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Janet Albrechtsen Blog April 29, 2009 151 Comments
THE James Hardie saga continued last week with the public shaming of former chairwoman Meredith Hellicar, six other non-executive directors and three senior executives of Hardie. When NSW Supreme Court judge Ian Gzell found them guilty of breaching their duties as directors, he demonstrated that while the legal system may be slow, it works. Particularly in corporate life, our laws mandate high standards of behaviour. If you mislead the public, you can expect to have the book thrown at you.
Indeed, our legal system has worked well in ratcheting up the standards of expected behaviour among most professions. We have a plethora of laws demanding care, skill and ethical conduct, honesty and candour, and other hallmarks of good conduct from everyone from company directors and financial advisers to doctors, dentists and accountants.
One profession stands remarkably untouched by the modern drive to accountability and high standards. Politicians.
This was driven home most recently in the shameless flouting (courtesy of technical crown immunity defences) by our Prime Minister, Treasurer and Finance Minister of the laws that apply to share and bond salesmen. All the PM’s strictures about the need to further regulate corporate cowboys were swept aside when he wanted to spruik the shares and bonds to be issued by the Government’s proposed $43 billion national broadband company. Nor did his election promises of economic conservatism and a $4.7 billion broadband investment stand in the way of his untested Whitlamesque vision with no business case, feasibility study or cost-benefit analysis. Read more.