Opinion: Airtree the victim in Hostplus and Employment Hero battle for the truth

Yes, I know. Hell has frozen over and it appears a land bridge has formed between the moral high ground and venture capital island. 

Yes, I know. It’s surprising to see me riding across it on my high horse to the defense of the country’s largest venture capital fund. 

But that’s the nifty thing about being committed to fairness and truth – it allows you to ride for it no matter who carries the flag. That’s the whole point. They are values you can defend consistently, logically and transparently, irrespective of anything else. 

Such defense is popular because fairness and truth are rooted in logic, and logic in common sense and, while the display of such sense isn’t all that common, the taste and feel of the opposite is known by all who trip over it. 

I tripped over it this week when a $100 billion megafund, Hostplus, threw Airtree under a bus it charted to Bullshitville. 

And boy did I trip. The fall – much like last week’s fall from my day-old electric scooter – left me dazed and confused, wondering if my eyesight was affected. 

But no, there it was on paper, as clear as I’d split my chin wide open. A letter from Hostplus, an investor in Airtree, to Airtree, demanding it encourage the sacking of the CEO of Employment Hero, which Airtree (ergo Hostplus) own shares in, because Hostplus didn’t like what the CEO said about its position on a matter. 

And here’s where it gets juicy. You know who else was on the bus to Bullshitville? The CEO of Employment Hero who was last seen lobbying the driver for a stop so he could refuel his gaslight. 

The hell-hath-frozen-over irony in this popcorn-worthy debacle is that Airtree is – in what could be a world-first for venture capital firms – the victim of toxic corporate behaviour rooted in the pervasive conflicts of interest that so frequently get wrapped up in “looking out for the interests of everyday people”. 

On one side, we have a profit-to-member super fund that is lobbying the government to outlaw ads for superannuation companies appearing on tech company platforms like Employment Hero. On the other side, we have Employment Hero, an employee management platform used by a growing number of companies to give their employees a suave, tech-enabled onboarding and employee management experience, which argues that allowing superannuation funds to advertise at signup ‘gives everyday people more choice’ – a favourite PR position to roll out for public statements. 

In its letter, Hostplus suggested the Employment Hero CEO’s behaviour is appalling. But, if I’m honest, I find his approach refreshing, sans its questionable foundation. He’s had the courage (or arrogance/gall/stupidity, depending on your stance) to speak up against the self-interest of Hostplus, which it appears loathed to address itself. 

But, in doing so, he has failed to acknowledge that his position is rooted in the millions and millions of dollars of advertising revenue his company stands to earn from said position prevailing. Which you’ll note coincidentally aligns with ‘giving everyday people more choice’…

Hostplus have gone the man, which is one of the worst choices I’ve seen since a supermarket CEO said someone’s opinion was irrelevant because they’d recently retired and then asked if a journalist would manipulate the narrative to suit. Well, it wasn’t to suit fairness and truth, that’s for sure.

What neither of the passengers on this runaway bus have done is own and disclose the conflict and self-interest driving their actions. Neither of them have raised the fairness and truth flag on their own. They’ve picked fights, lied about the reasons for their positions – or at least not been transparent about them – and have both claimed the tired and embarrassingly pathetic ‘we’re doing this for everyday mum and dads’ rhetoric that self-interested corporate goons have been failing to hide their shitful behaviour behind for decades. 

Hostplus doesn’t want to lose members (executive salaries are tied to performance) and Employment Hero doesn’t want to lose revenue (executive benefits are tied to performance). 

That’s the argument. There’s nothing else to it. And, like it or lump it, that’s the landscape of business we exist in. 

This is a case, like so so many like it, defined by thinly veiled self-interest and handled by two particularly bad responses to it. 

But for Hostplus to drag Airtree into it like they have is, in my opinion, the true failure of expectations and standards here. 

Hostplus is meant to exist for its members. Employment Hero is not. Employment Hero is legally obligated to care more about its shareholders than its customers, which is all its CEO is doing – quite well, you might argue. And while his behavior might make some of the more conservative pundits uncomfortable, it’s 2024 and activism works, even when it’s veiled. 

Has he dropped the bat so far as his board is concerned? I’d struggle to argue he has. He just hasn’t sat idly by, which is what most boards would prefer their CEOs do. 

What I do know, having been on the end of such behaviour recently, is that Hostplus’s attempt to abuse its power with Airtree has put Airtree in a position where almost any response it offers will cost it dearly. 

That means a party has wilfully chosen to try and make it impossible for another to do what’s fair and truthful. That is a sorry indictment and summary of the corporate landscape in Australia that will continue to fail the common sense test ‘everyday people’ are quite sick of tripping over as they peruse the news of the day. 

The outcome of this will be defined by conflict and self-interest, by unfairness and mistruth, as is always the case in the finance industry, plagued by and controlled by pervasive conflicts.

Airtree can’t do what’s right and fair because Hostplus butter its bread, as does Employment Hero’s hopeful success. Hostplus can’t be fair and truthful because more members butter more bread, and Employment Hero can’t be either, because it needs ad revenue to butter enough bread to keep Airtree off its back.

This is why I’m committed to truth and fairness: you don’t need butter to enjoy it. Unlike the popcorn, we’ll be eating as this story unfolds. 

Kane Jackson is the co-founder of Maslow.