Catalyst Australia

"The twentieth century has been characterised by three developments of great political importance: the growth of democracy; the growth of corporate power; and the growth of corporate propaganda as a means of protecting corporate power against democracy." ALEX CAREY: TAKING THE RISK OUT OF DEMOCRACY

Of the top one hundred economies, 51 are corporations.

In 2010, Catalyst set out to create a better understanding about the nature of the impact of corporate power in our society. Recognising that our biggest and most profitable public companies draw their wealth from local resources, consumers and workers, we saw that communities are not well organised to articulate what standards and behavior they expect from corporate Australia. At the same time, there has been a growing reliance on corporations to provide public and community services, with an expanding suite of taxpayer-funded agencies created to regulate and sustain corporate activities.

This research project sets out to explore the impact of the growing influence of corporations. Working closely with leading academics and practitioners we discuss in this series the systems that corporations used to explain their activities. Focusing on aspects of corporate governance, such as labour practices, workplace safety standards, taxation, social investment, and environmental practice, our analysis and discussion will be released under our ‘Full Disclosure’ project throughout 2011.

A dozen of Australia's leading publicly listed companies have been selected for review in each of the above areas. The intention is to capture diverse corporate experience across the service, manufacturing and resources sectors with blue and white collar workforces. 

Ultimately, we hope that this work contributes new perspectives to the discussion about corporate standards and broadens the picture of how Australian corporations are responding to the needs of communities.

Download the first Full Disclosure paper, How Corporations Tell Their Story210KB 

"Corporations will take what they can: when there is a conflict between profitability and the environment or human rights, the profits come first... Big business will protect human rights and the environment only if it is forced to do so." GEORGE MONBIOT: TROUBLE IN THE PIPELINE.

Hardcopies of the paper are available - contact us to order your copies.