Web site to track corporate Australia's relationships - News - Business

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This story was printed from ZDNet Australia.
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Web site to track corporate Australia's relationships

By Vivienne Fisher, ZDNet Australia
December 12, 2001
URL: http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/business/soa/Web-site-to-track-corporate-Australia-s-relationships/0,139023166,120262324,00.htm

Workers are being encouraged to provide information about links between companies and directors in Australia for a new Web site launched this morning by the Labor Council of NSW.

Described by the council as an inter-relational corporate database, the site aims to track connections between directors, shareholders and subsidiary companies.

Bosswatch campaigner Shannon Okeeffe said the idea for the site came from the council wanting to campaign and get more involved in shareholder action.

The council wanted to start looking at who the owners of companies were, and who were the decision makers within these organisations. Okeeffe said it had had a hunch there were connections and common owners, but had no way of doing it comprehensively.

She said it had also wanted to increase the knowledge in the community and amongst workers about the nature of the corporate landscape, "to show the relationships between companies and directors in Australia".

Okeeffe envisages the audience being workers and trade unionists. She said the council was hoping to add new information about companies to the site regularly, and focus on a new industry each month. Information is gathered from annual reports, and Okeeffe said it was also encouraging people to send through information.