Don’t mention the war, or the elephant in the room

hostplus/Outsider/

10 September 2018
| By Outsider |
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Outsider, for reasons which he would rather not discuss, is familiar with the “dark arts” of spin doctoring and therefore believes that industry fund, HostPlus, must have received some “medical” advice when compiling its submission responding to the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry.

In particular, Outsider believes those advising HostPlus must have drawn upon what was always known as the “Fawlty Towers” or “Don’t Mention the War Technique” – essentially a strategy which involves not mentioning the rather large and noisy elephant in the room.

In the case of HostPlus, that elephant was the large sums of members’ money the Royal Commission heard had been spent on corporate hospitality, including boxes at the Australian Open tennis.

The HostPlus submission dwelt at some length on member communications but at no point did it mention corporate hospitality.

As Basil Fawlty said: “Don’t mention the war”.

Outsider is sure, however, that the Commissioner Kenneth Hayne, clearly espied the elephant in the room.

 

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