I'LL admit it started with Greta Thunberg.
Being lectured by a child on the future of a world was too much from the get-go, and so I instinctively switched off, and doubt I've heard more than half a sentence of hers since she started talking.
The plaintive "behave better or we'll all be rooned" was old when Catholic priest Patrick Hartigan published Said Hanrahan as bush poet "John O'Brien" in 1919.
So when Mike Cannon-Brookes - emboldened by the wealth from his software company Atlassian - began to lecture Australians on climate change as a sort of bearded and unkempt Greta Thunberg, I wasn't exactly receptive.
His latest bid to buy energy company AGL, to shut down Victoria's Loy Yang A and our own Bayswater power station (on top of Liddell), hasn't changed anything.
It's not been the woe betide messages, as such, that have grated, but Atlassian's attitudes to tax, which I first read about in Joe Aston's Rear Window column in the Australian Financial Review.
Rear Window online on February 23, 2020 was headlined "Mike Cannon-Brookes doesn't merit being listened to".
A second heading said "The Atlassian co-founder is worth $15 billion but doesn't pay a cent of company tax in Australia".
(He and wife Annie are worth $29 billion now, according to the AFR Rich List.)
MCB had been lionised for his response to the 2018 bushfires.
One AFR article implied a spirit of philanthropy by saying "Cannon-Brookes gives $12 million", when, as Aston pointed out, it was money going into a for-profit plan for off-grid solar and battery power units.
"What's truly galling about Cannon-Brookes' sermons, what grates most in his clamorous policy demands of the government he failed in May to un-elect, is his undersized contribution to the national effort," Aston wrote.
"Atlassian pays zero company tax to Canberra on greater than $1 billion of revenue booked here, thanks in no small part to its (welcome) use of the Research and Development Tax Incentive."
The online version included a Twitter exchange between journalists Marcus Strom - "Zero carbon. Zero tax. The woke capitalist libertarian dream" - and Stephen Long, who said he hated "corporate tax evasion and aggressive avoidance" but it was "likely Atlassian would have carry-over tax losses", making it "perfectly legal".
Aston continued: "In 2014, Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar embarked upon a highly complex London-based structure that enables the arbitrage of global tax codes and ensures their tech darling will pay very little tax for a very long time."
Noting there was "nothing improper about that", Aston said Gina Rinehart's Hancock Prospecting had paid $352 million of company tax (plus state mining royalties) in 2018. Fortescue, founded by Andrew Forrest - another Aston target over his hyping of hydrogen - paid $393 million.
Even if it's entirely proper, as someone who's paid 20 per cent of my wages in tax for 40 years, I'm disinclined to listen to those who spend big on tax lawyers then burnish their reputations with "philanthropy".
The 20 per cent comes from a 2021 OECD paper at odds with claims of supposedly excessive tax rates, with Australia 24th highest out of 38 OECD member countries.
I'm also amused that someone worried about climate change and rising sea levels would spend a reputed $100 million on an absolute Sydney Harbour frontage, unless he was campaigning to protect his property.
Naturally, I asked Atlassian why we should listen to someone who reportedly pays little or no tax in this country, and who buys harbourside property while warning about rising sea levels.
"Appreciate the detailed email," came the reply.
"On tax - Mike is well on the record on this topic, it's by the book. Atlassian does pay tax, our bill is reduced due to R&D credits. We spend a large amount of money on research and development.
"This creates jobs here in Australia. It helps grow the economy. Because of the government's R&D Tax Incentive, this investment reduces income tax payable.
"On property - we won't be commenting on Mike's private matters."
I am surprised that few other journalists appear to have questioned Atlassian's tax practices.
Another who has, the fearless Michael West - Google him, please - wrote of MCB's "tricky" tax advisers this week, while supporting the AGL bid.
Similarly, Atlassian is rarely mentioned when our politicians attack tech giants over tax.
To close, I'll let MCB have the final say, via a piece he posted on his blog in December 2018, titled: "How to use your imposter syndrome as an asset".
"Take one look at my title (co-founder and co-CEO of Atlassian) and you'd think I know what I'm doing when I turn up to work every day," MCB began.
"Let me let you in on a secret: most days, I feel like a fraud. Like I don't really know what I'm doing."
He describes himself as "a professional imposter" and and acknowledges a sense of "getting away with something".
So, who am I to disagree with him?
