Business Council of Australia calls for class war against workers!

Vanguard September 2013 p. 4
Max O.

In late July the Business Council of Australia (BCA) released its demands for the economy called Economic Action Plan for Enduring Prosperity. Its wish list contains predictable demands from big business: Cut company tax by 5%, increase the GST, new taxes on home owners, reducing penalty rates, review the' high' minimum wage and a return to Work Choices.

And, as the  BCA likes to boast, its membership is made up of CEOs from 100 of Australia’s top companies. These are no idle commands, they bluntly require everyday Australians to harden up and pay more tax, so big business can pay less.

Their plan 'for Enduring Prosperity' was so blatant that the activist GetUp! organisation recently placed a fake BCA (re-badging it the "Business Citizens of Australia - We're mean business") advertisement in the Australian to satirise the serious and scary economic agenda of the Business Council.

The incredible thing is that GetUp! didn't have to exaggerate any of the BCA 's proposals. For example this quote from the GetUp! ad satire states: "Right now, Australia is spending beyond its means. We may have experienced 22 years of unbroken economic growth, but to ensure our economic prosperity into the future, we need to free up big business to generate more profits, and pay less tax. That balance can only be found by freeing us up to earn more by asking individuals to pay more."

If you pore through the BCA's 93 recommendations from the Economic Action Plan for Enduring Prosperity document, the above quote correctly presents the ruling class's attitude to who should benefit and who should pay for the current economic downturn.

And the 'wonder king', Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, as he likes to say, "Is here to help." Big business that is! He launched his comeback trail for the September elections, by announcing a “national competitiveness agenda”. 

His little gem seeks to reform seven areas of the economy i.e. domestic electricity price regulation, labour market rigidity, business productivity, regulatory imposts on business, education and training, national infrastructure and improving operating conditions for small business. The goal being to lift the rate of annual productivity growth from its existing level of 1.6 per cent to two per cent or better.

How will he achieve this? By a 1980s 'Accord'-like pact between business, unions and the federal government. So far Rudd has discussed this agenda with the BCA, the ACTU and Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Bill Shorten to shackle workers to wage cuts and to increase their labour time for the benefit of the capitalist monopolies.

If they win the 2013 elections, the likes of Shorten will enthusiastically police unions and force workers to succumb to the dictates of the BCA. Then there is the pretender  for the job of prime minister, opposition leader Tony Abbott, who presently avoids declaring his hand on the matter of 'work place reform', but will ferociously implement the BCA's demands and carry out a frontal attack on the working class once he wins government.