Friday, April 17, 2020

Jeremy Hirschhorn Permanent Second Commissioner



The Morrison Government is pleased to announce the appointment of  Mr Jeremy Hirschhorn as a Second Commissioner of the Australian Taxation Office for a seven-year period from 16 April 2020.

Mr Hirschhorn has been acting in the role of Second Commissioner of Taxation since December 2018.

He has previously held the position of Deputy Commissioner for Public Groups at the ATO from 2015 to 2018, and was the ATO’s Chief Tax Counsel from 2014 to 2015.

Recently, Mr Hirschhorn has been working closely with the Government in the implementation of the COVID-19 measures the ATO is responsible for administering. 

Prior to joining the ATO, Mr Hirschhorn spent almost 20 years at KPMG, including as a Partner in the Taxation Division from 2003 to 2014.

The Morrison Government congratulates Mr Hirschhorn on his appointment.

Mr Hirschhorn was recently tasked with leading the ATO’s new work program aimed at improving taxpayers’ interaction with the tax system.
Former KPMG partner secures high-ranking ATO role  - Well-Deserved Appointment


COVID-19 Policy Watch is now live at  www.covid19policywatch.org [links fixed]. We currently cover federal policies for 12 countries, including the US, UK, and China, with 15 more underway. We expect to expand our network of publishing partners from three, to five over the coming days. All feedback is most welcome.



'They cross in front of the car': Surge in Sydney food couriers raises safety concerns


One Uber Eats worker says Newtown has turned into the 'the Tour de France' with the number of delivery cyclists on the road.





Is There Anything More Useless In A Time Of Crisis Than The Humanities? Maybe Not…


“Even in good times, the humanistic academy is mocked as a wheel turning nothing; in an emergency, when doctors, delivery personnel, and other essential workers are scrambling to keep society intact, no one has patience with the wheel’s demand to keep turning. What is the role of Aristotle, or the person who studies him, in a crisis?” – The New Yorker 


DOJ lets companies skip paying penalties during pandemicThe Hill. Stoller: “We wouldn’t want convicted fraudsters to have a liquidity crisis.




A global catastrophe has forced a huge, literate, internet-savvy population indoors. This is a test for humanists. Why are so many failing? Why och Why  


 

Something Has Gone Wrong”: UK Government, Banks Screw Up Coronavirus Loans, Small Firms Near Collapse. Better Results in Other Countries



Quelle surprise! Big banks in the UK don’t like making small business loans, especially not at 1.5%.


      

At The Japan Times: 'Four of our critics pick their lockdown reads', in Japanese books to get you through a lockdown


Read the whole ██████ thing.




Australia's top doctor says coronavirus will change human race for good

L.A. Times: New signs suggest coronavirus was in California far earlier than anyone knew.
A man found dead in his house in early March. A woman who fell sick in mid-February and later died.
These early COVID-19 deaths in the San Francisco Bay Area suggest that the novel coronavirus had established itself in the community long before health officials started looking for it. The lag time has had dire consequences, allowing the virus to spread unchecked before social distancing rules went into effect.


Failure often contains useful information, yet across five studies involving 11 separate samples (N = 1238), people were reluctant to share this information with others. First, using a novel experimental paradigm, we found that participants consistently undershared failure—relative to success and a no-feedback experience—even though failure contained objectively more information than these comparison experiences. Second, this reluctance to share failure generalized to professional experiences. Teachers in the field were less likely to share information gleaned from failure than information gleaned from success, and employees were less likely to share lessons gleaned from failed versus successful attempts to concentrate at work. Why are people reluctant to share failure? Across experimental and professional failures, people did not realize that failure contained useful information. The current investigation illuminates an erroneous belief and the asymmetrical world of information it produces: one where failures are common in private, but hidden in public.