Last night I was staggered by the launch of the Sydney Theatre Company’s promised list of plays for the 2027 season which will star some of the country’s greatest actors, including Richard Roxburgh, Heather Mitchell, Tim Minchin and others who showed up either in person or via Zoom to hail the efforts of this business, which has entertained, educated and influenced Australians since 1978. All of this unfolded in the Roslyn Packer Theatre, whose husband Kerry Packer was an entrepreneur and significant business builder, who not only revolutionised modern media via his Nine Network but even redefined the business of cricket with his World Series Cricket, that brought one-day games, high-quality TV coverage and better, as well as fairer payments to the players.
Roslynn Packer in her financial support for the arts and the STC underlines her business prowess in helping this entertainment business create jobs and opportunities for thousands of Australians. And when you see the number of businesses that advance their money to socially-inclined businesses like this, on top of smart governments, you start to wonder if our leaders in Canberra have failed a very important economic test.
That test is the one that asks how a successful economy works? And to pass that economic exam, the key leaders (let’s call them prime ministers and treasurers, as well as important ministers) need to deliver an answer that basically says, you have to make conditions positive for entrepreneurs (business builders and job creators) to do what they are personally driven to do.
All of this has come to me as the Albanese Government has been taken to task again, following the scathing assessment of its economic policies by legendary ex-ACTU boss, Bill Kelty over the weekend in The SMH. This was an important take by someone who has been historically a Labor man, but is smart enough and strong enough to tell his beloved colleagues that they are making mistakes.
In case you missed it, Kelty was reported saying the following: “You had the treasurer say workers should be happy because their wage share is increasing, but their real wages are falling,” Kelty said. “It’s just ridiculous and people get offended by it. They can’t pay the bills, and you tell them your share of GDP is growing.”
This time the butt-kicking criticism came from arguably the best tech entrepreneur this country has produced, Bevan Slattery.
This guy has founded some of the best hi-tech operations this country has ever conceived and taken to the stock market. These businesses include Megaport, NextDC and Superloop, which, as The AFR reports, have created about “$10 billion for shareholders due to growth in their combined market capitalisation.”
Slattery isn’t as well-known as Kerry Packer, or Atlassian’s Mike Cannon-Brookes, who might be a contender for our best tech entrepreneur, but even he would recognise how important Slattery has been in making this country more tech-savvy.
And that’s why his criticism of the Albanese Government’s tax slugs on entrepreneurs can’t be ignored as just being the complaints of a committed tax dodger.
Talking to the Australian Shareholders’ Association conference on the Gold Coast, Slattery said or implied the following in his speech:
- He labelled budget tax changes that hit entrepreneurs as ‘stupid’.
- He revealed he beat an ATO investigation which sought to turn capital gain into revenue so it could tax him more heavily.
- Even with the Treasurer easing some of the tax hits on entrepreneurs, the Budget changes could create disincentives for tech start-up business creators.
- The higher taxes on start-ups could easily make investing in shares and cryptocurrency more attractive.
- “I just think it’s the most regressive thing this government could actually have done out of all the things, if we want to grow the economy,” he told the conference attendees.
And despite Canberra’s kick in the guts tax changes, Slattery continues to do what this business champion has always done: create new businesses, build a business, grow the economy, produce new jobs and exports, along with a pile of tax payments that would not happen if he wasn’t a committed Australian high achiever.
These people should not be tax-slugged, they should be encouraged, and this is one area that our leaders can learn from that weird US President, Donald Trump. This guy has a lot of flaws but putting obstacles in the way of business builders isn’t one of them.
And by the way, the Sydney Theatre Company’s creation was part-driven by a Labor Premier, Neville Wran, who also might have had a flaw or two, as most politicians have, but he had a healthy respect for entrepreneurs and the state of NSW benefitted from it.
As footie finals loom large on our TV screens and grand finals will create unforgettable legendary players, I think it’s high time we started to praise the work of our business champions, instead of cutting them down as too tall poppies!
Maybe it’s time Albo and Jim ‘acted’ like real leaders of the past.
