Olympic freeloading

August 30, 2000
Issue 

Olympic freeloading

There was quite a mixture of embarrassment and hypocrisy on display last week as corporate "hospitality" for politicians hit the news. Olympic tickets, plus air fares, accommodation, food and drink and who knows what else — packages worth $10,000 in some cases — have been widely offered to state and federal politicians and accepted by parliamentarians from both the Coalition and Labor.

Corporations that have been mentioned as distributing these gifts include AMP, Telstra, Fairfax, Clubs NSW, Westpac, the Olympic stadium and George Weston Foods. No doubt there are many others.

"We're not seeking to influence or to extract any favourable treatment or favourable decision from our guests", declared a Telstra spokesperson. Of course not. Freebies for politicians are just part of the same generous spirit that causes Telstra and other corporations to hand out money at random to people in the streets. They do it all the time: haven't you noticed?

The "hospitality" of Telstra is particularly obnoxious, because 51% of the funds it is lavishing on parliamentarians belong to us, the public. Telstra is concentrating its invitations on country MPs, whose constituents are opposed to or at least highly suspicious of the government's plans for the company's further privatisation. So Telstra is spending our money in an attempt to have our property handed over to private capital.

Prime Minister John Howard, at least four of whose ministers are known to be accepting the handouts, offered a justification whose grammar was as twisted as its logic: "You've got to be sensible. You can't on the one hand have, as we have, converging on Sydney the largest gathering in one spot in Australia ever of world business leaders and pass up the opportunity of meeting them. I mean, that's just silly."

It's a free country, as they say. But "free" is supposed to mean that ministers are at liberty to fawn over visiting businesspeople to their hearts' content, not that somebody else pays for their pleasures.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Howard also "said MPs often accepted corporate hospitality but this did not mean they were being 'bribed or corrupted'".

Howard is right that corporate gifts to parliamentarians are far from rare. It is also true that there is rarely if ever a clear quid pro quo that would fit a legal definition of bribery: "We'll pick up your hotel bill if you vote for ...".

But corporate "hospitality" is a further material benefit for parliamentarians who already enjoy a standard of living well above that of most Australians. It helps to ensure that their outlook on the world will be that of the privileged elite. In this cosy atmosphere, they can protest in all sincerity that their opinions won't be changed by the handouts they receive, because they have internalised the "needs" of big business.

Conversely, if they spent their time with low-paid workers or pensioners, parliamentarians might have a better understanding of non-business views. Sole parents and the unemployed are clearly making a great mistake by not inviting John Howard to the Olympics.

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