Writer
Michael
Michael West is the founder of michaelwest.com.au, focusing on journalism of high public interest. He spent eight years as a commentator with The Australian and another eight years with the Sydney Morning Herald as a journalist and editor, Michael is a Walkley-award winner and Adjunct Professor at the University of Sydney’s School of Social and Political Sciences.
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The Australian’s non-exclusive ‘exclusive’ first published by P&I
When is an exclusive not an exclusive? When it runs in The Australian. Pearls and Irritations had the real Paul Keating exclusive over the weekend. Continue reading »
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Gladys’ leadership rumours rise as rival Perrottet embroiled in scandal
Is it coincidence that Gladys Berejiklian’s rival Dominic Perrottet is suddenly embroiled in the “Wolf of Wall Street scandal”? Michael West investigates NSW leadership tensions and the New Generations Fund. Continue reading »
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Rise of independent media
‘Rise of independent media’ is a panel discussion between investigative journalist Michael West, Crikey editor-in-chief Peter Fray and author and media analyst Margaret Simons and is chaired by the editor for InDaily David Washington. The panel took place at the Adelaide Writer’s Week festival on 2 March 2021. Continue reading »
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Laughing Stock: Australia’s new media code rivals our climate policy for absurdity
Google good, Facebook bad. That sums up mainstream media coverage of the Coalition government’s bizarre new media code. That’s because Google paid up, Facebook decided it was extortion and called Josh Frydenberg’s bluff, banning Australian news. The mainstream media has been corrupted. Continue reading »
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Tamed Estate: News’ and Nine’s PR and the plight of the (Liberals’?) media
Old media caps off annus horribilis 2020 with its traditional horrible week. Michael West, standing in for Michael Tanner, looks at the fall of Fairfax, PR masquerading as journalism, who guards the Guardian, Seven News’ calls for war with China and how Scott Morrison’s media team has the game sown up. Continue reading »
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The Usual Suspects: oil and gas majors star in Australian tax heist (MWM Dec 17, 2020)
Angus Taylor’s rescue package for the oil industry is a testament to the ability of large corporations to game governments. The latest Tax Office transparency data shows that oil and gas juggernauts are, again, Australia’s biggest tax cheats, yet are demanding and getting more public subsidies to prop up their oil refineries. Michael West reports on the Continue reading »
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Is Rupert Murdoch going bust?
This video has been reposted from Michael West Media 25 November 2020 Continue reading »
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Feeding the Chooks: Scott Morrison’s marketing triumph over mainstream media complete
Scott Morrison has perfected the art of media manipulation by briefing a select club of Canberra correspondents together, rather than leaking to individual media outlets. Callum Foote and Michael West report on the marketing genius of the Prime Minister and the increasingly meek mainstream media. Continue reading »
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Gas Gush: the toadies of mainstream media trot out government’s fossil fuel fracking campaign (MWM SEP 15, 2020)
Gas fracking and a new fossil fuel power plant got a big leg-up today as News Corp, Nine Entertainment, ABC News and Guardian Australia faithfully splashed with the latest government gas plan on their front pages today. Continue reading »
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Friendlyjordies’ interview with Michael West
Earlier this month John and Michael sat down with Friendlyjordies for a long-form interview. Please watch Michael and Jordan discuss Australia’s media landscape, lobbying and independent journalism. Continue reading »
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Silver Bullet: an elegant cure for Government spending excess (Michael West Media August 5, 2020)
If it’s good enough for tennis stars and entertainers, it’s good enough for multinational tax avoiders and consultants. Michael West addresses the Senate Inquiry into Finance and Public Administration today. Continue reading »
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AI Unveiled: another propaganda service for Defence, big business and the Coalition (Michael West 22.7.20)
Is AI Group just a front for big business and foreign weapons manufacturers? Michael West reports on the rise of government and business propaganda outfits who are suddenly mute when the subject turns to the delicate matter of who funds them. Continue reading »
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Do the grandchildren really pay the debt? The problem with Scott Morrison’s plan for recovery, and MMT
Michael West investigates Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) and the false assumption that the national Budget is like the household budget, or a business. They are already creating new money while denying the proposition that creating new money will expand the economy; preferring to punish casual workers and Arts students, and pursue austerity instead. Continue reading »
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MICHAEL WEST. The Virgin Brides: fate of airline on a knife-edge as bids lob and cash runs dry (MWM 19.5.20)
The government has tossed $130 billion at business, the corporate largesse is dripping all over the big end of town. Even highly profitable $8 billion property developers such as Mirvac are rolling in the free money, yet when it comes to Virgin Australia they are being all punctilious about “letting the market sort it out”. Michael West reports on Continue reading »
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MICHAEL WEST. Virgin Australia: buy the business, don’t bail out the shareholders (MWM 02.04.20)
Virgin Australia is pleading for a bail-out twice what its shares a worth. Its wealthy foreign shareholders can afford to pay. They’ve scampered. What is the answer? Continue reading »
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MICHAEL WEST. Too Big To Fail: Qantas, the corporate elite and the coronavirus (michaelwest.com.au 17.03.2020)
Alan Joyce is a canny operator. As the ravages of the coronavirus began to hit the airline hard, the Qantas boss announced he would take no salary for the rest of the year; no salary for the rest of the financial year that is. Who will the Government bail out? Michael West investigates Australia’s institutions that are Continue reading »
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MICHAEL WEST.-Ranking Australia’s billionaires as taxpayers (Michael West Media 28.2.2020)
Community attitudes have changed. But what has not changed, and what must change, is the secrecy around the corporate affairs of Australia’s wealthiest old family business empires. Continue reading »
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MICHAEL WEST.-Who Pays: should ordinary taxpayers foot the bill for bushfires or the fossil fuel giants who pay no tax?
Five of Australia’s top coal companies – Peabody, Yancoal Sumitomo, Citic and Whitehaven – racked up $54 billion in total income over the past five years and paid zero income tax in Australia, according to Tax Office corporate tax data. Fossil fuel companies should foot the bill for the fires, not ordinary taxpayers. Continue reading »
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The Ultimate Gouge: why Australia, the world’s #1 exporter, now imports gas (Michael West)
What an outrage it is that the Northern Territory doesn’t lift its grape production, instead of importing wine from South Australia! And what about those lazy Tasmanians; rather than growing their own mangoes and pineapples they import them from Queensland! Michael West reports on the bizarre claims of the gas lobby. Continue reading »
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MICHAEL WEST. Big Four audit firm bust-up (Michael West, 18 May 2018)
“Is it possible to amend the rules to stop giving (government) work to tax haven connections?” MP Julian Hill posing a question to public service chiefs at a parliamentary hearing into the cost of government. This post by Michael West over twelve months ago is still very relevant.(John Menadue) Continue reading »
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Zali Steggall takes on Tony Abbott over hospitals-to-tax-haven deal (Michael West)
Tony Abbott has come under pressure from Warringah independent, Zali Steggall, over the Government’s decision to approve the sale of the new Northern Beaches Hospital, and 42 other Australian hospitals, to an obscure company in the Cayman Islands. Continue reading »
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MICHAEL WEST, JEFFREY KNAPP. Conflicts of Interest”R”Us: KPMG pursues PwC back into insolvency (Michael West).
The Big Four, the relentless architects of global tax avoidance, have returned to the insolvency business, despite selling out of it 15 years ago because of overweening conflicts of interest. When it became known last year that the bosses of PwC, EY, Deloitte and KPMG had been getting together for cosy dinners, and given the Continue reading »
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MICHAEL WEST Big Four: government’s binge on consultants goes ballistic.
The Big Four global accounting firms have banked $3.1 billion in taxpayer income in the past six years for government consulting. That’s three thousand one hundred million dollars in government revenue to just four firms – PwC, EY, KPMG and Deloitte – for providing advice. Continue reading »
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MICHAEL WEST. Exempt: how Defence dodges the taxman (Michael West blog 15.08.18)
Foreign military contractors have been awarded a staggering $73 billion in contracts, apparently tax-free, because successive governments have struck contracts directly with offshore companies, even as far afield as the Atlantic tax haven of Bermuda. Continue reading »
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MICHAEL WEST. Good timing: Australia Post in talks to become a bank
The banks will fight it tooth and nail. Australia Post is considering becoming a bank, a move which could deliver significant competition to the country’s banking oligopoly through lower fees and lower-cost mortgages. Continue reading »
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MICHAEL WEST. Treasury hides corporate welfare data.
There it was right on cue, at the cusp of the New Year weekend, a government press release about the cost of welfare bludgers trumpeted loudly across the press and the TV news bulletins. Continue reading »
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MICHAEL WEST. The Minerals Council, coal and the half a billion spent by the resources lobby
There is no peak body or rent seeker in the country which conducts its business as belligerently, and its proponents would say as successfully, as the Minerals Council of Australia (MCA). In 2010 it ousted a Prime Minister. Continue reading »
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MICHAEL WEST. BCA investigation: power of the business lobby in Australia
This is part in a series of investigations by Michael West into Australia’s most powerful business lobby groups and rent seekers. To begin, we have selected the Business Council of Australia, the most elite and influential peak body of them all. Among the findings, the nation’s premier corporate lobby group has broken the law at Continue reading »
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MICHAEL WEST. Why are we still pursuing the Adani Carmichael mine?
Why, if Adani’s gigantic Carmichael coal project is so on-the-nose for the banks and so environmentally destructive, are the federal and Queensland governments so avid in their support of it? Adani employs the lobbying firm Next Level Strategic Services.. The director of this lobbying firm is Cameron Milner,who was Bill Shorten’s Chief of Staff, former Continue reading »
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MICHAEL WEST. Tax base eroded by backdoor deregulation of Australia’s labour market and jump in foreign contract workers
The biggest failure of public administration since the formation of the Commonwealth of Australia in 1900. – Australian Tax Office insider The result of having the wrong system where taxes are too high and a labour market which is over-regulated. – Liberal Party insider We are talking about the broad, state-sanctioned, backdoor deregulation of Australia’s Continue reading »