Threats useless, let’s see penalties

HOW many industries and crooks do we have to “put on notice” before the government stops the rot that has taken over Australia’s corporate culture?

Almost every regulator and consumer watchdog has been thumping desks and growling as they pretend all the corporate scams are under control. But it is just that, pretence.

The list of industries that have been warned (again) to clean up their act seems endless: the car industry, the energy sector, utility companies, insurers, superannuation funds, banks, retailers, childcare organisations, company boards, advertisers, mortgage brokers and even politicians.

Cyberspace is choked with warnings and final notices, while the culprits just nod, gravely, and continue their dirty tactics.

Well, here’s a novel suggestion. How about stop the warnings and exercise the law instead?

What is the point of repeatedly putting these industries and companies on notice when we already have the laws and the evidence to stop them? There are countless reviews, reports and committee findings that detail the wrongdoings, yet the government still does nothing. The most action we get is another lapdog putting them on notice with the threat of “or else”.

And there’s the rub. Or else what? So let’s just forget all the public theatrics and get straight to the “or else”.

If they’re breaking the law, prosecute them. Or is that the real problem?

Has the culture become so rotten throughout corporate and political Australia that fraud, rip-offs and general dishonesty have become accepted practice?

Has 25 years of economic and financial growth allowed us to put greed ahead of everything else?

Has dishonesty become so deeply entrenched in our culture, our social, political and business sectors that it is now out of control?

How many times, for example, has there been another revelation of an energy company or telco ripping off its customers, and everyone just shrugs and shakes their heads and accepts it as normal.

Or, the bank shareholder who emailed me to complain last week that every time Your Hip Pocket highlighted the latest illegal activity or customer scam, he and his fellow shareholders suffered.

The bank’s shares declined, temporarily. Just shut up about it, he demanded.

He doesn’t think there is anything wrong in companies acting illegally or ripping off customers, because he profits from it by a bigger dividend and a bigger capital gain.

No guilt or care for the millions of customers who were the victims. And no thought about the ethics and morals of doing the wrong thing.

Sadly, the shareholder was simply adopting the culture of his bank. The rot starts at the head and if the bank board turned a blind eye, then so would he. Profit at all cost.

Or the two callers to talkback radio who blamed the victim of a gas bill scam.

“What did she expect? She should have known they would do that,” they said.

How have we come to such a low point when we expect and accept dishonesty?