Stop boycotting Australia Day and start paying your workers more money: Tony Abbott fires back at ‘virtue signalling’ from top CEOs

Tony Abbott says companies allowing staff to work on Australia Day should be more concerned with providing better goods and services and paying employees higher wages over ‘politically correct posturing’.

Australia’s 28th prime minister spoke about the divisive topic with the Institute of Public Affairs’ deputy executive director, Daniel Wild, on the think tank’s podcast.

The date of Australia Day – January 26 – has been controversial for several years as it’s the day in 1788 when the First Fleet arrived in the country, and Sir Arthur Phillip raised the British flag in Sydney Cove.

Many view the date as representative of the beginning of colonisation’s painful and devastating impact on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

A growing number of companies are allowing their staff to choose to work on Australia Day, but Mr Abbott believes bosses should be focused on their role.

Former prime minister Tony Abbott (pictured) slammed companies choosing to let their staff work on Australia, saying they should be more focused on providing better wages

‘I just think that it’s politically correct posturing by companies that would be better advised focusing on providing better goods and services, providing more effective competition, providing lower prices to customers and delivering higher wages to their staff,’ he said on the IPA podcast.

‘I think that’s what business should be doing. It should be focusing on its job, which is to provide goods and services at a reasonable price, at high quality, to its customers, and to do the right things by its customers, staff and shareholders.’

The former prime minister said companies were in no position to ‘second guess our political leaders’ and to ‘make grandiose and sweeping cultural statements’.

He stressed that businesses and organisations were ‘virtue signalling’ on issues they have no ‘expertise’ in.

‘I’m disappointed by it. I guess in a free country it shouldn’t be stopped but I wish more people would think better of it,’ he said.

Mr Abbott earlier championed how far Australia had come as a multicultural society and said that January 26 was the most appropriate day for everyone to celebrate.

He then heavily criticised people who wanted to change the date, suggesting that they had an agenda that went far beyond simply rallying against Australia Day. 

‘I’m all for keeping the date. I think the people who want to change the date are not so much being oversensitive to the anxieties of some Indigenous people,’ he said.

‘I think by and large, their larger project is not to change the date but to change the country. I think they want to change the country for the worst.’ 

Mr Abbott said that January 26 was the most appropriate date for the country to come together and celebrate and that those who wanted to change the date were changing the country for the ‘worst’ (pictured, Australia Day celebrations on the Gold Coast)

Many view the date as being representative of the beginning of the painful impact colonisation has had on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (pictured, Australia Day protest)

It comes as Telstra’s new chief executive, Vicki Brady, publicly announced that she would work on Australia Day on Monday.

She confirmed that she would work on the day on a LinkedIn post as she championed the decision by Telstra to allow staff to have a ‘personal’ choice in whether to work or not. 

‘I’m proud that at Telstra, our people can now choose to take January 26 as a public holiday, or work that day and request an alternative day off,’ she wrote.

‘I’ll be choosing to work and will take a different day of leave with my family, because that feels right for me.’

The telecommunications boss stressed that it was ‘ok’ if other staff members had a ‘different approach’.

‘How each of us recognise and respect the different meanings and complexities of Australia Day is one important part of our reconciliation journey,’ she continued.

Telstra’s new chief executive Vicki Brady (pictured) publicly announced that she will work on Australia Day as more companies turn away from the controversial date

‘For many First Nations peoples, Australia Day is a painful reminder of discrimination and exclusion. It marks a turning point that saw lives lost, culture devalued, and connections between people and places destroyed.

‘At the same time, for many people the day is also a chance to spend time with friends and family and celebrate the many things we can be proud of as a community.’

Ms Brady added that ‘respectful and inclusive conversations’ were needed to make any progress on reconciliation. 

She then thanked her Telstra colleagues for treating the debate around Australia Day with respect.

Telstra along with Channel 10, Woolworths, mining giant BHP, financial firms Deloitte and KPMG and bio tech company CSL have joined the growing list of companies and organisations who are allowing staff to work on January 26.