BFCSA: a win re ASIC DATABASE for Michael West - we all need to support his excellent investigative work

Dear Subscriber,

Very good news. The government jettisoned its plan to sell the ASIC database just before Christmas. It is a win for new media, and a win for the public, which is an endorsement of your support for this independent journalism website. Thank you.

This means transparency for multinationals may remain poor but is unlikely to get any worse. We could not have done it without your support: tweeting, facebooking, emailing, and providing financial contributions to keep the website going.

We began hammering away about this boring but important ASIC story last July. GetUp got a petition going and drew 80,000 signatures. Six months later the government canned it.

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Sale Off

“Close to extortion” said Small Business Ombudsman Kate Carnell today, following our investigations of big business screwing suppliers with onerous terms. Thanks to a number of stories on our website,

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the government has identified late payments as a serious problem for small business and the economy. An inquiry by Carnell is close to delivering its report. Without your support financially and on social media, even just in visiting the website, this would never have happened.

Investigations into the TV networks squatting on Crown land are continuing. If it is good enough for the NSW Volunteer Rescue Service to pay rent for using public land, it is good enough for the billion-dollar TV networks.

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This year is vital for michaelwest.com.au. Our joint venture with Sydney Uni's Sydney Democracy Network (SDN) and The Conversation is an good development. We have kicked off a weekly column "Dark Money" with SDN, examining how big business and government intersect and calling out corporate welfare.

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The uni position is honorary though; there is no salary and we still need financial support to remain independent. We have not resorted to advertising but this may not be sustainable.

So a new monthly payments system has just been introduced. The website should remain free, accessible to all. It is in the public interest that the audience, and therefore the influence the influence of the website, remain as broad as possible.

If subscribers wish to be recognised, we expect to run a link and a logo too so the payments should be tax deductible as a marketing expense (SEO).

Check out our latest yarns on the crisis in energy, property prices and the failure of policy, the future of the press, and an investigation into multinational tax dodgers such as Goldman Sachs and Australia's biggest brewer SAB Miller.

This caper of running a small business and doing journalism is hard yakka. Along with running the back-end of the website, it's like having three jobs.

So, loath to put the hat around but if you could spare $5 a month to pay the bills and get us through 2017, that would be great. There are other developments on the business-model front which we hope to be able to share in due course.

Very best wishes,

Michael West