If you’re sick of ‘woke’ corporations caving to the increasingly extreme demands of noisy far-left activists, you’re not alone. The Morrison government is putting corporate Australia on notice that it sorely needs to get back to its fulfilling its proper function: making money for shareholders, building the economy, and shutting the hell up about social issues.
Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister, Ben Morton, has lashed business for being seduced by “self-appointed moral guardians” and joining campaigns on social issues rather than on tax and industrial relations.
Mr Morton, who is driving Scott Morrison’s deregulation agenda, used a speech at an Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry event to attack the body for taking campaign advice from GetUp.
GetUp, like Sleeping Bullies Giants, are a tiny clique of leftists who use social-media astroturfing and rivers of dodgy cash to try and bully mainstream Australia into bowing to their extremist agendas, from climate change to LGBTQWERTY ‘rights’. Voters soundly rejected all but one of GetUp’s puppet candidates at the last election.
[Mr Morton] warned corporate leaders they should expect no favours from the government unless they were at the forefront of selling how business-friendly policies will improve the lives of “quiet Australians”.
“Last year I had some things to say about ACCI having the activist group, GetUp, address this summit on how to achieve campaign cut through. I think the expression is: That worked well, didn’t it?”
From Qantas’s endless virtue-signalling on gay marriage (a staggering hypocrisy, given Qantas’s partnerships with gay-hating Middle-Eastern countries), to the AFL hectoring its patrons about ‘wrongspeak’ or imaginary racism, too many corporates have fallen for the left-wing baloney about ‘corporate social responsibility’. Meanwhile, they neglect actual business issues.
Mr Morton said business had “too often” been on the frontline of social issues but “missing in action” on economic debates.
“Too often I see corporate Australia succumb or pander to similar pressures from noisy, highly orchestrated campaigns of elites typified by groups such as GetUp or activist shareholders,” Mr Morton said.
“Business should not be seduced by the noisy elites who try to bend business to their narrow viewpoints.
“I have an old fashioned view that business should act honestly and within the law, provide the best possible product or service, and maximise return to their shareholders.
“So instruct your public affairs units. Instead of pretending you love paying tax or that you’re building electric cars rather than mining coal, or are in the solar panel rather than the oil or gas business, tell your employees and the quiet Australians in their communities – what you can do for them.”
theaustralian.com.au/business/business-seduced-by-noisy-elites-mia-on-tax-industrial-relations
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has also chimed in, warning them that the government wanted business “step up and focus discussions that led to better outcomes for workers and their families”.
The BFD has already written about Harvey Norman’s rejection of diversity quotas, concentrating instead on the old fashioned business of actually making money rather than getting woke and going broke.
Former Business Council of Australia president and former Transfield chairman Tony Shepherd condemned business leaders who failed to concentrate on their core responsibilities, saying “this whole corporate social responsibility thing has got out of hand”.
“Companies should look after their employees, their customers, abide by the laws and they should care for the community in which they live in and operate. Harvey Norman are a great example.”
theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/morrison-reads-riot-act-to-big-business-over-workers