Commonwealth Bank CEO Matt Comyn had had enough of attacks on business. “For a company to earn any sort of income or profit, it is inferred that it is somehow unjustly extracted from consumers,” he raged to a parliamentary committee at the end of August. “That sort of fact-free rhetoric which is being published more broadly is very damaging. It is eroding trust in our institutions, all of our institutions. It is a real cause for concern.”
Comyn’s rant was backed by media commentators — James Thomson, of the once-respected Chanticleer column; Tory maven Jennifer Hewett — who railed against the undermining of respect for business. The AFR editorialised that Comyn had administered a “reality check” to increasing populism, adding there was no evidence that the supermarkets had gouged customers.
As it turned out, the only reality check was the one coming to Comyn and the AFR. Three weeks later, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission commenced proceedings against Coles and Woolworths for ripping off customers via fake specials.
In the month since then, there’s been a ceaseless parade of big business misconduct. Comyn’s outfit got fined $7.5 million for 170 million breaches of Australia’s spam laws. It was the second time in 18 months the Commonwealth Bank had been pinged for such breaches, suggesting it couldn’t care less about adhering to the law.
And earlier this month we found out that, contrary to ANZ Bank chief executive Shayne Elliott’s assurances there was nothing to see here, the Australian Federal Police had conducted four raids over ANZ’s alleged bond sale rigging. That was just after the ANZ lost an attempt to overturn a Federal Court decision that it breached the law in a capital-raising a decade ago.
ANZ, remember, got pinged in July by the banking industry’s own regulator for continuing the pre-Hayne royal commission tradition of charging dead people fees.
Meanwhile two billionaires are in the spotlight: Mineral Resources managing director Chris Ellison, a confessed tax rorter whose “10-year tax evasion scheme” cost investors millions, according to one of several great stories on Ellison’s tax dealings by Neil Chenoweth. Then there’s the “LinkedIn Lecher”, Richard White, whose conduct has cost WiseTech investors $6 billion in market value.
And yesterday we were given another reminder of what a pack of bastards Qantas is: the Federal Court made a preliminary finding about how much compensation, and penalties, the airline is going to have to pay the more than 1,700 workers it illegally sacked, with the cost likely to reach $100 million in compensation alone. That comes on top of the $120 million Qantas paid earlier this year in fines for lying to customers about “ghost flights” it used to hoard slots at major airports, and which it never had any intention of operating.
Inexplicably, several members of the Qantas board that oversaw the sacking decision are still in place: Belinda Hutchinson, Antony Tyler and Australian capitalism’s court jester, Todd Sampson. CEO Vanessa Hudson was chief financial officer when Qantas broke the law to sack baggage-handling staff. None appears to have faced any consequences.
Nor are Coles and Woolies the only retailers in the firing line: Harvey Norman was last week found to have misled consumers about its credit services. Then there’s the increasingly sordid battle between Super Retail Group and two whistleblowers.
The last week has also revealed deeply toxic and entrenched bullying and harassment at Nine. The company’s attempt to blame this abuse and misconduct on “culture” was derailed by staff fury that individual perpetrators looked like they would face no consequences, forcing the company to promise investigations into individuals alleged to have bullied and harassed staff. Despite all that, Nine still hasn’t plumbed the depths of the “second-chance club” that is Seven West Media (share price: 17 cents), where rapists and war criminals are made to feel at home.
Where’s Comyn and his media cheerleaders now to whinge about populism and unwarranted criticism of business? To lament that politicians — and not big business itself — are undermining faith in institutions? To complain that they make profits legitimately and not by breaking the law?
Here’s some useful advice for business complaining about being targeted by “populism”. Don’t price gouge and charge dead people. Don’t mislead customers. Don’t illegally sack workers. Don’t allow bullies and sexual predators to run rampant in your workplaces and use NDAs to gag their victims. Don’t declare war on whistleblowers. Don’t serially break the law. Don’t evade taxes. Make executives and board members, including founders, face consequences for their actions or inaction. Treat Australians, and Australian laws, with some respect, rather than as impediments to maximising your personal wealth.
You might find it works miracles for your community standing.
