The CEO of our biggest bank has pleaded the case for a ‘fair go’ for local big businesses, asking how come the robber barons of the 21^st century, hailing from the USA (the home of robber barons) get away with blue murder?

At the AFR’s Business Summit attended by the likes of former Treasurer Peter Costello (who’s also chairman of media giant Nine), Matt Comyn, the CEO of CBA ripped into the global monopolies such as Meta, which owns Facebook and Apple with its 36% profit margin here in Australia, which sits beside its 4% tax on $12 billion of revenue it generates here!

This compares to Coles, the much-maligned big supermarket that cops it despite a profit margin of just 2.5%!

Comyn asks why these tech giants are treated so light-handedly? These guys have crept into our lives via the internet over the past two decades and now are capturing an unbelievable “share of wallet”, which is a term I first encountered, ironically, doing speeches for financial institutions years ago.

Of course, financial big businesses met their Waterloo at the Hayne Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry. But these new age global monopolies that include Alphabet (which owns Google, Amazon, and Microsoft) not only capture a chunk of what’s in our wallet, purse or bank account but also have gained a disproportionate piece of our eyes, ears, and lives! They’re largely unregulated, only copping the equivalent of speeding tickets and minimal restrictions and no politician seems willing to bring these exploiters to book. Matt Comyn pondered out loud at the Summit why these guys get a “free pass”, when they’re some of the great beneficiaries of the high cost of living that Covid delivered and because of the related lockdowns, they actually grew their customer base via their ever-growing online connection they have with us.

In contrast, local politicians have justifiably targeted airlines, supermarkets, insurers, energy companies and the banks. But who’s the elected leader demanding these US tech giants play fair? If that politician exists, they better get a better media adviser!

“I sometimes worry and wonder about the criticisms that are levelled at Australian companies, and particularly large (ones),” Comyn admitted. He said Australia’s 10 largest businesses employed more than a million workers and the top 15 represented about 42% of corporate tax paid in this country.

During the late 1800s and rolling into the next century,

four men in particular created monopolies and gained vast wealth during what’s referred to as the Gilded Age: JP Morgan, Cornelius Vanderbilt, John D. Rockefeller, and Andrew Carnegie. They owned steel mills, oil companies and railways. They were the builders of modern America of the time and compare to the likes of Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and the less known rulers of Alphabet’s Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

Comyn compared Apple’s 4% tax to the CBA’s 30.5%. Macquarie’s CEO Shemara Wikramanayake didn’t name names but put it more politically, saying according to The Australian that “regulators needed to get the balance right between fostering innovation and reining in companies with strong entrenched market positions”.

Peter Costello won the battle of the barbs arguing tech giants like Meta and Google had become “monopolies on a global scale that would make the Rockefellers blush”.

But tax advantages aren’t the only battleground for local big businesses and their foreign adversaries.

“Mr Comyn has been in a long running stoush with Apple over the tech giant’s dominance of the local tap and go segment of the payments system,” The Australian reports. “Mr Comyn’s calls for Apple to free up the Near Field Communication (NFC) chip on its phones so that the bank’s own apps can use it have been largely ignored by the American company.

“On Monday, Mr Comyn said the competition regulator should not have blocked CBA in 2015 from leading collective bargaining on behalf of the industry regarding access to Apple’s NCF.”

And Comyn is right!

Right now, the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission is conducting an investigation into alleged supermarket price gouging and is also scrutinising the bank deposit market.

Unlike a lot of politicians with questionable media advisers, Comyn must have a beauty, considering how good this line is: “These [US tech giants] are the undisputed world champions of kabuki theatre and I think they should be subjected to a lot more scrutiny in Australia.”

In case kabuki theatre isn’t your strong suit, Japan-guide.com tells us that “Kabuki is an art form rich in showmanship. It involves elaborately designed costumes, eye-catching make-up, outlandish wigs, and arguably most importantly, the exaggerated actions performed by the actors.”

These complaints from local big business against US big businesses come as Meta has recently decided to stop paying Australian media outlets for local news content created here but used by Facebook to entertain their hordes of followers.

The CBA boss “…again called on the Labor government to accelerate the introduction of payments legislation that will empower the Reserve Bank to police the tech platforms, which don’t face as many regulations as the banks.” (The Australian)

No one should be arguing that our big businesses need a fairer go but we all should be demanding that robber baron big US tech companies need to be brought to book and be treated/regulated the same as local operators. All we need is a few gutsy politicians (with good media advisers) willing to take on these modern-day masters of the online universe.

And if you think these big tech companies are OK, try cancelling a streaming service or subscription when you can’t remember your password! Hundreds of thousands of local consumers (maybe millions) are being robbed because they can’t get rid of a parasitic business that won’t take directions from a customer that they no longer want to buy their service.

It's a disgrace that no politician is currently putting their hand up to sort and fix this.