Curbing Corporate Social Responsibility: Preventing Politicisation – and Preserving Pluralism – in Australian Business

The unprecedented part that leading that Australian companies played in the same-sex marriage campaign in the name of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)  has led critics to argue that companies should “stick to their knitting” and not meddle in politically-contentious social debates.  CSR threatens to become an ever more expansive rubric to justify active corporate involvement in economic, social and cultural debates, which would see the current CSR activities of ‘big corporates’ prove to be just the tip of the politicisation of Australian companies. To prevent politicisation and preserve pluralism in Australian business, this report proposes that a new clarifying principle should  be introduced  into the language and practice of corporate governance to overtly qualify existing CSR philosophies – the Community Pluralism Principle.