Constant, never ending, differing, complex moral panics keeps us from concentrating on our plainest, simplest & worst problems.

1st, EVERYTHING is too complicated & the system isn't working anymore. Name a problem, any problem. It's happening because we have the worst politicians & public servants in world history.

2nd, This problem is simple...

Multiculturalism + Mass Immigration = Inflation = Wage Theft. It's that simple.

The high cost of living = Demand for higher wages = Demand for imported cheap Labour = Higher cost of Living = Demand for higher wages.

But we can't reduce immigration because GDP might go down. Welcome to clownworld, embrace the crazy.

Of course it's not theft: you can't take something off people if they don't have it. The misuse of the word 'theft' is just another example of Marxist manipulation - the changing of the meaning of language - to fool people.

As for "without interference by the government". Yes; but also without interference by unions, which most workers these days don't belong to. Workers are no longer interested in fattening up union officials for later roles as Labor politicians.

All prices, including wages, are far too high in Australia.

This is the best article I've read on this site for quite awhile.

While I wouldn't say that flagrant deliberate wage theft doesn't exist, the majority of it is accounting mistakes and/or oversite errors caused by the complexity of the system.

As the article says we need sweeping change in our IR system (and I would say also our income tax system).

A very common thread of the world's wealthy countries is NO MIMINUM WAGE AT THE COUNTRY LEVEL. For example many European countries and the other wealthy ones (like Norway, Sweden -yes that's right those "socialist" countries*, Lichtenstein, Germany till recently, and others). Typically in these countries the national government steps well back from setting wages and leaves it to the employers/employees and their unions to come to their own agreements. However, once these agreements are finalized then they have the backing of the law to enforce them.

*By-the-way: Norway and Sweden are definitely NOT socialist when it comes to business. For business they are very capitalist and market driven. The USA is has vastly more Government handouts and prop-ups for businesses than these two (with the big exception that Norway has a state owned monopoly on its oil resources and its extraction). However, when it comes to their populations then they do have "socialist" policies such as free education, health care, etc. To give an example of how money driven these countries are- I was in Norway last year and it cost me the equivalent of $1.40AUD for a piddle at a toilet in Oslo (in Eurpoe it is common to pay to use toilets but normally it doesn't cost anyway near $1.40)

NOTHING HAS BEEN STOLEN! You mean if something is merely withheld? It's different from actual theft!?

David, you need to try talking from a little higher up and that's putting it politely!

It's complex etc, is used as a woeful excuse. If the rogue employer/thief can't cope with the alleged complexity, David. They only need to ring the union and they will get all the assistance they need! No question! Stealing from one's employees! Ought to incur a jail time penalty!

Simply put, there is no REAL excuse for withholding/stealing the employe's money. Which apparently included, withholding the employee's super and treating it as operating capital?

I have absolutely no sympathy for this practice/thievery! By rogue employers and the patent theft, they've engaged in!?

Nor the shipload of completely blown and bogus excuses for this stealing from folk with a lot less than the thief! And has over time been literal billions!?

If somebody went t jail this practice would cease overnight!

We chase and persecute those who have allegedly received an alleged overpayment from the social security system and hound them to hell and back for receiving a few dollars over their entitlement?

With some rogue recipients, doing jail time for knowingly cheating the system?

And if it's good enough for them, then so also the rogue employer hiding crime behind alleged ignorance to steal from obviously underpaid employees!

Time to reestablish the small claims court and allow that to seize the employer's money directly from their bank account? Or failing that, from the forced sale of assets?

If the amount stolen, is equivalent to what would result in jail time for an employee helping themself from the till?


Then the same standard of alleged justice outcome ought to apply!
Alan B.

Off-topic and since it has already risen. Sorry!

The cleanest most Hygenic public toilets are ones we have to pay to use. Many places observe this practice, which is often all the wages the cleaner of these facilities receives! So, the cleaner and more inviting the greater the user clientele?

And the comparison between us and socialist countries, which ought to include Singapore, is informative!

And gives lie to the claim, that our form of alleged capitalism,i.e., price gouging, tax-avoiding, profit repatriating, debt-laden, foreign monolithic monopolies. (with pollies/public servants in their pockets?)
Alan B.

What an incoherent, illogical, far right piece of tosh this is.

How was this for a conclusion;

"When it comes to wage theft, the absurdity is that the real thief is the government with its excessive taxes. Joining the other villains in jail is just what it deserves."

Our largest companies are not paying any tax, money which would have gone into our hospitals and schools.

The type of society the author advocates for is one of hyper-capitalism and the inequities and imprisonment rates in the world's foremost example the US are staggering. They should not be something any true Australian would want for this country.

SR "Our largest companies are not paying any tax, money which would have gone into our hospitals and schools."

SR, name the companies that are paying no tax.

If "our largest companies" are paying no tax, where does the federal government get the money to squander on slow NBNs, antique submarines, handouts to refugees and the global warming scam, for example?

One should also note that health and education are state responsibilities under the constitution. There is absolutely no reason to think that taxes paid to the federal government by large companies would definitely go to hospitals and schools. That's just posturing.

theft is our Government giving the renewables fraudsters a billion dollars.

Dear Calwest,

No I am not going to list all the companies pay zero or next to nothing in tax but examples would be Toll not pay a cent on billions of income, or Foxtel paying $4.5 million on 2 billion of income. Origin Energy and Alcoa, not a cent.

And yes the Libs did stuff up the NBN. Spending on refugees is entirely appropriate for a rich country like ours.

As to the rest mate go do some learning. The Feds spent $18 billion on public hospitals last year and while contribute more toward non-government schools than to government ones the funding is still substantial.

As to global warming it is not a scam rather it is backed up by robust science and substantive peer reviewed research. We owe it to our future generations not to burden them with the task of fixing our mess.

It is terrible, the state sticks its dirty claws everywhere and won't let us live in peace.

But what can we do? There is no escape, they are mighty and as human dust we are helpless; and these things happen not only in Australia, but practically all over this planet where we happen currently park our bodies - it is the characteristic of this dark age that we live in.

All we can do then is to pray: God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. Soon enough we will be with God again anyway!

Well we know the current Federal Government, and unfortunately the ALP Government before it, represent the Big End of Town (ie. Banks and other Big Employers). Those who give politicians "campaign money" sometimes ending up in personal pockets and give politicians well paid jobs after retirement.

The rapid decline of the ACTU (that in the old days could have launched nationwide Strikes Against Wage Theft) is but a pitiful, discredited, shadow of its 1970s former glory.

So what is to be done?

The Turnbull, then Morrison, Government was dragged, kicking and screaming, to setup a the Banking Royal Commission, which brought in some useful reforms. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Commission_into_Misconduct_in_the_Banking,_Superannuation_and_Financial_Services_Industry

Time for a Wage Theft Royal Commission?

SR, I repeat: the federal government has no constitutional responsibility for health or education. The fact that federal governments of both persuasions have allocated large amounts of taxpayers' money to those portfolios says more about politics than the formal requirements of law.

In the case of education, with billions upon billions of dollars spent since the large increases of the Whitlam government in the 1970s, the continuously declining performances of most students suggests that a lot of that money has been syphoned off into teachers' pockets - either through higher salaries or lower class sizes.

And, no, we don't have to spend the unspecified amounts you imply to take in "refugees" at a time when taxpayers are struggling to survive because of higher charges at all three levels of government and with little or no improvement in infrastructure.

The idiot government of Daniel Andrews, for example, thinks its fine to build NO dams while the state's population continues to increase.