What you say

There are around one million Australians living outside the country, according to figures from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. That’s more people than live in Adelaide, or twice the population living on Sydney’s North Shore. These far flung million are the great Australian diaspora. As a member of the diaspora, I am becoming increasingly curious about its nature and what it means for my homeland.

When the term diaspora is used, it is typically associated with the most dispersed people, the Jews. It has also been used in connection with the Irish, who were renowned for migrating to better lives. I have also seen it used for the great migration of blacks from the south to the northern cities of the US.

When you look at how the word has been used in the past, it has been mainly associated with people escaping persecution, poverty or other problems. Or perhaps those simply seeking better opportunities than their homeland can provide. The reality of the Australian diaspora is that it is poorly understood. The numbers now are so large in relation to the total Australian population that the diaspora is gaining more attention.

At one end of the spectrum, everyone knows about Joe or Jane Aussie who goes to London for two years, drinks warm beer, never quite becomes accustomed to the dreadful English weather and then does a six week jaunt around the continent at the end of it all (to see “Europe”). This is the classic “rite of passage” tour that has been going on for decades. The numbers now are a larger but that group is well understood and not of much interest. There are a couple of hundred thousand in that rather predictable but fun category. After two years they return to Australia using English slang such as “bollocks”, “cheers” and “chutney fairy”. It wears a but thin but it also wears off in 18 months and all is forgotten as they morph back into sunny suburban life. They are the Earls Court category. That still leaves 800,000 left unaccounted for.

The other end of the spectrum is the eminent scientist category. These are not large in number but at first glance would seem to represent a significant loss for Australia. They are those fitting into the most obvious “brain drain” category. They often seem to gravitate toward the US with its mega bucks research environment. They have opportunities there they couldn’t have back home. They are the boffin category. Well heeled boffins but a great loss to Australia. We should mourn their loss.

The largest number of members of the Australian diaspora are neither the Earls Court mob nor the boffin mob. I suspect many of them are people like me who are seen as valuable in global business but not in their home country. Many of them have no set plans to return to Australia but remain sentimentally attached to it and dream of one day returning for lifestyle and family reasons.

This may explain, Margo, why you get more than a few contributions from Australians living overseas. They are engaged people curious about the world and many remaining at least mentally attached to their homeland. They are also great in number.

The only good research I have seen on this is by Professor Graeme Hugo at the University of Adelaide. In May last year he presented a paper at Sydney Technology Park entitled “Emigration of Skilled Australians: Patterns Trends and Issues”. It’s a great 60 page read for anyone interested in the topic. It is revealing and impressive because he uses lots of numbers. I love numbers.

The only aspect that worries me about Professor Hugo’s work is a survey he conducted to try to get into the minds of the diaspora. Being based at a university himself I think he believed that university alumni lists could be of some value. In fact I understand this was a main source he used in tracking people down.

Yet most of the members of the Australian diaspora I know have university degrees but maintain no contact with their university. I had an affinity for my school but the university meant little. I don’t know a single person who is in a university alumni association or even remotely connected. We liked uni and the times we had there but the institution was too huge and impersonal to actually develop feelings toward it. That said, I am always happy to say where I went to university and strongly believe it is a good one. It’s the University of Queensland by the way!

Despite having some reservations about the above, I tend to agree with the Professor’s conclusions. Even though he loves his numbers too, the great thing is he looks beyond them. It has been argued by some that there is no brain drain. They argue that there is a net brain gain because that’s what the raw data on migration says. Simply stated we bring in more skilled people than those that leave. The Professor says “it is glib to simply state that Australia has a net brain gain so that one can ignore the outflow of skilled young Australians as a simple function of globalisation – why can’t the nation achieve the double bonus of attracting skilled foreign people while also retaining the best of our own talent?”

I agree. Perhaps I over value myself , but I think there is something sad about an Australian born and educated person leaving and never returning, except for holidays and perhaps retirement. It is not exchanging like with like.

Anyway, the diaspora may be gone but we are not forgotten. We still root for the home team. This is where we of the diaspora have our advantages. The empirical evidence is everywhere.

A good example would be a discussion I had on Friday night. I was talking to the US headquarters of the multinational I work for. The topic came up of “What to do with Asia”? We are reaching the conclusion that our Asia Pacific business is expanding so rapidly that it would make sense to have a regional headquarters in that region like we do here in Europe. It is only early days but we broached the topic of where to put such a headquarters. The only candidates were Singapore or Sydney. We already have business in Sydney but not Singapore.

I will have an influence on this decision and I have already pointed out some early advantages of Sydney. We would need people who speak all of the major Asian languages. Sydney delivers this in bucket loads. I was able to convince the key US based decision maker of this (he wasn’t aware of it). Sydney’s diverse multicultural nature and large Asian population is EXACTLY what my company wants to see. We would at a minimum need Korean, Mandarin and Cantonese. We may end up needing Japanese and some others as well. We would be dealing mainly via email, electronic bank transfers and phone customer service support. All this can be done from Sydney and on a large scale at good prices. Sydney is sleek, sharp and cost competitive.

I could also imagine the NSW government providing a tax break here or there (probably some kind of capped payroll tax holiday). On top of all that, Sydney costs less than Singapore at the top level. Salaries are less and rents are comparable for the CBD. So far Sydney is winning. Sydney has already attracted a few Asia Pacific regional headquarters. Depending on the business you are in, Sydney is not a hard sell. It has a hell of a lot going for it.

The thing that concerns me, and I mentioned this on Friday night, is the Australian federal taxes. My understanding is that the Commonwealth Government offers nothing – only lots of punishment and disincentive. I could see a series of problems if we wanted to shift management around. Australia is too inflexible in this regard and has extremely high income taxes at low (compared to global competition) salary levels. That would be a barrier that Singapore or other Asia Pacific capitals would not present. Thank you, Peter Costello?

I think it is only Singapore or Sydney. I don’t think Hong Kong or other parts of China would be in the running. Tokyo has already been dismissed on a cost and mono-cultural basis.

Singapore is in recession and would love to see us. I suspect Canberra wouldn’t do anything special for us. It never does. In the end our decision will be a business one. Either Sydney measures up or it doesn’t.

The point I am making is that here I am sitting in Europe, working for an American company and I am busily advancing Sydney’s interests. I do this because I am Australian. Quite simple really. It’s a real life example, millions of dollars are involved and jobs would be created in Sydney.

I could be interpreted as a low grade brain drain individual but I work for the homeland from afar.

This is where the diaspora pays back. We still call Australia home.

Why then have I lost my right to vote? Can someone tell me why? I suppose the problem is how to determine the electorate of the diaspora. That is where it gets hard. But it is a million Australian citizens!!!

By the way, for the first time ever the USA will do a census of its diaspora. Australia should too. It should remember the MILLION who look in from afar.

I’ve spent most of the past week in Berlin where the city is experiencing one of its most bitter winters in memory. The sun has been shining but with daytime maximums of minus ten it has been hard to get too excited about going out. In the background on CNN there were debates about war with Iraq and announcements from President Bush about vaccinating around ten million Americans to prepare for a smallpox bio terror attack. A pretty average week as far as 2002 goes.

Meanwhile, no one likes Schroeder anymore and the economy has gone to hell in a hand basket. And it’s Christmas time……ein bier bitte! I want a Berliner curry Bratwurst! Anything to escape reality. Give me comfort in the form of beer and sausages!

I went to a party last week at the famous, or perhaps infamous Studio Babelsberg. This one facility itself seems to tell so much about the history of Berlin (and the world really) in the last century or so. It is in the former East Germany and is actually closer to Potsdam than Berlin.

The lessons of Babelsberg are many. The studio was massive in the 1920s and 1930s and rivalled the best of Hollywood. Marlene Dietrich started her career there with the incomparable Blue Angel. The early days at Babelsberg were special and beautiful. Then it became ugly. Hitler saw the power of modern media and with Goebels, Babelsberg became the main centre of Nazi propaganda. As civil society and the rule of law were rolled back, Babselsberg was transformed into something quite evil.

Later it became a propaganda setting for East Germany. More lies were propagated. So many lies for so many years. It’s now owned by Vivendi Universal, a true symbol of globalisation. From a place of art to the horror of fascism, to the crushing nature of East German communism to today’s global capitalism, Babelsberg has seen it all.

Wandering the streets of this history laden complex, I couldn’t help but think of Marlene Deitrich. It was minus twelve degrees in the early hours of the morning and in looking at the ice, traces of snow and thick frost in the gardens, the thought occurred to me that there wouldn’t be flowers for months. So incredibly bitter this winter.

I once saw Marlene Dietrich sing the Pete Seger anti-war song “Where Have all the Flowers Gone”. She was old but somehow her defiance was stronger than ever. It was most beautiful when translated into German. She was prepared to say no to the Third Reich. The world around her was changing bit by bit and then later at a faster pace. She could see it was wrong.

In another era the composer of this song, Pete Seger, was hauled before Senator Joseph McCarthy’s infamous committee for being unAmerican. Like Dietrich, he could also see his country changing bit by bit.

Where have all the flowers gone in 2002? I don’t see many. It can be depressing but we need to look for flowers and we need to hold onto the ones we still have left.

We are now certainly in an era that has some similarities to the Cold War. There seem to be no easy solutions and the threat seems to have no end. We’d be wrong to ignore the threats but how much of what it means to be us are we prepared to risk? How much is necessary?

I’m going to quote something back to you Margo. You said:

“The essence of our way of life is the rule of law – that the certainty of abuse of State power against the innocent, proved over and over again by history, is addressed by insisting that we are ruled by laws, not men. The judiciary – independent of government and owing its duties to the law and the citizen, not government – are the bulwark of the rule of law. The right to legal representation when detained by police or other instruments of state power is essential to our freedom.”

Patriots should indeed gain some comfort from those words. I’m scared though that a seemingly clear statement of who we are could be interpreted as controversial in the new environment. I can almost imagine people attacking you for quoting words which are part of our unwritten creed. We may not have these things written in one place but they are the things that make us who we are. We need to remember in Australia where we started and what was thought of authority in 1788. We need to remember what authority did to the Aborigines. We need to remember refugees and all the other people who came to Australia to escape authority. We are right to be sceptical of authority. This is core for us and we know where we have authority. Don’t mess with us, the Aussie people. We are ALL refugees from authority in one form or another.

Authority has shown us that it deserves constant questioning and the very essence of that defines us.

I’m not fool enough to say we don’t face a real threat. We must face this threat while remaining true to ourselves. Who are we as a people and what do we really represent? I sure hope it is the things you mention above. Those things are fundamental to who we are. We must have due process. We must have separation of powers. We have to find ways to defend ourselves but if we start undermining our foundations, we could be transformed into a very different society relatively quickly. Sometimes we Australians can take our good fortune for granted. History proves unexpected transformations are commonplace. Sometimes you only realise in retrospect how easily you have given up cherished rights.

We don’t have much time left. It’s super urgent. We need to be very clear about this. Let’s look line by line at every law. More than that, let’s look carefully at every word in every line. It is a time for level headed people to take a hard look at what is needed. We ARE a society of laws. That’s words on paper so let’s be serious. Cut the crap. The laws are made by the people we elect and they are accountable to us on a regular basis. I am really starting to become alarmed that I feel the need to remind myself of an implicit foundation of our society.

Are we really prepared to mess with the foundations? I sure hope not. Unless you want to unwind the best parts of our entire history as a country.

Some compromises are needed. We have to be smart though. We can compromise around the edges but we can’t compromise at the core. We can never do that. Compromise the core and you have a meltdown and lose everything. Then it becomes quite hard to come back.

It’s a bit by bit thing. Like “Where have all the Flowers Gone”. Long time passing.

This article was first published in ‘Where have all the flowers gone…’ (webdiaryDec16).

Ethics in business: Bad for your career

 

by Harry Heidelberg

For me, ethics are something deeply internal and individual. I think they are something quite fundamental, formed at a very young age, and best imparted by parents and older role models.

For some, even those who are taught well, the ethical compass goes haywire later in life. Greed and self interest are the biggest enemies of ethics. It’s mainly for money but it can also be for sex or power.

Failure to act ethically is at once a betrayal of another person or of a system/institution. Ultimately I believe it is even a type of self-betrayal of the individual who behaves unethically.

In one way or another, those who act that way will pay an individual price. The price may be one of emotional turmoil created by a complicated life or something as simple as the stress of being afraid of discovery. Nothing in this life comes for free. Except the truly priceless, good things (like happiness, love and trust)!

I’ve faced several ethical dilemmas in my working life. In one I was involved in the audit of a government bank in a developing country. It was clear to me that the financial statements of the bank were the proverbial croc of shit. I made this known to all involved and suggested massive asset write downs.

I became hated. I recall in one instance when we tried to value a bank asset of a resort in a hopeless location where nobody ever stayed. I was deeply suspicious. I said to a mate who had lived in the country for years, “How much do you think that hotel is worth”?. His answer was “How much is a big house worth in that area?… It’s worthless as a hotel”. I came to this conclusion about many assets – all basically worthless or certainly worth a fraction of their book value. Millions of dollars were involved. Lots of vested interests. Lots of big fish in a small pond.

How did I process the above? I convinced my boss in the developing country that we had no choice but to convince the bank to agree to massive asset writedowns or refuse to sign the audit. To cut a long story short, he agreed but was later overruled by the developed country headquarters of our firm. I resigned but “came back” on the condition that I would not sign anything associated with that audit. The end result was that relationships were poisoned by my failure to tow the line of Big City, Developed Country, Big Accounting Firm. My career in that firm was never the same again. It’s hardly a Hollywood ending but I’m still glad I did that. My reward was internal. I could live with myself.

I later learned that everyone in that country’s administration was corrupt and later the bank collapsed. I did my job, or at least tried to. What a pity others didn’t. I suppose I could and should have done more. I made my personal protest, but I admit that by not going public, I weaken my superficially pure stance. This is a good reason why we need sound whistle blowing systems. A whistle blower should not have their life destroyed. A career setback is one thing, but not a destruction. Veiled threats aren’t a good thing either.

In the case above, the situation was dire and people were involved in covering up bad financial news. I now know some were criminals. This is the classic scenario.

In another case, I was working for a foreign multinational. We had a particularly good year. We had way past what we needed for all senior management to get their bonuses. I was asked to cover up GOOD financial news. The idea was that we should report all we needed as revenue and profits in one year to get to the bonus level and then give the following year a kick start by shunting the part we “didn’t need” into the following year. I had some of the worst professional arguments I have ever had over that one.

I can be pragmatic as anyone but I would never have done what they wanted me to. In effect I would have been telling the headquarters (and for that matter the Australian authorities – tax and ASIC) that our revenue and profits were MUCH lower than they actually were. It was millions, again. All around me they were saying it was harmless because we were only “delaying” good news into the next year. It was just a timing thing.

Bullshit. Accounting is all about timing and if you can’t get the timing right you may as well give up. In effect we really had to say that inventory which was SOLD was still in our warehouse. They dressed it up in fancy language but that was the substance of it. My boss said that we had to do as we were told. I said no we don’t and I won’t. He asked whether I would resign if they went ahead with this plan and I said I would. I was under IMMENSE pressure. Not sleeping, filthy looks in the corridors etc etc.

That’s the part that stinks. Why should I resign for doing my job?

How did I process that one? I had a contact in headquarters I trusted. I told him about it and he said to do the right thing. Much to the fury of local people, I DID do the right thing. In the process I lost my most valuable staff member. He resigned in the midst of it because he too was ethical and couldn’t bear it anymore. I tried so hard to convince him to stick with me and that I would fix it.

In the end I got my way, I fixed it and the right results were reported. Again, relationships were poisoned. This story has a happy ending. Well, sort of. The headquarters contact arranged for a promotion and transfer for me to the headquarters. He was later screwed over in a merger by dirty politics and both of us have since left the company.

Oh joy.

The new company I work for has an inspirational CEO. I know, I hear you moaning already. The days of inspirational CEOs are over. Not really. The right CEO for today is an ethical one. Long term interests of all companies and organisations are to behave ethically. Really.

The CEO of the company I now work for has established an “ethics ombudsman” in the headquarters. I suspect this move is a reaction to recent corporate scandals and a realisation that an internal process is required. Internal audit is hardly enough. We saw in Enron that internal audit questioned the practices but it did not help. Something more is needed. Something at a very high and very independent level. My current CEO should be commended. She is totally committed to ethics.

The idea of an internal “ethics ombudsman” is a great initiative but Margo I think your idea is a great addition. You can have an “internally independent” process but ultimately you need something which can be totally pure in the sense of giving more than just the appearance of independence.

It has to be pure independence in fact, not just appearance. An internal process will always be seen as something which is more easily compromised. I am not trashing internal processes. They are the first line and the most important defence. That said though, something more would be really nice.

Why not? All of us in the corporate world need to pause and reflect. Mere tinkering is not enough. A revolution is required and startling initiatives are urgently needed. I want to be startled. I want to be energised by something totally new. Faith and confidence in the system is key. That can’t be regained without substantial, far reaching changes.

Training is needed. Some have forgotten and need to be retrained in the ways of ethics. Some of it is indeed nuanced. That is why a discussion is helpful. We can never have enough discussion about this. It will never go away. I’m no saint and I’m all ears.

And don’t believe existing bodies when they say they have it covered. I belong to one which has a members ethical counselling service. A mate of mine went to them in dire need of advice earlier this year and they were hopeless. They offered no help at all. The whole thing is window dressing crap. When you really need them, they won’t be there for you.

This mate of mine had to resign from his job to get out of his ethical dilemma and endure three months of frightening unemployment. Some people may treat this lightly but I think it is outrageous that a well known professional body has a so-called ethical counselling service that failed so abysmally. Sure, it may be an isolated case but it should never happen. In the case of my mate it was serious stuff. His employer was on the verge of bankruptcy and hadn’t paid “group tax” (ie the pay as you earn tax deducted from employees) in nearly a year. No one cared for him. He’s a good guy and no one cared or listened. He could only trash himself to survive and sleep at night.

I have become somewhat jaded, but live in hope.

Finally, I say show no mercy to those who act unethically. Absolutely none. A bit of carrot is nice but I reckon only a lot of potential stick will be the thing that will get some people acting ethically. Sydney’s full of crooks.

More people like Fels in this life would be good. A man with a mission. Less of the eastern suburbs set would be even better.

We urgently need a long, open and detailed debate on ethics. We did NOT learn the lessons of the 1980s. Are we to learn the lessons of the late nineties and early 21st century?

We have to or the system will not recover

PS: An open discussion on nuanced issues would also be nice.

This article was first published in ‘Your ethics’, webdiarySept10