I am still flying over the dark and mysterious seas, which seems as good a time as any to consider the mystery that is Immanuel Shmuel.
Mr Shmuel is a strange candidate indeed. He ran as a candidate for Australian Voice a few years ago, which alas tells us little about his views on the world, since they seemed to be a bit all over the place politically, with individual party members creating individual policies.
Mr Shmuel has no political website, though he does have one for his financial planning website, which has a logo that is one big Star of David with lots of little stars of David, and also his initials, IS, in a very cursive, Arabic-looking script, which seems a little unfortunate given current associations with those initials. Conversely, his Facebook page – and yes, it is the same man – is full of inspirational quotes, many of which seem to have quite a strong Christian bent, and there is also Arabic text. And then he has this odd slogan:
‘I am’ Australian, collectively, ‘I am’ Australia. Feel, sense and own the same.
I can’t tell if the emphasis on ‘I am’ is a strange reference to YHWH (in which case, what does he mean by it?), or if I have been spending too much time around Old Testament theologians in the last week and am reading way to much into what is just a weird choice of punctuation.
Seriously, this is doing my head in.
(It is not my intention to harp on a candidate’s possible religious affiliations, but Mr Shmuel’s online presence seems to be remarkably full of very mixed religious symbology, and very little else, suggesting that religion that is pretty important to him. I’m finding this very distracting, especially given the dearth of other material I have to work with.)
Mr Shmuel has a brief spiel on Facebook that starts with Shakespeare, continues with the New Testament, and then talks about money,
Friends, country men & women, Australians! consider choosing me as one of your 12 Victorian Senate representatives on 2/7/2016. Love your enemies & pray for those who persecute you. Passion: senior, health, education, law, business, security.
To maintain a family or business – money is required
To maintain a country – money is required
If you care and wish to protect the land Australia we call home please pass it onto all your context.
As I speak / write to you, I am made aware, that you as Australians will be paying tax on income you will never receive or see?
The more concerning issue is that an Australia Wide retail company has asked for INTERPOL to intervene to collect the money they have lost?
If you prefer another candidate, mark me as your 2 choice. By doing so you are choosing individuals and not as part of the party. Vote 2-12 to other independent candidates to keep independence between upper and lower houses, integrity and to avoid conflict of interest.
Honestly, I have no idea what to make of this, or of Mr Shmuel. I am entirely bewildered, and I’m pretty sure it is not sleep-deprivation this time. This is just a really, really, strange candidate statement, from what I suspect is a kind-hearted, but not notably coherent, candidate.
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Edited by Catherine from the future: And his Facebook page has, in the last 18 hours, just broken out into endless bible quotes and shared posts from the Australian Christian Lobby, as well as lots of anti-Brexit stuff.
Also, he is now posting repeated requests for your vote, which all start with
“Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you”.
“Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.”
“When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are:”
I’d say we’re looking at conservative evangelical Christian, here, with all that this implies about his policies, though he is also apparently part of the Jewish Christian Muslim Association, which might explain the mixed symbology. No idea what he thinks about refugees or the environment, but he does link to Lyle Shelton talking about the evils of Marriage Equality, so I think we can guess where he stands on this issue.
Hi Cate, you will be pleased to learn that Mr Shmuel has had his Tax Practitioners Board Registration cancelled for not being a fit and proper person.
Mr Shmuel had failed to comply with his personal tax obligations, made false and misleading statements in his Annual Declaration to the Board and failed to respond to a Board request in a timely, responsible and reasonable matter as required by the Code of Professional Conduct (Code).
In determining that Mr Shmuel was not a fit and proper person, the Board also took into consideration the fact that he had not notified the Board of his bankruptcy notice (following outstanding tax liabilities in excess of $109,000) and guilty plea to a criminal charge involving dishonesty under the Criminal Code of the Commonwealth.
The AAT’s decision affirmed that as a tax agent, Mr Shmuel was expected to uphold a higher standard of care than the general public in relation to his personal tax obligations. Tax practitioners have an advanced knowledge of tax laws and it is reasonable to assume they understand the importance of lodging tax returns on time.
Interesting, thank you.
For anyone else wandering through, I’m attaching the link to Mr Shmuel’s page on the Tax Practitioners’ Board website, which shows him as removed in October last year. Presumably, if he gets reinstated, this will also appear at the link. https://www.tpb.gov.au/tax-practitioner/tax-agent/71288000
Catherine