Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?

Street rallies, consumer boycotts, damning reports, politicians handing back money and talkback fury: the misbehaviour of James Hardie has deeply offended our community and a price will be extracted. But let's not forget the lesson from Rolah McCabe's struggle against tobacco giant BAT Australia. Corporate misbehaviour is proposed, developed, implemented and covered up by an army of external lawyers, accountants, consultants and media strategists. These people earn six figure salaries advising companies on how best to dud the rest of us, safe in the knowledge that their professional actions are entirely disconnected from how they are viewed by their friends, family and wider community. This schism allows unconscionable professional behaviour to go unchecked, free of any consequences in the private sphere.

So the next time you're organising a dinner party, remember that you can tell a lot about a person by the company they keep - and the company they work for.