Big companies should open their books

It’s just as easy to argue that by lowering company tax rates, companies will seek to increase profit margins by selling their products at the same price. Why pass on savings to the consumer if you don’t have to?

So much of industry is monopolised by a few large companies, reducing competition as a motive to lower prices. So lowering company taxes will simply give the government less money with which to fund social services without benefiting consumers.

Any move by a government that hits business will result in corporations seeking to respond in a way that maximises profit.

The fight over the then-Rudd government’s proposed tax on super-profits of mining corporations, since watered down by Gillard, reveals the logic. The corporations responded that the tax on their profits would leave ordinary people worse off - as they would respond to a slight fall in profits by providing fewer jobs and raising prices.

The latest multi million-dollar ad campaign by a group of mining companies not placated by Gillard’s compromise is even more blatant. The ads warn us we’re all going to “get whacked” by the new tax on their profits.

If this is true, it is because these companies, in defending their profits, plan to do the whacking.

What is not factored into the equation by the Coalition, Labor or most mainstream commentators, who see corporations “whacking” the rest of society in defence of profits as an immutable law of nature, is the possibility raised by Rhiannon.

That is, governments don’t leave big business alone to simply make its own decisions - decisions with big consequences for society as a whole.

In the case of the mining sector, we are discussing natural resources that rightfully belong to the people - the exploitation of which has significant consequences for society and future generations. How such resources are used is a big issue - not least due to the environmental stakes associated with the sector.

Why should decisions relating to the sector’s operations be made behind closed doors?

One initial step any government seeking to govern in the interests of people and the planet could take is to require corporations to provide full public access to information on all their operations.

To monitor whether mining corporations were truthfully complying with all requirements, employee and community representatives could be appointed to all decision-making bodies in the company.