Harvey’s stifled voice was heard for 23 minutes on Neil Mitchell’s morning radio program.
Harvey proceeded to complain that “the biggest problem now is that you’re not allowed to [be outspoken] any more. It doesn’t matter what you say, you get attacked. And social media [is] extraordinarily spiteful and nasty. It’s at such a stage now where, why am I doing this interview with you?”“I mean all my customers buy fridges from me, [but] as soon as I say something they don’t like [they say] ‘I’m never gonna shop with that bugger again’. So what’s the point of saying anything? Just shut up.
Yes, that was Gerry bemoaning the malign suppression of his right to be heard in a 23-minute soliloquy on Melbourne’s highest-rating morning radio show.Harvey’s interview with Mitchell, it should be said, went a great deal better than his interview last August with another Melbourne radio host,. On that occasion, Epstein dared to ask him why Harvey Norman was repaying only $6 million of JobKeeper to the Australian government, not the full $21 million it received.
“Our sales are up … 9 per cent on last year. Our sales in freezers are up 300 per cent. And what about air purifiers? Up 100 per cent!”But he was also attacked nearly 15 years ago, during the global financial crisis, for saying that donating to the homeless was “helping a whole heap of no-hopers to survive for no good reason”. Harvey Norman went on to sell many more fridges.
Herein lies Harvey’s true gripe: that in the good old days, his position as one of Australia’s largest media clients meant that his offensive commentary flew under the radar, meticulously under-reported by the newspaper, radio and television companies gorging on his advertising largesse. In the present day, the penetration of social media has rendered Gerry’s protection racket obsolete. His crassitude resounds in every corner of the nation and shoppers can vote with their feet.has helmed The Australian Financial Review's Rear Window column since 2012. He is based in Sydney.
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