KEY POINTS:
As a federal Labor frontbencher tells it, senior Australian businesspeople were incensed by one of the early advertisements run by the trade union movement against the Howard Government's WorkChoices legislation.
The ad focused on a supposed board meeting in which a company decided to cut workers' pay and entitlements, as provided under the new laws. Having done this and thereby cut costs, the board then proceeded to consider the issue of executive bonuses.
Business complained loudly to the federal Labor frontbench about this commercial, perceived in corporate circles to be both mischievous and insulting. At least one federal frontbencher conceded the point, but pointed out to the business representatives that the ad could not be successful unless the commercial echoed the public perception of how corporations were going to perform under WorkChoices.
Eventually, much of Australian business rallied behind a campaign run by a group called the Business Coalition for Workplace Relations, which has been advertising to retain a deregulated workplace. Business has replied to the union claims by showing collapsed storefront businesses, all boarded up and closed due to the impact of "union bosses". It's an equal dose of populism to match the unions.
Australian business was always going to be heavily engaged in the 2007 Australian election. First, the Business Council of Australia wanted to make an issue of revision and reform of the Australian Federation, with the aim of removing duplication and reducing or eliminating delays and waste. Second, as already described, there is workplace relations
Finally, business has moved into the spotlight courtesy of a campaign in the federal seat of Wentworth, held by the Environment Minister, Malcolm Turnbull.
Wentworth has belonged to the conservative parties since 1901, but times have changed.
A redistribution has brought more Labor-inclined territory closer to the Sydney CBD, and the demography of Wentworth itself has been changing. Now, enter Geoff Cousins.
Cousins made his fortune and reputation in advertising, having run the George Patterson business during some of its most successful years. The agency has worked for the Liberal Party, Cousins is close to Prime Minister John Howard and has been appointed to serve on the board of Telstra (he is a former boss of rival telco Optus). Cousins has been outraged by the decision of the Tasmanian Labor Government to approve a A$2 billion ($2.3 billion) pulp mill on the Tamar River, pushed through Parliament with broad support from both the Liberals and the trade union movement. Locally, however, in the communities of the Tamar Valley, rich in tourism and wine industry assets, opinion is sharply divided.
Cousins is now a local who is utterly opposed to the mill proposal. He is campaigning against Turnbull, whose approval is needed before the mill can go ahead. Turnbull's Wentworth seat is now a battleground.
And there are more than just footsoldiers lining up.
An extraordinary list of Australian celebrities have put their names to the Cousins campaign. People as diverse as Fairfax deputy chairman Mark Burrows, tennis great John Newcombe, writer David Williamson, internationally acknowledged director Phillip Noyce and the actors Bryan Brown and partner Rachel Ward signed an open letter in the local Wentworth Courier which asked the tough question, "Is Malcolm Turnbull the Minister for the Environment or the Minister against the Environment?"
To be fair, the campaign is also running in neighbouring Kingsford-Smith, the seat of Labor environment spokesman Peter Garrett, former frontman for the band Midnight Oil.
But Garrett is not in electoral trouble, whereas Turnbull is confronted by the Mayor of Waverley, Labor's George Newhouse, who is both well known and broadly popular As a consequence of a split in the Liberal vote last time and a strong Green campaign, the margin for error in Wentworth is only 2.5 per cent. Along with the tough contest in Bennelong, where Labor's Maxine McKew, of ABC television, has forced Howard to spend more time in his own seat, the Government is struggling to hold seats that have hitherto been considered close to blue ribbon.
Cousins' campaign has made Wentworth very marginal indeed.
However, for the Environment Minister, a compromise might just be at hand.
There is some talk of transferring the pulp mill elsewhere in northern Tasmania, perhaps to Burnie, with far less environmental consequence and a far more welcoming local community. Turnbull, who is both able and astute, is turning his mind to this option.
But business is in the thick of politics in Australia at the moment. However, not everyone has succumbed. The Housing Industry Association (HIA), for example, has stepped back from the business campaign on workplace relations, preferring instead to talk to the Labor Opposition about its policy platform, especially on affordable housing. But the HIA was badly burned by a failed anti-Labor campaign in 1993 against Paul Keating.
Whatever happens in Wentworth and whoever wins nationally in October-November, business has emerged as a major political player. Federalism will change. Workplace relations will remain under the legislative and public microscope. And the environment has moved even higher up the agenda.
The very positive observation to make is that in a robust democracy, no one seems to suggest that business ought not to be arguing a point of view, and vigorously at that.
Although Malcolm Turnbull might be forgiven for thinking that Geoffrey Cousins should stick to telecommunications.
* Stephen Loosley, a former federal president of the Labor Party and Australian senator, chairs business advocacy group Committee for Sydney.
