Critical Line Item with Tom Ravlic

Gideon Rozner is a self-confessed political tragic and the director of policy at the Institute of Public Affairs. He takes listeners behind the scenes to explain how that clip on the COVID lockdown came about and the reaction it received. he talks frankly about the role of social media in policy debate, how the IPA sets its agenda and the factors that shape views. Does he have time for law degrees...

The ATO tax transparency data comes out from time to time and people get up in arms when it reveals there are companies that pay zero tax. Zero is a mysterious number because it is not made up of nothing despite what some commentators, agitators and activists conclude. Join Tom Ravlic and Lisa Greig on a journey through the mysteries of zero and why the tax transparency reports from our tax author...

Walkley award winner Annika Smethurst has had a bugger of a year and much of the cloud cover she talks about in this conversation with Tom Ravlic was due to the Australian Federal Police investigation into a story she wrote on the expansion of surveillance powers. She can breath more easily now given the recent news that the AFP has said it will not pursue charges. How does she feel? What effect d...

Name calling in pubic seems to have become a part of discourse on indigenous matters. Some people are called 'coconuts' and ' Uncle Tom's' when they raise what are issues that are just as relevant to the discussion of the welfare of Indigenous people and their communities that might fall outside the immediate focus of advocacy or protests. Anthony Dillon is a lecturer at the Australian Catholic Un...

Lodging your tax return early could post some risks and tax expert Lisa Greig is here in discussion with Tom Ravlic to explore some of the challenges people have in dealing with some of the tricky bits in getting a return ready. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The death of George Floyd at the hands of a policeman in Minneapolis has sparked protests and violence across the United States. It has also led Australians reflecting on issues related to Aboriginal deaths in Custody. Indigenous businessman and commentator Warren Mundine has been inside policy debates in the area and he shares his observations about the current US situation and hist continuing fr...

Biotech companies are critical. They work on projects and products that are live saving. How many of us engage with biotech companies closely? David Langsam has done so for many years. He is the editor of Biotech Daily, which is a publication that chronicles developments in the sector. He talks about companies and how they do what they do, the way in which businesses have coped through COVID and r...

Estimation and accounting for JobKeeper has been in the news of late and the Australia Institute's Richard Dennis helps unravel the nature of the $60 billion muddle that the Federal Government has found itself in. He talks about job keeper, the use of economic jargon or 'econobabble' and whether he thinks change is possible in industrial relations and taxation. What did he say? No spoilers! Listen...

You go to your tax agent to get a tax return done but you probably don''t understand what they go through to get the return completed and some of the challenges they confront. They cannot see everything and as tax expert Lisa Greig explains, there are circumstances in which clients might think they are getting a deduction of X amount but there are other debts in the system that deflate the amount....

The Australian Federal Police has over the past 24 hours said they would not be charging Annika Smethurst with an offence arising from her story on government agencies seeking to conduct greater surveillance of Australians. Barrister Greg Barns SC, a prominent human rights advocate, looks at the issues emerging from the Smethurst case and suggests several areas of possible law reform to ensure the...

Evidence is emerging that not all employers are complying with the spirit of the employment laws during the pandemic and it is important that employees understand what their rights are in the current circumstances. What are your rights if you have been made redundant? What about if you are stood down? Can your boss demand you download an app to your phone to get back to work? These questions and m...

Hugh Riminton calls himself a 'hack' - a journalist with many decades of experience in searching for the truth and bringing it to his audience. This podcast explores how journalism is done in a pandemic, the impact of social media on how people consume news and what ought to matter in the search for truth. How should you be dealing with information from social media and elsewhere? Listen up. Hugh...

Accountants Lisa Greig and Jo Sampson have been dealing with Job keeper and they've seen every problem under the sun. They aren't politicians or journalists. They've done the work, held clients hands and helped each other over six weeks of compliance madness. The process was drawn out and unclear. Forms were not working properly. You think that form was easy to fill in for all kinds of corporate s...

The Corporate Reporting Dialogue is a little known forum that exists to try and whittle down the number of sets of non-financial reporting guidelines. Chairman Ian Mackintosh and Tom Ravlic discuss the various issued that the forum has to deal with as it tries to herd 'corporate reporting' cats into a corner. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Quentin Dempster has spent 52 years in journalism and he is deeply concerned about the future of a profession that must be thriving and healthy in order to hold powerful individuals and institutions to account. He speaks frankly about the challenges faced by journalists, the continuing attempts to get Google and Facebook to cough up, media rivalries and the role played by media outlets in national...

Episode three of chatting tax with Lisa Greig, tax trainer and tax expert, deals with issues you will find as you seek to claim deductions in your coming tax return. Lisa and Tom touch on when deductions might apply and how what the ATO expects people to have as documentation. Do you have a strange or curious case? These two tax chatters touch on the issue of private rulings, too. Hosted on Acast....

Criminal Barrister Greg Barns SC talks to Tom Ravlic about the various challenges with new proposed national security laws as well as exploring the issue of what governments should really be doing when the need for legislation diminishes in time. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Bob Spencer has played with some of Australia's most iconic bands, taught music, and toured extensively over many decades. Australians will recognise the names: Finch, Skyhooks, the Angels and Rose Tattoo. The Tatts were hit by the pandemic and needed to rush back home as borders closed. This is a conversation about the music business in which the issue of whether Australians care about the arts a...

Professor Janek Ratnatunga is the chief executive officer of the Institute of Certified Management Accountants. He speaks with Tom Ravlic about the shortcomings he believes exist in company reporting and how intangible assets- things that have no physical substance - could be accounted for in ways that make financial statements more meaningful in his view to people using them. He also believes tha...

Professor Sinclair Davidson is a professor of economics at RMIT University who is one of five authors of 'Unfreeze: How to Create a High Growth Economy After the Pandemic', which suggests ways of getting Australia's economy out of pandemic paralysis. He offers some ideas and also shares his angst about the lack of understanding of our taxation system and how it applies to corporations. Hosted on A...

Dr Julian Cox is an expert in food microbiology. He joins Tom Ravlic in this podcast to explain what people should be doing in relation to food preparation both at home and in the office. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tom Ravlic has the weekly chat with Lisa Greig about the way in which tax issues have rolled through the past week. Jobkeeper clients have received their money back while some people have had a few hiccups. Not for profits have some unique structures and Lisa and Tom deal touch on some of those. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The coronavirus pandemic has thrown up a range of issues directors and auditors must worry about as they examine financial issues that stakeholders will see play out for the June 30 year end. The chairman of the Auditing and Assurance Standards Board, Professor Roger Simnett, and Anne Waters, a senior project manager with the standard setter, cover the key points you need to know that appear in a...

People have been told to stay in, sheltered in place and now are looking to go back out into a world in which pandemic anxiety is likely to be present for some time. Dr Simon Kinsella talks to Tom Ravlic about various psychological aspects COVID 19 and provides some insight into what people should do and think about as they move into modified work and other routines. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com...

Tom Ravlic introduces his weekly tax podcast with tax expert and tax trainer Lisa Greig with a look at how small businesses and tax agents are coping with the introduction of Job Keeper. Ministers may announce the schemes but the front line troops, the tax agents and tax lawyers, are the ones putting their shoulders to the wheel to try and get businesses through. Lisa also tells Tom about the ment...