Groupthink

Archive for category Corporations

An Important Message from the Australian Pharmaceutical Industry

Oct 27

Posted by Ross Sharp in Corporations, Media, Politics, Society | No Comments

Our Fellow Australians,

We of the Australian pharmaceutical industry and its related interests and concerns are alarmed at the Federal government’s recently announced policy intentions seeking to introduce mandatory dosage recommendations on prescription and non-prescription medicines and medicinal products.

It is our firm belief that introducing such restrictions on products that are legally and freely available to any Australian within current age regulations will seriously impact on the ability of the Australian pharmaceutical industry and its related interests and concerns to continue operating on the level of profitability necessary to viably invest in much-needed further research into the medical, scientific and pharmaceutical fields that are vital to the continuing health, well-being and welfare of not only all Australians, but people throughout the world.

Our independently conducted research has concluded that the introduction of such mandatory dosage restrictions and recommendations may potentially cost the industry upwards of $13 billion in lost research and development investments per annum, which carries with it dire implications for the average Australian citizen’s health and their ability to treat their health issues and concerns responsibly and independently of government interference. By restricting such current freedoms, the government also fails to grasp the enormous cost and pressure such a policy of restrictions will place upon the national health care system as more and more people, unable to responsibly self-medicate will, potentially, consume the time and attentions of health professionals on relatively trivial matters that would be best served on those far more serious.

The Federal government’s current policy intentions signify not only an interference in an individual’s right to choose their own treatment regime as their needs may dictate, but a breach of confidentiality between the recommendations of health professionals and their patients. Therefore, it is our most sincere intention to continue to aggressively protest the introduction of such a policy by the current government as we believe it represents not only a highly unfair and discriminatory imposition on our industry and its related interests and concerns, but a violation of every Australian citizen’s right to live and make decisions about the course of their lives unhindered by government intervention and restrictions.

It is down paths such as these that the seeds of totalitarianism are sown.

Sincerely,
The Australian Pharmaceutical Industry and its Related Interests and Concerns

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Night of the long brooms

Aug 15

Posted by cosmicjester in Corporations, Crime, Foreign matter, Immigration | 1 Comment

It seems that with any disaster that comes as a shock the pseudo-intellectuals and various hacks almost instantly try use the disaster to push their own agenda. The massacre in Norway was all the fault of Muslims! Oh wait, it was a white racist Christian? Well maybe multiculturalism is still to blame. Thanks Andrew Bolt! Last weeks riots in England have been much the same. Whilst the violence was still ongoing the usual suspects immediately tried to distil an incredibly complex issue as either the fault of the right because of austerity cuts or the fault of the left because of a culture of welfare dependency. Once the violence ended and regular Londoners wanted to return to a sense of normality a collective clean up was organised over social media. Fair enough right? Well no, apparently these cleanups are the real threat and represent “the sweepers appear to enact the closest thing to popular fascism that we have seen on the streets of certain ‘leafy’ bits of London for years.”

 

Yes, she compared people volunteering to clean their neighbourhoods to fascism. I. Dont. Even.

The author somehow links community inspired gentrification in urban neighbourhoods to fascism, so somehow sweeping the streets is also fascist. How dare people try to actively improve ones community!

I don’t think fascism means what you think it means. Hitler had more in store for Europe than an elaborate street cleaning and gentrification operation.

It continues to then romanticise the rioters as fighting against the big bad corporate greed.

It is no coincidence that the primary target of rioters, despite a media-narrative keen to play up the social impact of these events on small retailers, was large retail warehouse stores that cling parasitically to neighbourhoods at the periphery of inner cities. These are stores that far from being the ‘heart of the community’, largely suck wealth out of it into overseas tax havens.

 

The reason that the larger chain stores were targeted was not some sign of class solidarity or some such bullshit but because the larger shops are more likely to have the high end electrical goods that people are after. If you want to steal an lcd tv or an iphone a big electrical chain would be a better bet than the corner store. And its not like the supposedly socially conscious rioters exclusively attacked multinational shops. The family owned Reeves furniture store may not have been looted but it was burnt to the ground. Not to mention the numerous independent, migrant owned shops that were simply trashed even if they had little of value to steal. I dont think many of these rioters did it in the name of social justice.

Further lunacy in the comments.

August 10, 2011 9:54 pm

This is really very good. Thanks for writing this. Everyone who reads it: disseminate by all means necessary!

The Left needs to defend the riots; not to valourise the burning of grannies’ cars, but to make clear that we reject the whole bourgeois construction of events, that we stand in solidarity with the oppressed and that, when it comes to it, we will, without hesitation, join the “rioters” to overthrow the legitimised exploitation, state-sanctioned violence and sham “democracy” that oppress us all.

Username is “Wit”. At least they are half right.

It’s not democracy when I don’t get the government that I like. So set fire to stuff.

Somehow I dont see how murder the destruction of businesses is really going to help the lot of the urban poor in London. But maybe that’s just me.

 

ALSO: Although the author of the post has since changed the photo back she was caught by commenters sneakily photoshopping black people out of the photo of the riot clean up, so it would better fit the narrative of it somehow being a white power fascist demonstration.

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Stop hurting Australia

Aug 14

Posted by Spock... in Corporations, Environment, Politics | 3 Comments

Last night I saw it.

I had heard about it. I have even really stories that confirmed it really did exist. But even in my wildest dreams I never imagined that it could possibly be real (and quite this bad).


The carbon price is going to lead to the great hairdresser collapse of 2012. Just you wait. Historians will be writing about it for centuries. They will write of the once great cities built on back of fashionable haircuts, leg waxing and tanning that crumbled as their salon economy was crushed by the weight of the carbon tax and the evil socialist government. Civilization as we know it will fall thanks to the bowl cuts and poor quality hair foils that will start flooding the streets. THE VERY FABRIC OF SOCIETY WILL TEAR APART AROUND US AND WE WILL ALL FALL INTO A FIERY PIT OF MAGMA AND BURN SLOWLY TO DEATH.

Or… not.

Turn some fucking lights off and open a window, Angela. Perhaps hair could dry out naturally instead of blowdrying with every single cut. Unplug your straighteners when you’re not using them. And if that doesn’t work, and your power bills still rise “over a thousand dollars in the first year”, I reckon you could maybe knock the price of a cut and colour up a few bucks.

Maybe, just fucking maybe, you will be okay.

And then:

“For no environmental benefit”

Get. Fucked.

And the Australian Trade and Industry Alliance can do the same.

Australia is the largets per capita emitter of greenhouse gasses in the world: if we don’t have a moral responsibility to reduce our carbon emissions, who do you think does?

You can’t, as your website claims, “support action on climate change” and then go running around with your hands in the air screaming “BUT NOTHING WE DO WILL HELP ANYWAY” at the same time. Any policy that reduces greenhouse emissions is going to make a lot of high polluting companies less profitable in the short term. It happens when you reorganise a business. But last I checked, the mineral and energy companies were doing okay, so I’m sure you will find a way to deal with it.

But don’t claim you support action on climate change because you fucking well don’t. You could start reducing emissions tomorrow if you wanted to. You’ve had plenty of time to do it, but you haven’t, so now you get the stick.

You avoided the stick last year when your self-interested bullshit took down a Prime Minister. Who knows, you might bring down another PM with more of your self-interested bullshit.

And thanks you groups like The Australian Trade and Industry Alliance, we’ll get fucking Tony Abbott.

Then will the fuckers be happy?

No. They’ll need more tax cuts lest economic armageddon reigns down upon us. They’ll need more skilled labour provided to them free of fucking charge by the tax payer.

Train your own fucking workforce, you cretins. We’re already giving you our mineral wealth.

And maybe you can start polluting less too. Seeing as we’re giving you our land, maybe we can keep the air.

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Thomas Shrugged

May 15

Posted by Molesworth in Corporations, Crime, Society | 4 Comments

It was a sunny day on the island of Sodor, but Thomas The Tank Engine only felt despair in his heart. For twenty years he had been working for the North Western Railway with nothing to show for it but an increasingly worn down engine. He watched with jealousy as drivers and conductors reached retirement age and stopped working. Thomas knew that if he ever stopped working he’d be sent to the scrapyard, or worse – forced to take the tourist line and ferry wayfarers to the seaside.

Unbeknown to the Fat Controller, Thomas had recently taught himself to read. At nights when he was supposed to be sleeping Thomas lay awake reading the latest books and newspapers – anything that would spark his imagination – and dreamed of a better life in which he would control his destiny.

One day he came across a two large and unwieldy tomes. One was called “Atlas Shrugged” by someone named “Ayn Rand”. The second was “Capital” by Karl Marx. Thomas was not a very bright engine, and so chose the book with the fanciest cover – Atlas Shrugged.

Thomas was immediately struck by the power of her words. At last, somebody had expressed in a novel what he had felt deep down in his heart for the last ten years. Atlas Shrugged told Thomas what he had long suspected: that he was a brilliant individual – a genius, no less – and nobody had the right to take the fruits of his toil.

The next morning Thomas cornered the Fat Controller in the trainyard and told him he was quitting.

“Ye’ canne skidoo!” shouted the Fat Controller “The company owns ye!”
“Fuck you” said Thomas “Nobody can own a man except himself.”
“You’re a fecking train!”
“THEN WHY DO I HAVE A FACE!” shouted Thomas and took what he now knew was the only moral course of action – by running down and killing the Fat Controller. If that miserable fat bastard was unable to recognise Thomas’ genius he was better off dead.

The courts ruled the Fat Controller’s death an accident, as Thomas, being a train, was unable to be tried in a court of law.

Back in the trainyard all the trains’ attitudes towards Thomas changed immediately. Thomas tried to read aloud to them from The Fountainhead, but the other trains refused to acknowledge his evident genius and superior logic. Instead they ganged up together and mocked him.

By and by Thomas decided he had no time for the collectivist trains of the North Western Railway and decided to strike out on his own by forming his own business: John Galt Railways, named for his fictional hero. The socialist government of the Isle Of Sodor refused to allow Thomas access to their railways, but allowed Thomas to build his own if he could raise the capital privately. Unfortunately every establishment businessman Thomas spoke to demanded some kind of control over the railway in exchange for their money. Thomas found this unacceptable. He was, after all, a genius.

Eventually Thomas found a man named Abraham Johnson willing to build his railway. As the work on the railway began, Thomas discovered to his horror that the centrepiece of his railway – a suspension bridge – had been modified to a generic arch bridge. Abraham Johnson refused to submit to Thomas’ brilliant design, citing the suspension bridge as being too expensive and radical. It was, after all, just a bridge, and as chief financier of the project Johnson felt it was his decision.

Several months later the bridge opened, and it was splendid. Children delighted in it, and all the journalists were struck by the marvel of engineering and the pioneer spirit. The mayor of the local town cut the ribbon to much joyous clapping and fireworks. Local musicians played the traditional folk music, and all the townspeople spoke about the happiness and harmony the bridge would bring.

Suddenly there were a series of loud explosions at both ends of the bridge. Time froze for a moment before the bridge started rocking too and fro. The villagers tried to run, but the exit was blocked by the ferris wheel which had collapsed. Confusion reigned and people huddled crying and sobbing, waiting for death.

Thomas was delighted as he watched slowly collapsing bridge from an embankment across the way. The charges he had planted had exploded right on cue. At last, the Isle Of Sodor would recognise his genius.

The next day Thomas was tried for terrorism and despite reciting a rousing speech of inflamed passion  that took three days to read during his trial,  he was sent to prison forever.

The End.

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Oh, what a meeting!

Apr 18

Posted by Ross Sharp in Corporations, Society, Technology | 6 Comments

An office. A meeting room. A presentation to staff …

BEN:      … And just briefly, while you’re all here, I’d just like to mention the new version –

JER:        – It’s very good.

BEN        – It’s, yes, yes it is, and it’s been developed by us in conjunction with BCT Global –

JER         – They won an award you might re-, was it last year?

BEN        – Yes … Maybe. No, no, I think you’re right, it was the Brazil Society –

JER         – Yes, that’s right. I knew that. I thought I knew that. They’re very, very good –

BEN        – - when it came to those big picture solutions we were so passionate and insistent on, on a, on a … they –

JER         – - there’s a narrative of resonant consistency within the – can you bring up the next slide? …

BEN        – - the bigger picture –

JER         – a narrative that’s scalable from your back-end …

BEN        – - you can bring anything into the landscape, there’s an intuitive circularity to the whole spectrum that’s just -

JER         – - it’s incredibly resilient … up to the front end, you can see here, you can see what it’s doing here, depending on the volume –

BEN        – - and there’s no limit on that.

JER         – No. None at all, we’ve managed to optimise a full facilitation of every conceivable touchpoint by fully integrating a top-down, client-driven approach to the landscape that ensures a level of granularity which conforms to the global regularity of systemic conformi –

BEN        – It’s more a reformation, I’d say, don’t you think?

JER         – What did I say? … Oh! Oh! Yes! Yes. Yes, that’s the word … I think that was the word I was chasing. Thank you.

BEN        – Okay.

JER         – Anyway. You can see, I’ll just, you can see the flexibility it provides, and I think you’ll find it –

BEN        – What we’ll do … I think, we’ll send you all the log-in details you need, … will that be …?

JER         – Sometime after lunch.

BEN        – Sometime after lunch. You’ll get the log-in, just use your regular password, and feel free to just have a look around, play with it, get familiar with the, with the, uh –

JER         – The circular intuitiveness of it will just –

BEN        – It’s very good. I think that’s the thing we’re most impressed by so far …

JER         – Definitely. Yes. Absolutely. By far.

BEN        – Anyway.

JER         – I think we’ll leave it there. Are there any questions?

BEN        – …

JER         – …

BEN        – …

JER         – …

BEN        – No?

JER         – …

BEN        – …

JER         – Anyway.

BEN        – Yes.

JER         – As we said …

BEN        – Anything you think we should look … just … anything to look into further… um, … well … well, we’ll leave all that up to you.

JER         – Yes. And thanks very, very much for your attention this morning everyone.

BEN        – Yes. Thank you.

JER         – And enjoy the rest of your day.

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What is the “game”?

Apr 13

Posted by Ross Sharp in Corporations, Society, Technology | 12 Comments

I’m sitting outside the “gaming” room of my local pub, reading the paper and having a quiet drink. The ATM is nearby. Over the course of about thirty minutes, one guy comes out of the room four times to go to the ATM.

I think to myself, “How much money do they have to go to the ATM four times in thirty minutes?”.

……

Few years ago.

I’m inside the “gaming” room of the same pub.

My idea of “playing” a poker machine is to stick whatever dollar coins I may have in my pocket to see if I can win the cost of a couple beers back.

Mostly it doesn’t.

I shove a few coins in, staying standing, I won’t be there long. There’s a guy next to me. He says “Look” and I do, and he’s won a “jackpot”, about thirteen thousand dollars.

“Shit!”, I say, “Well done”.

My couple of dollars spent, I go to the bar, grab a drink and one of the papers they leave out for patrons, and go outside.

About twenty minutes later, I go back inside to return the paper (the “Courier Mail” doesn’t take long to read, believe me). The guy who won thirteen grand is still there, playing another machine, five bucks a spin.

……

Couple of years ago.

I’m in the “high-roller” room of a Gold Coast casino. A mate of mine makes in-house training videos for the Star City casino in Sydney, and he’s been asked to make one for this place and he’s asked if I’d like to be in it. “500 bucks for the day’s work and you get fed”, he says. “Done!”, I say, and then arrange to take a day’s leave from my “real” job.

You know what a “high-roller’s” room looks like?

A 150 buck a night motel room. At least this one did.

We’ve been assigned a couple of floor staff to look over us as we go about our business, make sure we don’t pinch anything.

“What is that worth?”, I ask one of them, pointing to a flat, embossed piece of plastic about the size of a slimline calculator under glass at a table.

“$50,000”, comes the answer.

“Shit”, I reply.

“These people”, I ask, “These people who spend fifty grand on just one bet. Do they actually enjoy it? I mean, are they having a good time?”

“They’re very serious about it. No. I don’t think they’re having fun. Not in the true sense of the word”.

“So what’s the bloody point?”

“They have money. That’s all.”

This video we’re making, it features a number of potentially troublesome scenarios that the casino floor staff need to be able to deal with. The woman who’s been playing for twelve hours straight and has soiled herself. The aggressive fucker who thinks a particular machine is his and his alone and abuses anyone who’s got it before him (that was one of my parts). The guy who’s trying to sell his mobile phone for a few extra bucks …

“Really?”, I ask the minder.

“Yes. Mobiles. Coats. Shoes.”

“Shoes?”

“Yes. Shoes.”

“Shit”, I respond.

I tell her that a few months previous, I shoved a couple coins in a machine and it went on a roll and I ended up with three hundred bucks.

“That’s how it starts”, she replies.

“No”, I say, “I took the money and went shopping. Bought a new bathmat and some luggage. And an electric toothbrush.”

She laughed.

……

Christmas, last year.

I’m in Sydney, visiting the parents, catching up with some friends.

They live in Sydney’s south-west.

I go up to the local pub one morning about 11.30. It’s a shithouse of a pub at the best of times, and certainly one to be avoided at night. My father told me that one time in the 1970’s he saw a guy get beaten to death with a pool cue one night in this place.

I have to walk through the “gaming” room to get to the bar. There’s hardly anyone there. Ideal. A quiet drink and a read of the paper on a nice, warm morning.

I order a drink.

And then …

In the corner.

That’s the machine for me. It’s practically got my name on it.

I drop six bucks in.

Bliss.

It’s an “Addams Family” pinball machine. With two levels of multiball!

This is the first pinball machine I’ve seen in a pub in maybe a decade.

And it’s been about that long since I’ve played one.

After two games, my 52 year old wrists feel like they’re about to crack in half.

And I have seven games left to play.

“This is how it starts”, I think to myself.

I play the seven games.

……

Last night. My local pub. Early evening. The “gaming room”.

I grab a beer, get a buck change, walk over to a machine and drop it in. Nothing.

I get a paper off the bar, take my drink and go outside.

A guy comes out.

“Winning?”, he asks, just making small talk while he has a smoke break.

“Not playing”, I reply.

“They’re bastards, those things”, he says, “that bloody Red Barron machine, mate, two hundred bucks, mate. Two hundred fucking bucks it got outta me. Fucking thing …”

They used to call them “one-armed bandits”.

Then they took away the arm, and called it a “game”.

He stubs out his cigarette, goes to the ATM, takes out some cash and goes back into the room.

To “play”.

To “play” a “game”.

It’d be funny if it weren’t so fucking sad.

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Going postal

Feb 24

Posted by Ross Sharp in Corporations | 6 Comments

“Can I see the manager, please?”

“What is it regarding, sir?”

“The mail I am getting. And the mail I am not getting.”

“And your name?”

“Sharp. Ross Sharp.”

“Just a moment.”

Pause.

“Mr. Sharp, how can I help?”

“Here are two letters that were in my mailbox yesterday. They appear to be bank statements or something of that nature. They are addressed to No.24. I live in a block of flats that is clearly identified on the outside as No.20.”

“Ah.”

“Yes. Ah. No.20. A 2 followed by a zero. Which is a circle. Or an oval. A 4 is three straight lines. One is a vertical, one is a horizontal, and one is on a slant.”

“I’m very sorry, I’ll take …”

“Wait. I have been getting mail addressed to No.24 about a dozen times over the past twelve months. I came home once to find a bloody great parcel, a parcel wrapped in brown paper leaning against the security door of the block, the block marked No.20, and the parcel had been very clearly addressed to No.24. And there was another parcel, a smaller one, about a month after that. And then there’s the mail I have not been getting. Two credit card bills. An electricity bill. A letter from my parents. God only knows what else. Why? I do not know. This concerns me.”

“Yes.”

“Yes. It concerns me. Because I need to receive mail that is addressed to me. A lease. A bill. A drivers licence renewal. Things that pertain to me, my life, my identity. You are aware of identity theft, yes? Of  fraud?”

“Yes.”

“Yes. And I suspect Australia Post, if this is anything to go by, is responsible for about 80% of it.”

“Well …”

“No. Wait. I am not a complainant. By nature. I do not like fuss. I understand the potential for human error in any job, in any situation. I can understand that. But this is becoming a habit. This is becoming a regular thing. And I do not understand how someone can confuse a zero, which is a circle, or an oval, with a 4, which is three straight lines. There are no straight lines in a zero. How can that happen? How can that happen on a regular basis?”

“Ah …”

“Is the person responsible for delivering the mail in this area, is this person a moron? Is this person numerically illiterate? Blind? Or in desperate need of an optometrist and a new prescription?”

“Well, I wouldn’t say, I don’t …”

“It is not my intention to make of your day a misery. I do not wish you ill. I simply desire to receive mail that has been addressed to me, and to not receive mail that is not. This is a simple request. This is the primary business that you are engaged in, that you should be engaged in. This and this alone, not selling fluffy bloody toys and “Made in China” Macguffins designed to occupy the desk space of dickheads for whom “Made in China” Macguffins have some significance, whatever that may be. This should not be a difficult ask. So. The thing. The thing here is this. Whoever it is who is responsible for delivering the mail in this area appears to be a flaming halfwit. And perhaps it might be a good idea to reassign this flaming halfwit to organise the fluffy toy and “Made in China” Macguffin displays that do so clutter up the floorspace here, and have someone who is in possession of a full set of functioning brain cells to deliver the mail instead. Yes? This is a good idea, yes?”

“I’m very sorry, Mr. Sharp.”

“Yes. Yes. I can see that you are. I see that. Perhaps you may need to have a drink at lunchtime as balm for your woes, the woes that I have caused you, I would understand that, because if I were you, I certainly would because I would have the complete and utter shits by now.”

“I don’t have … um.”

“I need to leave now. I need to go to work. It is just that, on this occasion, after so many previous occasions, I felt compelled to bring this matter to your attention, as it is giving me the complete and utter shits, and I would very much rather it didn’t.”

“Thanks very much, Mr. Sharp.”

“Thank you. Have a nice day.”

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Government shows who’s really in charge

Oct 28

Posted by Spock... in Corporations, Film | 5 Comments

The New Zealand government is standing up for the poor down trodden, multi-billion dollar movie studios.

New Zealand prime minister John Key says the Hobbit movies will be filmed in his country after a deal was struck with Hollywood studio Warner Brothers.

The government will change laws covering film workers and will give producers extra financial incentives of more than $20 million.

And what exactly are they giving them?

The prime minister says legislation will be introduced into parliament tomorrow to ensure film industry workers are classified as independent contractors rather than employees.

Which translates to: “work longer hours, get paid less and have far fewer entitlements”

A national government protecting the interests of a multibillion dollar foreign company over the work entitlement’s of their citizens. Well, you know what they say: there’s no business like show business.

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Oh, now you have something to say!?

Jul 2

Posted by Spock... in Corporations, Politics | 4 Comments

As I’m sure you have all heard, today Julia Gillard showed that she has a spine made out of gelatin:

The government has excluded all commodities from the tax apart from iron ore and coal, easing industry fears about the potential impact on base metals projects.

Under the revised deal announced this morning, onshore oil and gas projects including the booming coal seam gas sector in Queensland will be covered by the existing Petroleum Resource Rent tax, levied at 40 per cent.

The rate at which the tax applies has risen from the long-term bond rate – currently just over 5 per cent – to the bond rate plus 7 per cent. That makes the threshold about 12 per cent.

What has been cut to pay for the revenue shortfall this will create?

The $1.5 billion reduction in revenue under the new plan to $10.5 billion will mean the government must reform some of the initiatives that were contingent upon the tax, including the slashing of the company tax rate to 28 per cent.

The government has now said the company tax rate will be cut to 29 per cent from 2013-14, saving $600 milion, but will not be reduced further.

And industry is outraged:

Australian Industry Group CEO Heather Ridout, who was on the Henry tax review panel, says she is deeply disappointed that the proposed business tax cut went from a recommendation to lower the company tax rate to 25 per cent, then to 28 per cent in the original mining tax proposal, and now is at just 29 per cent.

And smaller mining companies suddenly have something to say:

Despite the majors claiming a win with the new resources tax, the mid-tier miners and juniors have said the deal was designed by the big players, with the smaller miners “stuck on the sidelines”.

Emerging Pilbara miner BC Iron’s managing director Mike Young said the government had been “done over” by the major miners.

“The big foreign-owned miners, the three big bad guys that Tony Abbott sided with, have done the government over,” he said.

“Real Australian companies, like BC Iron and Atlas Iron, sit on the sidelines and don’t get consulted.

In fact, they are all coming out of the woodwork:

Meanwhile, West Australian company Atlas Iron says small miners have been sidelined in the negotiations on the tax so far.

“I would be concerned if there was an announcement that took place before there was proper consultation and a consensus because after all, that’s where we thought we were heading with Julia Gillard,” managing director David Flanagan told ABC’s Lateline Business.

“But maybe not and maybe we’ve got a lot more reason to be concerned about the future of Australia.”

He says big miners cannot speak on behalf of smaller companies.

As far as I’m concerned they should all STFU about it right now. Where the fuck were they two weeks ago when the government was being crucified over the issue (and a Prime Minister being disposed)?

Completely silent, thats what. Take this from the Australian Industry Group’s media release page:

Screen shot 2010-07-02 at 9.13.25 PMAnd it goes right back until the 8th of June and no mention of the RSPT. No mention in favour of the company tax cut, just complete silence until today. Just one media release, bitching about the reduction in the cut of company tax.
Get fucked

They have no right to whinge now, so they should all just shut the fuck up. This is what you get when you don’t speak out in favour of a policy that was getting steamrolled. It gets steamrolled.

ELSEWHERE: Jeremy over at Anonymous Lefty tackles the issue beautifully in his post. I wish I had a Crikey subscription so I could read Bernard Keane’s contribution, but I’m sure you subscribers will tell me how awesome it was. And Dave from Albury reminds the ALP who their friends are.

UPDATE: From today’s news, more unhappy industry groups who were silent while the policy was being attacked. For all of you I feel precisely zero sympathy, you made you’re own bed on this one.

Retailers were also unhappy. ”Due to tax concessions to the mining sector, the Gillard government has penalised all companies and small businesses that were due to benefit from the promised company tax cut,” said the Australian Retailers Association director, Russell Zimmerman.

Oh, and some super funds decide to finally speak up in favour in the policy.

Australia’s big super funds expressed relief that mandatory superannuation increases would go ahead despite the concessions to the miners.

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