Pittwater Life March 2018 Issue

can depreciate plant – whether
that plant is a car or an A380
aircraft – it’s just on a much
bigger scale. The fact that our
national broadcaster attacked
our national flag carrier makes
it look like the emu attacking
the kangaroo on the coat of
arms – when everyone has
finished beating each other
up it’s not a great look for the
country.
The AFR in part editorialised
on the Alberici article as
follows:
‘The ABC lives off the taxes of
others, which might explain its
own lack of grip on the subject.
This week it launched a blitz
against the Turnbull government’s
proposed company tax
cut under the headline claim
that one in five companies
don’t pay tax anyway, so none
deserved a tax cut. Exhibit A in
this fallacy was Qantas, which
hasn’t paid profits tax for
years, even as the airline managed
to double the pay of its
chief executive Alan Joyce. Qantas
is indeed profitable again,
thanks to the perseverance of
Mr Joyce for which he’s been
well rewarded (as have super
savers who own Qantas shares).
But for years Qantas was under
existential threat: a bitter lockout
and grounding, circling
corporate raiders, then a horror
$2.8 billion net loss in 2014 and
calls for Mr Joyce’s head. The
airline is still writing off those
losses off. It may resume paying
tax next year.’
The AFR’s Joe Aston also
called out the ABC’s claim that
“one in five of Australia’s top
companies has paid zero tax
for the past three years” citing
“freely available data produced
by the Australian Taxation Office
showed that 32 of Australia’s
largest 50 companies paid
$19.33 billion in company tax in
the 2015-16 year, further noting
the other 18 paid nothing because
they lost money or were
carrying over previous losses”.
As someone who doesn’t
frequent inner city cafes but
who wants to continue to
enjoy the ABC, I see a couple
of issues raised by the Alberici
article. The first one is the
issue of editorial and management
control – surely this
article with its factual errors
and opinion as analysis purely
and simply breached the
ABC’s editorial guidelines. Secondly
and more importantly,
Alberici’s now demonstrated
anti-business posture consistent
with radical left wing
student politics has caused
reputational damage to her
employer by leaving a smoking
gun for those on the right
wing side to double down on
claims of editorial bias.
Brian Hrnjak B Bus CPA
(FPS) is a Director of GHR
Accounting Group Pty
Ltd, Certified Practising
Accountants. Offices at:
Suite 12, Ground Floor, 20
Bungan Street Mona Vale
NSW 2103 and
Shop 8, 9 – 15 Central Ave
Manly NSW 2095,
Telephone: 02 9979-4300,
Webs: www.ghr.com.au and
www.altre.com.au Email:
brian@ghr.com.au
These comments are of a
general nature only and are
not intended as a substitute
for professional advice.
Business Life
The Local Voice Since 1991
MARCH 2018 55