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	The SDGs are not achievable without progressive policies by Celeste Drake Equal Times   In July, the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES), a foundation that promotes the values of social democracy, freedom, justice and solidarity, hosted a forum at the 14th United Nations Conference on Trade and Development Conference (UNCTAD 14) focusing on the progress we have made toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which aim to end poverty and create a better, healthier, more sustainable world by 2030.   I spoke at this panel, providing insights from the international labour movement. I began by noting that, from the point of view of working people – who provide the engine of every sector of every economy around the world – there are serious questions about how we will achieve the SDGs given the policies included in and missing from the SDG 2030 Agenda. Of particular concern is the failure to put unions at the centre of the goal of liveable wages and decent work.   The term “trade union” does not appear a single time in the entire SDG 2030 document. Not even once. Why do the SDGs ignore research by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and others that unions are key to addressing income inequality? Research also shows that unions can help raise productivity, a critical factor in growth. So it is disappointing that unions, which have much to contribute, aren’t even mentioned in the SDGs.   In addition, among the four pillars of the International Labor Organization’s (ILO) Decent Work Agenda, social dialogue is the only one not explicitly recognised among the targets and indicators of the eighth SDG.   On a related note, the SDGs do not directly confront corporate governance or the incentives that corporate decision makers face that often lead to the exploitation and abuse of working people, the environment, and small businesses at the bottom of the supply chain. Social dialogue, co-determination, corporate by-laws, and national laws governing corporate entities all have an important role to play in eliminating the race to the bottom and achieving the SDGs.   Regarding progress toward the SDGs, unfortunately, the current “market fundamentalism” (i.e., “corporations are always right”) that governs global trade and investment policy is getting in the way of achieving the SGDs. For example, paragraph 68 of the SDG declaration begins: “International trade is an engine for inclusive economic growth and poverty reduction, and contributes to the promotion of sustainable development.”   The absence of any qualifiers in this sentence (like “can” or “sometimes”) ignores the reality that international trade can also be an engine for wage stagnation and inequality. The SDGs just focus on “more trade” instead of the right kind of trade.   Unfortunately, this myopia about the current model of globalisation is compounded by existing trade and investment agreements and pending ones including the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP).   Like other existing trade agreements, the TPP puts states in competition to attract investments by driving down costs. This disincentivises the enactment or enforcement (or both) of labour market policies and workplace protections that would drive wages up, increase demand and raise living standards. As it is, labour share of income is at historic lows across the globe.   Similarly, to drive down costs and attract investment, the TPP incentivises tax abatements and ever lower corporate tax rates. These can undermine needed investments in labour market institutions, industrial and social transfer policies, infrastructure, health and education by limiting government revenues. [Read the Capaldo study Trading Down to learn more about this relentless competition to attract capital.]   In addition, the TPP contains the investor-to-state dispute settlement mechanism (ISDS), which undermines democratic governance by providing foreign investors with special rights and private tribunals they can use to bully governments out of enacting health, worker training, environmental and other needed reforms.   Importantly, there is no data available on the number of times investors have threatened but not filed cases once the policy they opposed was withdrawn or amended. However, we know the ‘chill factor’ caused by the threat of such cases undermines democratic choices about how best to enact policies needed to achieve decent work for all and other SDGs.   The TPP also undermines access to affordable medicines and health technologies, undermining the third SDG. By including many TRIPS-plus disciplines such as patent extensions, patent evergreening and minimum market exclusivity periods for biologic medicines, US trade policies delay entry of generic medicines and devices and tend to raise health care costs for patients and government health care programs.   Finally, the TPP is unlikely to help ensure labour rights and increase workplace safety. Although it requires parties to adopt and maintain fundamental labour rights, the US has a poor record of monitoring and enforcing such obligations. In reality, labour conditions degraded in Mexico and Central America after trade deals between the US and those countries went into force.   To achieve the SDGs, including inclusive growth and shared prosperity, the working people of the world need an effective collective voice in the workplace, not mere lip service. To walk the talk, global institutions like UNCTAD must turn away from neoliberal trade policies toward more progressive, inclusive ones. 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	Community sector calls for end of Government flawed auto debt recovery program by Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS)   An automated debt recovery program undertaken by the Australian Department of Human services targeting welfare recipents has drawn extensive criticism and caused widespread anxiety and needless suffering for many vulnerable people. The much criticised scheme has led to a Senate Inquiry and Commonwealth Ombudsman report, highlighting numerous failings.   This Australian circumstance has global implications, highlighting the dangers of the delivery of Government social supports and services via automated, digitalised, computerised methods of delivery and the serious shortfalls that can arise without adequate human oversight and case review mechanisms, adequate staffing in public sector agencies, effective ethical, integrity and accountability standards, and the risks associated with the outsourcing of Government services to private sector actors. Such failures of automated Government financial systems, with inadequate oversight and integrity checks and balances has potentially damaging impacts to millions of vulnerable people worldwide.   Feb. 2019   The Australian Council of Social Service welcomes the landmark case launched by Victoria Legal Aid in the Federal Court, challenging the disastrous Centrelink automated debt recovery system, Robodebt.   Victoria Legal Aid is representing Madeleine Masterton, who works as a nurse in a Melbourne hospital and was pursued by Centrelink for an alleged Robodebt of around $4,000 without information on how it was calculated. Victoria Legal Aid is arguing that the process of estimating debts through Robodebt is unlawful.   ACOSS CEO Dr Cassandra Goldie said: “Robodebt has unleashed tens of thousands of debt notices in error to parents, people with disabilities, carers, students and people seeking paid work, resulting in people slapped with Centrelink debts they do not owe or debts higher than they owe.   “It has been a devastating abuse of government power that has caused extensive harm, particularly among people who are the most vulnerable in our community.   “ACOSS has repeatedly called for Robodebt to be stopped, warning of the serious harm it is causing.   “We have repeatedly warned the Government that Robodebt is grossly unfair and contrary to basic legal principles, especially the use of automated averaging to calculate debts, and the reversal of onus of proof, which is leading to inaccurate assessments of what people may, or may not, owe, and of people being pursued for debts they do not owe.   “It is disappointing that it is being left to an individual and her lawyers to litigate in the Courts to stop this injustice. ACOSS congratulates them for their courage and determination in taking up this legal challenge. We urge the Government to act now and end this fundamentally flawed and brutal debt collection system.   “Robodebt is among a long list of policies from this Federal Government that degrade and harass people living with disability, caring for children, studying or searching for paid work.   “Instead of making life harder for people with damaging policies like Robodebt, the Cashless Debit Card and ParentsNext, a good government would increase the grossly inadequate Newstart unemployment benefit and Youth Allowance payments to ensure our social safety net does not trap people in poverty.   “Our social security safety net should provide people with the support and dignity they need to escape the poverty.” http://bit.ly/2BmzmuN   http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/centrelink-debt-recovery   Oct. 2017   Overdue Care. (Editorial: The Saturday Paper)   The government’s response is that it doesn’t care. It will not suspend its flawed system of debt collection. It defends its actions in inaccurately and inappropriately raising thousands of debts against Australians. It feels no contrition or need to apologise.   It has taken three months for the government to respond to the senate report into the robo-debt fiasco. In doing so, it has dismissed complaints made against the system as “third parties … aimed solely at scoring political points”.   This is the system that, by the government’s own estimates, claimed incorrect debts against at least 20,000 people (independent reports suggest 40,000). It is the system that began pursuing debts even as they were contested, that set private debt collectors on thousands of people.   It is the system built on an algorithm the government knew was flawed, that was used as a means of vindictiveness against vulnerable people.   Before the inquiry, the government acted to suppress critics. It and the department leaked private information about detractors. So fearful were some welfare recipients of explaining their experience that evidence had to be given in camera.   This is a system that cannot be defended, but the government defends it.   “The government is committed to maintaining a strong social welfare safety net. This requires that there be integrity in the welfare system,” its response said.   “Each person should receive exactly what they are entitled to, no more and no less. This principle has been in place under successive governments and has not changed.”   The government doesn’t care about the flaws in this system because the government doesn’t care about the people it serves.   It does not trouble the government that this system is needlessly vindictive. It does not trouble the government that error is its most consistent marker.   The cruelty of it is part of the design. The system of recovery exists to reinforce the view that welfare recipients are predisposed to fraud.   A society that does not wish to support the needy makes crimes of their need. This system makes criminals out of those who owe nothing. It falsely accuses thousands and then asks them to prove their innocence.   In any other portfolio, a system so delinquent, so bent by inaccuracy, would be immediately discontinued. There would be no excuse to keep it running.   But the government keeps this running because it says one thing: the concerns of the poor will not bend the government’s resolve.   It does not matter that the sums recovered are inconsequential in comparison with the hardship unfairly wrought. Those errors are necessary to prove the government right.   To reject the senate inquiry is to reject fact. It is in this state of vicious fantasy that the government now routinely operates. http://bit.ly/2hJizHt   Mar. 2017   Australian Community sector calls for end of Department of Human Services flawed auto debt recovery program.   A consortium of leading organisations from Australia’s community sector is calling on the government to immediately pull the plug on the Department of Human Services (Centrelink) RoboDebt, cease the intimidation and bullying of Centrelink clients and their families caught up in the automated debt recovery debacle, and provide a commitment that people’s protected information will not be publicly released.   Spokesperson for the group Cassandra Goldie, CEO of ACOSS, says the Minister for Human Services Alan Tudge must respond to people’s very real concerns about privacy, particularly with the opening of the Senate inquiry into Centrelink and the flawed RoboDebt scheme.   “First the Minister threatened people who had a debt with jail time. Now, he has released private information in response to a client who publicly challenged the error-riddled scheme. The effect is a climate of fear for individuals and families affected across Australia.   “We call on the Minister to:   Pull the plug on the Government’s flawed and unfair automated RoboDebt recovery system; Ensure people contacted about potential overpayments are not bullied or intimidated; Guarantee fundamental principles of procedural fairness and reasonableness apply to all Centrelink clients; Protect people’s confidentiality and privacy, particularly during the Senate inquiry; and Convene a roundtable of key stakeholders and experts as soon as possible to design a humane and fair approach to debt recovery.   “RoboDebt’s flawed data-matching has caused immense distress and anxiety among people targeted. Instead of responding to the damaging effect of this government program on people affected, Minister Tudge has targeted those who speak out.   “The Minister was wrong to release private information and we fear it will reduce people’s willingness to come forward and tell their stories at the Senate inquiry into RoboDebt and Centrelink.   “We welcome the Privacy Commissioner’s invitation for anyone concerned about the security of their personal information to contact his office.   “Centrelink payments are there as a safety net for when people really need it.   “A $3,000 debt notice to a government minister may not seem like a lot of money, but for a person trying to make ends meet, it is a tipping point.   “The community sector reiterates its call for urgent redesign of Centrelink’s debt recovery process in light of the ongoing systemic problems. We need a process that is accurate, humane and fair. “RoboDebt must be shut down before more harm is done.”   * Centrelink sent about 217,000 initial debt letters between July and December 2016, 36,305 of which did not result in a debt: http://bit.ly/2nZHPMs   Signatories:   ACOSS, Adult Learning Australia, Australian Catholic Social Justice Council, Australian Neighbourhood Houses and Centres Association, Children and Young People with Disability Australia, Cohealth, CORE Community Services, Council to Homeless Persons, CPSU (PSU Group), Catholic Social Services Australia (CSSA), Danila Dilba Health Service, Dawn House, Disabled People’s Organisations Australia, Down Syndrome Australia, Edmund Rice Centre, Federation of Ethnic Communitie’s Councils of Australia, Financial Counselling Australia, Forster Foundation, GetUp, Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand, Homelessness NSW, National Association of Community Legal Centres (NACLC), National Ethnic Disability Alliance (NEDA), National Shelter, National Social Security Rights Network, NSW Council of Social Service, NT Shelter Inc, NTCOSS, People with Disability Australia, RUAH Community Services, SACOSS, Save the Children, Southern Youth and Family Services, St Vincent de Paul Society, TasCOSS, VCOSS, Victoria Legal Aid, Welfare Rights Centre Sydney, Western Australian Council of Social Service, Women with Disabilities Australia (WWDA), Youth Action, agencies.   http://bit.ly/2otkuFb http://bit.ly/2ovwy9L http://bit.ly/2n5Rjsi http://bit.ly/2nVcnkd http://bit.ly/2o3I77i http://huff.to/2o3ODuG   * Senate Committee investigation, see ACOSS submission, see Community Sector Union submission for Centrelink staff experiences: http://bit.ly/2ny5pOu Visit the related web page
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