertiary Education Union PO Box 1324 South Melbourne, 3205 Telephone: 03 9254 1930 Fax: 03 9254 1935 LL.VJ -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:DDV: Invitation to VTSAN Office Opening
Dear Friend, We would like to invite you to the opening of our new office at the Victorian Trades Hall Level 2, New Building 54 Victoria St Carlton South, 3053 FRIDAY OCTOBER 8, 4PM Drinks at the Trades Hall bar afterwards. The Office will officially be opened by Leigh Hubbard, Secretary, Victorian Trades Hall Council. The Victorian TAFE students and Apprentices Network is the representative body of 10 TAFE student organisations, covering some 300, 000 students. VTSAN has in the past worked on issues affecting students and apprentices, with some trade union involvement. Our move to the Victorian Trades Hall Council signifies an important landmark in our history, as we hope to continue building alliances between the labour and student movements. We would greatly appreciate your attendance. RSVP 9639 6442 Yours in Solidarity Antony J McMullen VTSAN Chairperson LL.VJ -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:DDV: Grasslands launch Thursday 7 October
You are invited to the launch of Grasslands: Thursday 7 October at 7pm 205 Nicholson St Footscray ph: 9362 0830 * Larry Walsh is speaking about Koori history in the West * Comedian Matt Dean * Much More . . . Grasslands Grocery is a non profit enterprise which funds innovative social projects through the sale of organic food and other ecologically and socially sound projects. The Grasslands Infoshop combines a library and bookshop with free info, net access, meeting space and regular events which promote social justice and social change. LL.VJ -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
Support the East Timorese refugees
From: University Students for East Timor Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.uset.org.au Edited summary. The East Timorese refugees need our support. There are over 150,000 East Timorese in concentration camps in West Timor. It is crucial that we demand their safe return. The creation of a war crimes tribunal is also needed. Rally: Sunday 3 October, 2 pm GPO, corner Bourke and Elizabeth Streets, Melbourne March to Parliament House and to the Department of Foreign Affairs at Casseldon Place, Melbourne The East timorese refugees at Pukapunyal still need clothing. Donations can be dropped off at: Freetimor Campaign Office Trades Hall, corner Lygon and Victoria Streets, Carlton South. The Freetimor Office still needs people to help and can be contacted on 03 9639 7688 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: www.freetimor.com *** Australia Asia Worker Links PO Box 264 Fitzroy Victoria 3065 Australia Tel: 03 9419 5045 Fax: 03 9416 2746 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] LL.VJ -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:ART: TAX THE RICH
TAX THE RICH The following article was published in "The Guardian", newspaper of the Communist Party of Australia in its issue of Wednesday, September 29th, 1999. Contact address: 65 Campbell Street, Surry Hills. Sydney. 2010 Australia. Phone: (612) 9212 6855 Fax: (612) 9281 5795. Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Webpage: http://www.zipworld.com.au/~cpa Subscription rates on request. ** Designed by big business for big business, the purpose of the Federal Government's tax package is to reduce the amount of taxes paid by the rich and the big corporations and shift the burden onto workers. Treasurer Peter Costello plans to slash the taxation of company profits and halve the rate of capital gains tax rate for high flying speculators. There is absolutely nothing in the package for workers, many of whom would end up paying a higher rate in the dollar than multi-millionaires. As for all the talk about closing tax loopholes, most of these measures have been deferred, while the rich are being offered new loopholes for tax evasion. The Ralph "business tax package", announced by Treasurer Peter Costello last week, is based on the outcomes of a long consultation with business by John Ralph and two other business leaders. (John Ralph is on the boards of BHP, Telstra and the Commonwealth Bank.) The tax on company profits will be reduced from 36 percent to 30 percent over the next two years. This amounts to a reduction of almost 17 percent in the tax paid by companies - for those who actually pay tax on their profits. There are two important changes to capital gains tax. (Capital gains tax is a tax on the increase in the value of assets held by an individual or company. At present it is only paid when an asset is sold). 1) The 48.5 percent capital gains tax will be halved to 24.25 percent for individuals. 2) At the same time, the present system of adjusting the increase in value of an asset to take inflation into consideration (indexation) will be abolished. The net outcome is that those who hold their investments for longer, such as the "mums and dads" who bought Telstra or the Commonwealth Bank shares, or workers with shares in their employer's company, are likely to be worse off - particularly if inflation rises. The big winners will be the financial institutions and high flying speculators with rapid turnovers of their investments. (See below for details of how this would operate.) Basically it halves the tax rate on purely speculative, unearned income, while workers go on paying rates of 30, 42 or even 47 cents in the dollar on their hard earned wages. The capital gains tax changes are a gift for the rich, as are the corporate tax cuts. At present half of all capital gains tax is paid by the 1.6 percent at the top of the income scale of taxpayers. The likes of Kerry Packer, who pay little income tax on their billions, will at most pay 24.25 percent on the gain in value of assets (companies, paintings, etc) as they sell them off compared with marginal rates of 30 percent or more paid by workers. The package throws out a few crumbs to small business, and purports to make their book keeping simpler. But none of this in any way compensates for the heavy burden and costs imposed on small businesses by the GST. Workers to fund cuts As for the funding of these business tax cuts, the Government talks of closing tax loopholes and using the cuts as an excuse to continue the criminal sell-off of public assets. The fact is it has no intention of closing all of the loopholes - this question has basically been deferred. In other words this business package is not "revenue neutral" as the Government claims; the business tax cuts will be funded by the working people who will end up paying for them through budget cuts to spending on education, health, social security and other essential services. Further down the track there will be moves to increase the 10 per cent GST and to remove some of the GST exemptions on food and health products. Although the "business tax package" has been presented as a stand-alone "reform", it is an integral part of a larger program, of which the GST and the large reduction in personal income tax for high income earners are integral components. More business tax cuts will follow. The longer-term objective is to remove all taxes on income and rely on a consumption tax like the GST, paid by people. The Government hopes to attract investment by foreign transnational corporations by making the Australian tax regime a low tax haven for them. The proposed 30 percent corporate tax brings us into line with Singapore, Germany and the UK; it makes Australia more competitive than the US and Japan on 42 percent; it still has some way to go to match Hong Kong on 16 percent. Eventually the Government (and its big business patrons) would like to see Australia become a tax-free haven for big business. The Government has
LL:ART: ASIO AND YOU
ASIO and you The following article was published in "The Guardian", newspaper of the Communist Party of Australia in its issue of Wednesday, September 29th, 1999. Contact address: 65 Campbell Street, Surry Hills. Sydney. 2010 Australia. Phone: (612) 9212 6855 Fax: (612) 9281 5795. Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Webpage: http://www.zipworld.com.au/~cpa Subscription rates on request. ** So you thought that the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation was sneaky, invasive, contemptuous of civil liberties and riddled with right-wingers eager to carry out the wishes of the most reactionary government? Wait till you see the new version! Legislation currently before Federal parliament would see the existing powers of ASIO greatly expanded, with a particular emphasis on the use of computer technology. ASIO is currently exempt from many of the requirements of other government organisations. For example, decisions currently made by the Minister responsible for ASIO, including a decision to issue a warrant for search or surveillance, are not subject to judicial review. ASIO documents, and those originating in ASIO, cannot be obtained under Freedom of Information legislation. The Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission cannot investigate complaints against ASIO concerning violations of human rights, and ASIO is exempt from the provisions of the Privacy Act 1988(2). Under Australian law it is doubtful whether a court case could be successfully mounted to determine whether ASIO had complied with the legal or constitutional law in a particular case, and the organisation has little accountability other than to the government of the day. So does the new legislation correct these defects? Not on your life! The proponents of the new ASIO Bill claim that the amended legislation is necessary in order to curb white-collar crime and terrorism. However, the legislation continues to give ASIO the potential to invade the homes of individuals and also the offices and operations of any organisation out of favour with the government of the day - including trade unions, peace groups, political parties, churches and community organisations. It would extend the current provisions for breaking into homes or offices and tapping phones. It would allow intelligence personnel to hack into computer systems, not only to gain information but to actually change the information held in the system. Under the proposed legislation any encryption code used to maintain privacy could legally be broken by ASIO, which would also be empowered to place tracking devices on people and cars. And ASIO would gain all of these new powers with even fewer constraints on it than currently exist. There has been some speculation that the amended law is necessary in order to deal with the potential problems of terrorist activities during the Olympic games. However, the Director General of ASIO recently told the parliamentary committee dealing with the amendments that security checking for the Olympics "doesn't involve ASIO in a new area of activity, it just means that we have more work to do in a compressed period of time". Although part of the new legislation dealing with communication between State and Federal authorities would take effect before the Games, and would terminate the following December, the Government has denied that the legislation as a whole is intended specifically for the Games. So most of it is intended as a permanent measure, not as a temporary expedient. Encryption: you can't keep a secret, can you? One of the most controversial areas of the new legislation concerns the use of encryption technology by computer users to forestall unauthorised access to such information. The 1996 Walsh report on encryption, prepared by a former deputy Director-general of ASIO, recommended that ASIO should have the authority to gain "real time access to the voice and data communications of their subjects of investigation". This would require the cracking of encryption codes. These codes allow a computer user to maintain privacy about the information on their system, and of course can be used for good or ill. The report recommended that there should be full public discussion on encryption, and on the report itself. However, the Government subsequently refused to release it. Although the report appears to recognise that encryption technology is developing fast, and that major legislation at this time would probably be premature, the Government has now incorporated clauses dealing with the control of encryption in the legislation. The amendments allow ASIO to access data relevant to security, print copies and remove them from the premises, make copies and alter, add or delete data. This may be done either by entering the premises or by using electronic means (``remote access'') to a target's computer. Although a section of the legislation purports to protect
