Business Council of Australia (BCA) chief Tony Shepherd was on his bipartisan and diplomatic best when he addressed the National Press Council on April 17 to outline the peak corporate body's “economic vision and action plan for Australia”.
But if you sweep aside the verbal camouflage, these were the core messages from the corporate rich delivered in the BCA chief's speech:
1. “We own you.”
“We are not doing this work because we see ourselves as having special authority,” he said.
“Together we directly employ ten and a half million Australians. We pay $440 billion a year in wages and salaries. Companies pay some $70 billion per year in company tax and royalties — close to the entire national education spend — and most Australians have the majority of their savings invested in our business success, either directly as shareholders or through their super.”
Yes, the corporate rich believe they own us, their workers, the governments and even our compulsory savings.
2. “We want to pay even less tax.”
“Australia’s current system no longer suits our economy — it’s not competitive, there are too many taxes and it’s overly complex.”
3. “We want more privatisation.”
“Governments should sell infrastructure they don’t need to own, and use the funds to partner with the private sector to provide new infrastructure.”
4. “Bring back ‘Work Choices’ and get rid of unions.”
“We will continue to argue for practical, sensible changes to the Fair Work Act... Direct engagement between employees and their employers or managers is fundamental to doing things better and differently. Not through a third party arbitrator, employer association or union.”
5. “Give us free rein to profit at the expense of workers, communities and the environment.”
“Regulation is choking businesses. All businesses — small, medium and large... Action on climate change shouldn’t put our business competitiveness at a disadvantage by moving ahead of the rest of the world.
“We should become a world leader in attracting foreign investment and lift the general foreign investment screening threshold to $1.1 billion for all countries.”
6. “Australia should go nuclear.”
“And there should be no policy restrictions on the type of technology we use to lower emissions... Nuclear, gas and clean coal should all be on the table — not excluded on ideological grounds.”
This is a little glimpse of the corporate rich’s ugly vision for our future. Week after week, Green Left Weekly provides an ongoing platform to challenge that vision.
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