"It's official. Australia is "the greatest nation on earth". The Prime Minister said so on Australia Day and really any criticism in the circumstances would be churlish. Once you're the greatest, there really is not much room for improvement.
Three days later, John Howard demonstrated just how little room there was. He declared that it was impossible to legislate for corporate morality. In other words, decent corporate behaviour is outside the prescriptions of the law. "How can you write a law that says a company must do the right thing?" Howard asked."
So begins Richard Ackland's weekly column in the SMH - dealing with and take on what PM Howard has dubbed "Australian values."
Ackland also goes on to say:
"Somewhere, somehow, the values have gone screwy. On the one hand there's all this rhetoric about fair goes and mateship and tests to be proper little Australians, while money grubbing is the ordained order of the day. It's affluence that will easily reduce us, because it's become the significant measure of our success."
Three days later, John Howard demonstrated just how little room there was. He declared that it was impossible to legislate for corporate morality. In other words, decent corporate behaviour is outside the prescriptions of the law. "How can you write a law that says a company must do the right thing?" Howard asked."
So begins Richard Ackland's weekly column in the SMH - dealing with and take on what PM Howard has dubbed "Australian values."
Ackland also goes on to say:
"Somewhere, somehow, the values have gone screwy. On the one hand there's all this rhetoric about fair goes and mateship and tests to be proper little Australians, while money grubbing is the ordained order of the day. It's affluence that will easily reduce us, because it's become the significant measure of our success."
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