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ABC investigative reporters at work, as Four Corners exposes $50 billion ATO losses. The old joke about feeling like a mushroom, kept in the dark and fed on shit, comes to mind when considering what really goes on in the halls of power. Macro corruption is the term used to describe the situation in Australia, where the amounts are very large when dirty deeds are done downunder. Scamming millions of dollars from the tax office via bogus GST claims would be an unlikely occurrence one would think. I mean, the ATO is a pillar of our whole national edifice, so it must be bristling with top line security, right? Wrong, it is a $50 billion black hole bad joke on that score.
ATO Fleeced Out Of Billions Via GST Scam Reports 4 Corners
Hard working Aussies make up the lion’s share of tax revenue each year via income tax contributions. The workers would not be best pleased to discover that the automated GST reporting system at the heart of the ATO has been spewing forth unchecked money in the many millions, adding up to billions, to scammers and criminals. The lack of human oversight within the ATO automated system is gob smackingly appalling. We can thank former PM Tony Abbott for the retrenching of some 1, 000 employees from the tax office due to his government’s cuts to the public service in 2013-15. The old right wing, short sighted, slash the bureaucracy stupidity at work here. DOGE disasters, often, take time to emerge, as the damage done reveals itself when there is no one there to stick their finger in the dam wall. This is why criminality and corruption always accompanies populist actions with no foresight, like getting rid of all the inspectors.
Convenience vs Security At The ATO
Chris Jordan, another ex-copper, via KPMG came to run the ATO and bring in the automated digitisation of the tax system in Australia. He was appointed in 2013 and ran the show until 2024.
“Chris Jordan leaves his high-profile role as Tax Commissioner dodging another hail of political brickbats but confident he has delivered much better service and a digital revolution at the ATO – as well as forcing multinational companies to pay billions more in tax. That’s despite the finale of his 11 years dominated by the politics of the PwC tax scandal and, just this week, criticism from the auditor-general about the ATO’s response to a giant GST fraud scheme that went viral on TikTok. Not only were 12 officials working at the tax office and around 140 other former ATO contractors and employees among the tens of thousands of Australians investigated or charged, the auditor-general found the agency’s internal risk framework was lacking.”
- (https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/why-chris-jordan-wants-secrecy-laws-to-change-20240213-p5f4ox)
A lot of good stuff, improving the convenience of lodging tax returns and getting refunds occurred under Chris Jordan’s watch at the ATO. There is no denying that, but a balance is required, obviously, between offence and defence. That Four Corners exposes $50 billion ATO losses indicates that the defence needs tightening up. The ATO needs to hire back those human workers and get some oversight happening ASAP. Please don’t give me anymore BS about AI doing it better and cheaper. Australians would not be happy about these huge losses to scammers and criminals.
“None other than James Packer, son of the late, great anti-tax champion, billionaire Kerry Packer, is warning that AI will decimate tax revenue downunder. Why? It is because Australia depends upon the income tax from workers for the lion’s share of its tax revenue. AI has already started shedding jobs in middle management and the numbers are going to ramp up substantially very soon. The loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs to machines will impact the bottom line severely. Especially, as multinational corporations and rich people avoid paying tax in Australia.”
Unaccountable & Secretive ATO
The 4 Corners expose showed how unaccountable the ATO is within the framework of the Australian government. The old too big to fail BS. The leadership at the ATO needs to be held accountable for such large losses. Secret deals with powerful people and wiping million dollar tax debts are not ideal behaviours. The inability for the ATO to stop repeat offenders cheating them out of tens of millions of dollars has the Australian people losing confidence in the institution. The ATO is perceived as a giant money pot by criminals and is, therefore, a major target in their eyes. Is it merely incompetence or is there corruption involved here as well? It might be time for the old Royal Commission to be rolled out to make the lawyers rich and to delve into the ATO more forensically?
Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of Money Matters and America Matters: Pre-apocalyptic Posts & Essays in the Shadow of Trump.
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