Internal BP documents discovered in the Deepwater Horizon case in the US indicate CSIRO’s science was manipulated by the oil company
Lawyers from The Downs Law Group, a Miami (US) based law firm, have sent a letter to the CEO of the CSIRO alleging that global oil giant BP has had a significant influence over the organisation’s research.
The Downs Law Group is a personal injury law firm that works on a ‘no-win, no-fee’ basis. They are currently representing numerous response workers and Gulf Coast residents who were affected by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and have filed lawsuits alleging personal injury and medical claims against BP.
In a letter, sent to newly appointed CSIRO CEO Doug Hilton yesterday, the group alleged that BP engaged in a campaign of misinformation,
to promote the false premise in the scientific literature that the [Deepwater Horizon oil spill] and BP’s response were less harmful to people and the environment than independent science provides,
according to Jason Clark, an associate attorney at The Downs Law Group.
These studies all involved the environmental impacts of the Deepwater Horizon disaster that killed 11 crewmen and spilled over 700 million litres of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.
The Qantas Code of Conduct and Ethics is perhaps the most ignored and hypocritical document in corporate Australia. Michael Sainsbury checks out the myriad breaches.
This brutal reaction from O’Neill and company says everything about Woodside and its place in Australian society. It advertises itself as “a global energy company, founded in Australia with a spirit of innovation and determination.” And, just in case you forget, the company provides “energy the world needs to heat and cool homes, keep lights on and enable industry.” To that, can be added another jotting: it will seek to prevent, and even criminalise free speech and protest on the environment if permitted. The legal authorities in Western Australia, at least pending appeal, agree.
For the last year, media pundits have insisted that today’s inflation has nothing to do with corporate profiteering, much to the delight of the capitalist class. It is more than clear now that they were wrong.
More and more Australians are facing crippling poverty while many corporations continue to rake in the money while still claiming government handouts like JobKeeper, writes managing editor Michelle Pini.
When the senior executives of California’s private for-profit power utility PG&E made the very intentional decision to move cash into their own pockets through bonuses and dividends instead of making their power lines resilient enough to withstand severe winds, they also made the decision to let people die.
Removing obscene profits for executives and shareholders as the driving force of corporations would be a start. A fairer division of the spoils is necessary to keep society functioning. This might need to be achieved by higher taxes on the top tier since they don’t seem to understand the crisis their never-sated greed has created.
Dan Andrews wants a State-run SEC to compete with private corporate gougers. Matthew Guy doesn’t his donors are the gougers and don’t want State control. Australians want an Australian ABC the LNP don’t their donors don’t want to be questioned, examined or held to account.
We can do this exercise with Health, Education, Jobs, Housing and welfare the LNP says privatisation is best for everyone. Well, we have had decades to see it doesn’t work. Decades to see that Dan Andrews made Victoria the best state in the country. Far better than when Matthew Guy was the Planning Minister for scandals
Key points:
One factor pushing inflation is companies making high profits
The rate of profit growth has vastly out-paced wage growth
Inflation reduces the purchasing power of wage earners
Soaring corporate profits are being blamed for fuelling inflation, as figures show companies in Australia are enjoying sky-rocketing profits despite the pandemic.
The CEO of Iron Mountain Inc. told Wall Street analysts at a September 20 investor event that the high levels of inflation of the past several years had helped the company increase its margins — and that for that reason he had long been “doing my inflation dance praying for inflation.”
Any fines handed out to corporations were a slap on the wrist and not really regarded as fines but investments toward greater profit. As are Lawyers, Accountants Professional Lobbyists, Media and PR companies.
A strengthening of consumer protections to be introduced to Parliament on Wednesday will raise the maximum fines levied on companies engaging in anti-competitive behaviour from just $10 million, or 10 per cent of their revenue, to $50 million or 30 per cent.
The government will raise the base maximum penalty, unchanged for decades, to stop companies from simply absorbing fines as part of the cost of doing business.
But the biggest scam came last week when Qantas handed down its profit results and declared a $400m share buy-back. The board apparently deems it okay for Alan Joyce and co to spend the airline’s excess cash – publicly subsidised cash – not on disaffected workers, not on tax, not paying back subsidies, not on services for customers but on … drumroll, buying its own shares in order to prop up the stock price and lift executive bonuses.
Cold comfort for the swimming teacher going to jail for attempting to claim $250k of false GST refunds, the doctor sentenced to seven months jail for non-lodgements, the bank manager sentenced to three years’ jail for attempting to defraud the Commonwealth of $390,000, and the other small (or no more than medium) players.Double standards are rife. When will the executives of a big corporate such as Lendlease be prosecuted?
Forcing companies that extract gas from Australian waters to pay royalties and a tax upon their surging profits would comfortably add $60 billion to the budget bottom line in coming years, independent modelling finds.
The current state of inflation is not domestic. It’s not wages, It’s global and driven by energy pricing greed. It’s Capitalist profit taking advantage and it needs to be stopped in it’s tracks. If the fossil fuel companies had been taxed and profits shared via royalties and higher wages inflation wouldn’t seem such a problem. The Reserve Bank raising interest rates won’t stop it. It’s global and Multinational Global Corporations are causing the price tsunami for their benefit alone.
If you own a car, pay energy bills, or buy groceries, then you have probably noticed that prices are soaring. The cost of food is up 10% and the cost of a gallon of gas is up 50% from a year ago. And in May this year, median monthly rent hit a record high at $2,002. We’re experiencing the highest levels of inflation in 40 years, which is taking a particularly harsh toll on low-income households.
Much of corporate Australia is outdoing the government on climate ambition but some have little more than motherhood statements and no firm plan to achieve net zero, a business forum has been told.
Foreign gas giants Shell, Chevron, Exxon are enjoying an explosion in revenue while paying virtually no income tax and forking out just spare change in royalties. What’s the scam?
In terms of the gig economy, there are few more ruthless buccaneers than this San Franciscan ride-share company that has persistently specialised in cutting corners and remaking them. Those taken aback by the latest leaked files about Uber’s conduct would do well to remember the initial stages of the company’s growth, and the protests against it. Globally, the taxi fraternity raged against the encroachment of this new, seemingly amorphous bully. Some authorities heeded their wishes, seeing an alternative option in transportation.
Morrison has a unique campaigning method. Death by boring repetition, and a boundless lack of shame. Only today he was upset that Lismore residents are not more grateful for Government assistance. He also broke old ground today, informing us that if we vote for Labor, we will get Labor. That is something of a compliment to the Australian Electoral Commission, and a huge relief. He sees no warning in the South Australian election debacle. So, call the election. We know you now.
Over the past two weeks, Koch Industries has distinguished itself as one of the few major corporations to remain in Russia as the country’s president, Vladimir Putin, continues to carry a full-scale military invasion of Ukraine. Nearly 400 companies – such as McDonald’s, Starbucks, BP, Deloitte, Ford, GM, Hilton, and Netflix – have suspended their operations in or divested from the Russian economy.
Still, Koch Industries is not the only laggard. Companies like Halliburton, AbbVie, Bosch, Cargill, Subway, White & Case, Accor, and Amway have apparently refused to sever ties. Many of them have argued that breaking away from the country would be most punishing to Russian citizens, especially amid crippling U.S. sanctions.
Pirates with Confected Rights have no concern for people
A Thai gold mine owned by Australian company Kingsgate has been accused of creating “deserted villages with broken families”. It was closed by the Thai government, but an obscure clause in a “free trade” agreement has allowed the lucrative mine in Central Thailand to reopen. Tim Ginty reports.
behind the approved coronavirus vaccines — Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, and Pfizer — have quietly touted plans to raise prices on coronavirus vaccines in the near future and to capitalize on the virus’s lasting presence.
Scott Morrison thought good governance was to pay the coroporations they never commit fraud
Corporate governance experts are urging more of Australia’s big companies to repay funds received through the federal government’s JobKeeper wage subsidy scheme, warning taxpayers will bear the brunt of the $90 billion cost for decades.
In September 20th, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) –the reporters who brought us the “Panama Papers” and the “Paradise Papers” — released the “FinCEN Files,” in collaboration with Buzzfeed News. The FinCEN Files are the result of a U.S. leak of 2,100 “Suspicious Activity Reports” (SARs) – covering over 18,000 transactions — filed by banks when they believe a transaction may involve fraud, corruption, or other criminal activity. SAR reports are not public. A former U.S. Treasury official leaked the documents to expose corruption.
Amazon was recently busted hiring intelligence experts to spy on Amazon workers. The practice is unfortunately common — most major multinational corporations have surveillance divisions which overlap with government intelligence agencies, creating a single, powerful security apparatus at the disposal of both the federal government and private corporations to use against workers.
The ATO’s corporate tax transparency data again shows that hundreds of companies have been able to reduce their tax bills to zero
ATO deputy commissioner Rebecca Saint said the agency was still seeing some companies avoid tax by shifting profits offshore
Company financial accounts do not always give the full picture of tax positions and the ATO wants companies to be more transparent
Isn’t this against all investment principles that the greater the diversity of shares the lesser the risk? That there’s safety in numbers. Doesn’t this principle apply to management of investments? It wasn’t that long ago the people of America had to bail out the Chase Manhattan Bank the worlds biggest bank. Has 2008 been forgotten? (ODT)
More deals ahead
Billionaire bond trader Jeffrey Gundlach is also an indirect part of this universe. Oaktree owns 20 per cent of his DoubleLine Capital LP after spending about $US20 million for its stake in 2009.
Such constellations of billionaires are likely to become more common as the world of finance consolidates. Marks expects plenty more deals.
“The industry is continuing to drive toward concentration of greater amounts of money in fewer groups,” he said. “Strategic partnerships are going to be a theme for the future.”
Universities have become institutions whose primary aim is to make money, in particular by attracting more high paying overseas students than their competitors and cutting back on labor costs of both academic staff and support services.
A landmark study has found a silent underclass of vulnerable Australian workers is owed an estimated billion dollars with almost a third paid $12 per hour or less – almost half of their legal entitlements.
The University of NSW (UNSW) and Univerity of Technology Sydney (UTS) research found that fewer than one in ten migrant workers has taken action to recover unpaid wages, even though they know they are being underpaid. The remaining nine in ten suffered wage theft in silence.
Retail Food Group paid some of its top brass lavish pay packets over the past 12 months even as its market value decimated from a high of $897 million to just $77 million during that time.
The revelations of hefty salaries and additional bonuses at RFG came as the embattled franchise chain which owns the Gloria Jeans and Donut King brands among other businesses announced on Friday it had appointed restructuring expert Peter George as its new chairman.
Greed is good. Or so said Michael Douglas’ character Gordon Gekko in the 1980s hit film Wall Street. Gekko went further, stating “Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind”.’
But greed also leads Australian banks to steal from dead people.
The industry spends billions of dollars per year convincing Americans that bottled water is safer than tap—even though more than two-thirds of the product comes from municipal water sources
There were other concerning details in the contract, like the high rates Whitefish was charging for labor. The company was paying $240 an hour for a general foreman and $227 for a lineman. For some context, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says first-line supervisors of construction sites make about $43 an hour and construction laborers make about $23 an hour.
The long read: For a century, the East India Company conquered, subjugated and plundered vast tracts of south Asia. The lessons of its brutal reign have never been more relevant
Heather Bresch, Mylan executive who came under public scrutiny this week for raising EpiPen prices, reportedly raised prices more than 20% on 24 products
olddogthoughts 
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