Outrage over 7-Eleven workers as Black Saturday victims languish

Plus: A call for our skilled migration policy to give way to the politics of feelings.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports on 7-Eleven workers allegedly being rorted, yesterday:

7-Eleven has been sprung short-changing workers potentially millions of dollars in back pay by changing the way compensation payouts are being calculated.

Josh Bornstein, principal of Maurice Blackburn Lawyers, which handled 7-Eleven workers’ cases, tweets a link to the story, yesterday:

You wouldn’t credit this but #7Eleven have been underpaying outstanding backpay to its workers.

The Australian’s Hedley Thomas reporting on Maurice Blackburn’s handling of Black Saturday bushfire claims, April 9:

Top partners in a leading law firm have pocketed record dividends totalling more than $16 million in one year arising from huge settlements in class actions for the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires in Victoria — but the victims are yet to receive anything. Several thousand survivors of the fires who signed up with law firm Maurice Blackburn are still waiting for compensation, with many in severe financial distress before, and since, a huge financial settlement in 2014 and a second one last year were entrusted to the firm to administer.

Bornstein again on Twitter complaining about 7-Eleven, August 24:

Need reforms to make franchise liable for underpayment of franchisees.

By the way, who were those top partners? More from The Australian, April 9:

The dividend sums pocketed by the partners who held the more lucrative ordinary shares in the firm in the last financial year — Mr Walsh, Josh Bornstein, Kathryn Booth, John Voyage (since resigned), Rod Hodgson, John Salanitri, Bennett Slade, Liberty Sanger, Mr Watson and Peter Koutsoukis — are not disclosed in the financial accounts.

Julian Burnside QC, quoted on Bornstein’s page on the Maurice Blackburn website:

When the forces of darkness are on your back, you want Josh at your side.

Jessica Irvine makes the case for a strong skilled migration program, The Age, Monday:

The bottom line is clear: the total benefits of Australia’s migration intake to the economy exceed the costs … Of course, assumptions matter. To get these economic benefits, Australia must continue to run a program that targets young and skilled migrants.

Ah, that’s all too hard. Let’s just open up the borders. The senior economics writer continues, yesterday:

To live in the most sparsely populated continent on earth and declare ourselves full is mean-spirited, defeatist behaviour of the highest order … Any challenges that arise through competition for low-skilled jobs and increased urban congestion pale in comparison to the danger of embracing an anti-immigration … and fearful national culture. If you truly love Australia, keep our borders free.

Nikolai Tolstoy, chancellor of the International Monarchist League, writing in The New York Times that the US should consider returning to a crown, Sunday:

Indeed, the modern history of Europe has shown that those countries fortunate enough to enjoy a king or queen as head of state tend to be more stable and better governed than most of the Continent’s republican states. By the same token, demagogic dictators have proved unremittingly hostile to monarchy because the institution represents a dangerously venerated alternative to their ambitions … (Americans), there is an alternative.