Corporate 'wokeness' is more akin to corporate bullying. Now it has infected the one industry that has a very questionable history of doing the right thing.
There's a catchy phrase being levelled at the corporates who try to mandate their customers align with the PC agenda.
'Go woke, go broke'.
I hope it's more than wishful thinking as these corporates are often exposed as massive hypocrites in the alliances they form, how they treat their staff and in environmental concerns.
To them, it is more about seeming than actually doing in an attempt to protect themselves from the intolerant social justice warriors.
The hypocrisy is evident almost everywhere.
The tech giants insist on freedom of speech but also claim the freedom to censor what they don't like. Truth is not a defence in their bubble world.
Qantas was the strongest corporate supporter of homosexual marriage but had a strategic alliance with one of the most anti-gay nations on earth - Qatar.
Last week I wrote of a US company CEO that emailed all his 10 million clients urging a vote for Joe Biden...even though he has been exposed as the Godfather of a corrupt and criminal family business.
I thought that was about as crazy as it would get. Once again I was disappointed.
Today, Australia's ANZ bank took wokeness to a new level by making compliance with their climate change position a condition of banking with them.
In effect, they'll be imposing carbon compliance deadlines on their customers!
The ANZ are joining a slew of companies living in fear of a key corporate shareholders. These shareholders are the big superannuation funds which invest your money.
In many cases this is done through an industry super fund which also acts as a backdoor slush fund for the union movement and indirectly a funder of the Labor Party.
If regular investors want this approach to their retirement savings then they can put their money into some green vegan sustainability fund. There are plenty of them to choose from.
But the implied bullying of corporate Australia to conform with a social and political agenda using your money is appalling.
Let's be clear, ANZ's decision isn't about their business profitability. It is about making the right noises to conform with someone else's agenda because they are scared they will become a target if they don't.
That's cowering to bullies. Something we used to teach our children not to do. I should say that some of us still do!
It was heartening to see some brave souls state publicly what this decision means for Australian businesses. First strike was from National Party Senator Matt Canavan.
“Banks treated farmers like dirt during the drought and now they want to force higher costs on struggling farmers just so a bank can signal their virtue … These bank policies seem to force farmers to try and control the weather, not just worry about it. Why should the federal government guarantee deposits in banks that seem focused on wokeness over profits?”
Former Nationals leader John Anderson also weighed in.
Feeding people is in itself a moral value and that should not be oversighted.
That's a significant point overlooked by that the pious social justice moralists.
Their policy agenda is a moral hazard to billions of people. It will reduce the quality of life, remove the ladder of opportunity and impoverish billions world wide.
They counter that the world will be destroyed if we don't go woke right now. Like all catastrophists through the ages they are wrong.
As I have written many times before, these people care nothing for climate change or covid or BLM or any other cause they champion. They only care about bringing down the existing system for their own political ends.
When you follow the thread far enough, you realise that they think humans are a cancer on the planet and human freedom is something we are not worthy of.
In their eyes, we should just follow along with their demands because they are smarter and more moral than the rest of us.
The latest decision by the ANZ bank reinforces that point. Suddenly our bankers claim to know what is best for us.
The evidence of the Royal Commission exposed how they haven't been working in the interests of their customers before, I wonder why we should be expected to believe them now.
And while we are at it, why should taxpayers guarantee the deposits of these institutions that refuse to lend to important Australian businesses?
If you bank with the ANZ, think about taking your banking business elsewhere.
Cory Bernardi is the author of seven books and has been a member of the Australian rowing team, a publican, an investment portfolio manager and spent nearly 14 years as an Australian Senator.
