Jozef Imrich, name worthy of Kafka, has his finger on the pulse of any irony of interest and shares his findings to keep you in-the-know with the savviest trend setters and infomaniacs.
''I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center.''
-Kurt Vonnegut
The House of Commons Library published this yesterday, and I thought it worth sharing. On 13 June 2025, Israel launched a series of attacks against Read the full article…
The Financial Times reported this week that the US Treasury has proposed new rules that could make sending money home much harder and more expensive Read the full article…
The workplace tribunal has drawn a line in the sand on everyday expletives in blue-collar workplaces after finding a boss swearing at a worker is scary enough to force them to resign, paving the way for unlawful dismissal claims.
The Fair Work Commission held Melbourne small business DMG Building and Electrical Services constructively dismissed an electrician because the boss addressed performance concerns with him in such a confrontational manner that it created a work health and safety risk.
A boss aggressively swearing at a worker is grounds for constructive dismissal, Fair Work ruled
The ruling continues the commission’s strict stance on crude language, including a full bench overruling a findingthat a worker calling a colleague a “f---ing dog c---” was unexceptional language on a mine site.
However, workplace experts warn the latest decision sets the bar too low for constructive dismissals – which is when an employee resigns because they feel they have no other choice.
In the case, Commissioner Susie Allison found that while swearing was likely to be part of the “everyday work culture” of the blue-collar business, a boss swearing at an employee went too far.
An employer is in a position of power and [the boss] needs to be aware that behaviour that might be acceptable with a friend or in another context, is not acceptable or appropriate with an employee,” she said.
“Given [the worker] was reasonably concerned for his mental and physical safety, I find that [he] had no effective or real choice but to resign.”
The commission heard the DMG director had been concerned about the electrician’s work levels and his taking time out of the workday to attend religious prayer without informing the company.
According to the worker’s secret recording of his performance meeting, the director raised his voice saying “are you f---ing serious” and “you’re making me angry!” when the worker compared wear and tear on a company car to requests for him to call clients on his personal phone.
The director also raised concerns the worker was “self-absorbed” and “not a team player”, accusing him of being deceitful in not revealing he was taking time off to visit a mosque.
“I don’t want any negative nancies running around my company f---ing becoming toxic to other blokes. It festers,” he said.
“What we do with those people, we f---ing weed them out … you need to be on the same page as everyone.”
The meeting ended with the director discussing how the electrician could take time off for prayer and make up his work hours at other times. He told the worker he was willing to work with him if he was clear on availability.
However, the next day, the electrician took personal leave due to mental health issues and resigned the following day. He then filed an adverse action case alleging bullying, poor treatment and safety concerns.
The director, representing himself, denied any inappropriate behaviour and said he addressed the situation in the same way he would with other staff.
Commissioner Allison acknowledged the director was “clearly an employer who cares about his employees and listens to their concerns”, noting that he was very open to flexible work arrangements to attend religious practices.
DMG also did not have a human resources manager and its boss relied on “on close, direct relationships with his staff, speaking openly and frankly”.
“Having said that, in my view, the language and behaviour directed towards the worker at the meeting ... is not appropriate or acceptable behaviour in any workplace,” she said.
She found that, while not intending for the worker to resign, the director acted in “an aggressive, confrontational and inappropriate way that was likely to make [the worker] feel intimidated.
“I find that the probable result of an employer engaging in the aggressive and confrontational conduct described ... was such that [the worker] would resign.”
She rejected DMG’s jurisdictional objection to the dismissal case and allowed the matter to proceed to mediation.
Herbert Smith Freehills employment partner Natalie Gaspar said the introduction of psychosocial risks in work health and safety laws meant there was a lower tolerance for this sort of behaviour in the workplace.
Nevertheless, she said she was surprised by the decision and argued it was “not consistent with the weight of authority on constructive dismissals”.
“It’s quite a high bar,” she said. “The focus should be, does the employer intend to cause the resignation or, objectively, would someone have no choice to resign in the circumstances. It shouldn’t be on the individual’s reaction or response.”
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Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, June 15, 202 – Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, finance, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weisshighlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and online security, often without our situational awareness. Four highlights from this week: Protect Yourself Online; Study: OpenAI Has Been Breached More Than 1000 Times; Feds warn: Hang up on phone scammers pretending to be border patrol agents; and Cybercriminals Are Hiding Malicious Web Traffic in Plain Sight.
The last three and more years have seen the bloodiest war on European soil for the better part of 80 years
Ostensibly, the conflict is between Russia and Ukraine. In reality, it has lasted as long as it has, and brought into play such a vast arsenal of destructive firepower, because the stakes are much higher and perhaps less visible than the bilateral dispute.
As we shall see, this is the single most dangerous geopolitical confrontation since the end of the Cold War, which is not to downplay the mayhem caused by Israeli military aggression in the Middle East or the seriousness of a possible Sino-US collision.
HM Revenue & Customs published their latest tax gap estimates yesterday. These cover the tax year 2023/24. The summary data looks like this and presents Read the full article…
Cybercriminals increasingly treat data not just as a target, but as currency. Europol’s 2025 threat assessment details how LLMs, infostealers, and encrypted platforms are fueling a global data black market.
Part 4 on Gangs: India. Though tech support scams seem to have begun in the US, they now come almost wholly from India. And after the crooks have remote access to computers, they can easily find log in information for financial accounts. And India also is the main home for scams that call impersonating bank security officials or federal agents. Victims are threatened with arrest and told they must move their funds to the caller in a “safe” account to preserve them. But of course those funds are simply stolen. India also has a raft of scams offering small business and personal loans; fees are required to get the loans, which never materialize. In the last year or two scammers from India have been arriving at victim’s homes to pick up money, often requesting actual gold. Well over 100 from India have been prosecuted in the US for handling the money for these frauds. Notably the Indians seem to be working with Chinese, at least to pick up funds. India has busted a number of large call centers, and made many arrests, though I’ve yet to see them actually prosecute anyone. I’ve seen no evidence that they have ever extradited anyone to another country either. Obviously India is a huge English-speaking, but poor, country with many people who have experience in call centers. Be careful when going a Google search for a customer service number! A growing numbers of scammers post their own numbers high in search results (they pay for this) and use them to scam people. This has long been a favorite tactic of tech support scammers, but now it is spreading
Michael Hardy reminded me of retired Gary and his first Monday of freedom “Yoga can bring focus to the mind by helping people get back in touch with their breath. In the past 25 years, yoga has been widely accepted as a health regime and a lot of people start yoga because it is accessible, gentle and simple. It is beneficial in many ways – from improving posture to encouraging deeper sleep, awareness of the breath and helps people connect with others and their communities.”
The views in this article are the personal views of the author only.
The ATO issued a press release earlier this week on the outcome of three GST fraud cases linked to Operation Protego. I was surprised by two things in relation to this press release. Firstly, despite the significance of the fraud in each of the three cases (fraud ranging from $168,000 to $1.1 million), two of the three cases resulted in the person convicted being released on immediate recognisance. The second surprising aspect was that this was deemed worthy of a press release by the ATO.
Whilst it is good to hear that the action is being taken to combat tax fraud, in my personal view the ATO promoting the outcome of these particular cases does nothing to deter fraud, in fact, in my view it encourages it. Yes, in each of the cases custodial sentences were imposed, but in reality, what is most significant is that in two of the three cases, the convicted person was released on recognisance.
One The unfortunate message from these cases could be seen to be that if you commit significant tax fraud and get caught, you can actually escape without serving a custodial sentence. I make these observations without knowing anything about the actual cases beyond what is in the press release, and I am not questioning the correctness of the decision of the judge in these cases. I do not doubt there may have been relevant circumstances that justified the immediate release of those sentenced beyond what is in the press release.
In looking into this a bit further, I was somewhat surprised to find the following observation by the Judicial Commission of New South Wales:
‘A review of the case law on social security fraud (see R v Boughen[2012] NSWCCA 17 at [60]–[65]) suggests that statements of principle on fraud are applied less rigorously in tax cases so that tax offenders are treated more leniently than social security offenders: R v Boughen at [66], [91]. It has been observed that the frequency of Crown appeals in tax cases (including DPP (Cth) v Goldberg[2001] VSCA 107, DPP (Cth) v Gregory[2011] VSCA 145 and R v Jones; R v Hili [2010] NSWCCA 108) reflects that “sentencing judges find it difficult to impose sentences that reach the high level which they have, in theory, accepted as being appropriate”: R v Boughen at [69].’
Why would tax fraud justify less rigorous penalties than social security fraud? Tax fraud is harder to identify and prosecute and the amounts at stake are significantly higher.
And then even more astonished to read:
‘Courts have observed that Commonwealth tax fraud has not always been sufficiently reflected in the sentence imposed, compared to other forms of criminality: R v Nguyen[1997] 1 VR 386 at 389–390; DPP (Cth) v Gregory[2011] VSCA 145 at [54]–[55]. The consequences of discovery and punishment and the havoc a custodial sentence usually wreaks on the lives of white-collar criminals and their families, may distract attention from the importance of general deterrence: DPP (Vic) v Bulfin[1998] 4 VR 114 at 131–132.’
Due to the sheer complexity of tax law, tax fraud it is often very hard and expensive to prosecute, which is itself a barrier to deterrence. Prosecution of tax crimes also compete with other significant demands on the CDPP, such as the prosecution of drug and terrorism related offences, which understandably get higher priority.
As such, it becomes even more important that sentences in the few tax cases which are brought send a strong message of deterrence.
It is also astonishing to see in the sentencing guidelines, under tax, observations that other consequences for white-collar criminals can distract attention from the importance of general deterrence. Whilst I appreciate a custodial sentence may wreak havoc on the lives of white-collar criminals, such sentences no doubt have a similar if not greater impact on those committing other types of fraud, or other examples of white-collar fraud, such as social security fraud. In my view deterrence is of greater priority in white-collar cases, particularly in tax cases.
If tax fraud is to be addressed, particularly in the context of the type of arrangements covered by Operation Protego, deterrence is critical. There are limits to the vigilance of the ATO and the ATO are constantly having to balance between providing convenience to the majority of the community who do the right thing and protecting the system from those seeking to defraud it.
Protections that avoid fraud in the system generally come at a significant cost and inconvenience to those trying to do the right thing through higher rates of verification / audit, challenge by the ATO and tighter access to systems and registration.
Director - EY Private - Tax (Perth) | Registered Tax Agent | Lawyer | CA | CPA | Tax Institute Tax Trailblazer Award Winner
3d
I agree with you Jeremy. You just need to look at the recent ART decision in Evan v CoT for an example of how those who commit these types of crimes have no appreciation for their seriousness. A quick scroll through Tik Tok may also highlight how little regard is given to tax crimes by some members of the public. A financial penalty (such as the multi million dollar penalty in Evans) won’t necessarily act as a deterrent if realistically it will never be able to be paid.
Director, O'Rourke Consulting; Adjunct Professor, School of Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, UNSW Business School
3d
A very interesting post Jeremy and, yes, astonishing! I agree with you. There can be no basis in principle for sentencing in tax fraud, including GST fraud, to be more lenient than for other money related crimes. And the deterrence, especially for the Tik Tok influenced fraud in Operation Protego, should be a strong factor in sentencing.
IMF Expert Advisor - Washington DC | Senior Executive | Board Member | Speaker
3d
Very insightful Jeremy, particularly the references you provided that sentencing for tax fraud may be frequently less than for other types of fraud, and may not fairly
Associate Solicitor at Madgwicks Lawyers (Taxation Disputes and Insolvency Litigation)
3dA very good perspective Jeremy. I would think that when Al Capone is reincarnated he should consider a career in Australia
Director - EY Private - Tax (Perth) | Registered Tax Agent | Lawyer | CA | CPA | Tax Institute Tax Trailblazer Award Winner
3dI agree with you Jeremy. You just need to look at the recent ART decision in Evan v CoT for an example of how those who commit these types of crimes have no appreciation for their seriousness. A quick scroll through Tik Tok may also highlight how little regard is given to tax crimes by some members of the public. A financial penalty (such as the multi million dollar penalty in Evans) won’t necessarily act as a deterrent if realistically it will never be able to be paid.
Director, O'Rourke Consulting; Adjunct Professor, School of Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, UNSW Business School
3dA very interesting post Jeremy and, yes, astonishing! I agree with you. There can be no basis in principle for sentencing in tax fraud, including GST fraud, to be more lenient than for other money related crimes. And the deterrence, especially for the Tik Tok influenced fraud in Operation Protego, should be a strong factor in sentencing.
IMF Expert Advisor - Washington DC | Senior Executive | Board Member | Speaker
3dVery insightful Jeremy, particularly the references you provided that sentencing for tax fraud may be frequently less than for other types of fraud, and may not fairly