Wait what?
(Posted by Michael O'Ryan Mon, 26 Nov 2007 05:17:00 GMT)
“Business in Australia has welcomed the election of a Rudd Labor Government…”
“The warm welcome of a Rudd Government by the BCA and other leading business groups reflects the increasing frustration of the business community with the Howard government over the past few years.”
My understanding of the tv ads during/prior to the election was that the Australian business comunity was living in fear of a Rudd victory. Mostly because they were afraid of 3 built “union” guys storming their tailoring businesses and staring at them while the business owners screamed “Help! Help! I’m being repressed!”.
Oh how times have changed. Not only do they welcome Rudd but they didn’t like Howard in the first place. I suppose next week we’ll find out that the short fall in the production of boots has been replaced by an unexpected increase in the production of boots.
I expected this. I bet it’s just an attempt to “patch things up”, so to say.
Not that there is much to patch up though. I think there was a fair bit of hesitation from the business community (at a [peak] employer representative (Unions for business owners) level, anyway) about publicly supporting one side of politics over another.
Whichever side of politics wins Government, it’s always in the best interest of the different sections of the community to keep a good (business) relationship with government officials.
It’d be a bit batty to come out and spend millions of dollars on a marketing campaign attacking politicians and then expect to have a healthy relationship with them afterwards.
I think their campaign was quite restrained compared to what they could have done.
But then again, when you think about it, businesses should welcome this new Government in.
Economically speaking, Australia may be on the verge of another “wage blowout” and it’s not the fault of the ALP. Lack of investment over the past 11 years in education has led to a skills shortage that is pushing up wages.
And further, more investment in education means the possibility of better quality staff available in the future for business, which is what they’re crying out for.
Commentary by Paul Keating on the ALP election win and the Howard era, if interested.