Todays ponder: medicines and innovation... and more broadly improvements to industry and safety. Could Australia, reinvest fines or financial settlements given to government into industry. For example, when incorrect labelling/marketing occurs could the financial penalty be formal investment in the industry. This doesnt have to only focus on the medical industry. The telecommunication industry has sometimes wrongly promoted its services (Optus mobile phone coverage is one example), rather than a forced apology, they should be made to meet their claims. With the Optus example, it couldve forced them to increase their coverage AND improved the services to consumers. It couldve resulted in a competitive market place and given consumers choice (I.e. Rural and regional consumers would have a choice between Optus and Telstra). Taking this little thought bubble a little further; if a business acknowledge their error themselves they have the option to apologise, but if government finds the error theyd be forced to comply with their claims. I understand that this approach may force business to close if their claims are over the top, but if this is the case Id be happy. I dont want businesses falsely claiming something (and making millions from it) and only being forced to apologise. Lets penalise business for being unethical by forcing their better angels to the betterment of all! Yes, I know its better to incentivise proper behaviour (I.e child raising ), but businesses already get incentives for doing the right thing by increasing their market share.
Posted on: Fri, 23 Jan 2015 22:25:41 +0000