Back in the days when Kofi Anan possessed the biggest blue helmet of them all as UN Secretary General, a favourite game of commentators was to Google his name alongside the term “expressed concern”.

No matter what the issue, you could be certain to find Anan expressing his deep concern, but failing to back that up with any concrete proposal for action.

In some circles, this would invariably be hailed as ‘moral leadership’. In fact, it’s just another manifestation of ‘slacktavism’ – the process of signalling one’s good intentions, but doing almost nothing in a practical sense to advance the cause.

It’s an approach that seems to hold particular appeal for many within of Australia’s business lobby, who appear to think that political campaigns are beneath them.

The 2016 Federal Election presented a very clear ideological choice, in economic terms. Huey Long’s old slogan of ‘Every Man A King’ probably held too many monarchist overtones for the resolutely republican ALP, but ‘We’ll Put People First’ was intended to convey the same sentiment.

Faced with this ludicrous attempt by Bill Shorten and the union movement to portray Australia’s business community as top hat-wearing, moustache-twirling, long-lunching scoundrels out to do workers down, how did business lobby groups fight back?

They issued a few press releases, and threw together a couple of television commercials containing messaging that was so pitifully ambiguous it rendered them wholly ineffective.

In response to post-election complaints about the business lobby’s lack of political engagement, one of its senior representatives haughtily snipped that it’s not up to them to be a fundraising body for the Liberal Party.

That’s a terrific soundbite, but it is also completely disingenuous.

Contrary to some claims, the driving force behind conservative frustrations with the business lobby isn’t a lack of political donations, but a lack of political engagement.

For evidence of that, look no further than this recent pearler from the Business Council of Australia’s Catherine Livingstone: “The BCA doesn’t want to campaign, it should not have to campaign because the integrity of its policy positions should speak for themselves.”

It’s a lovely, even purist notion, along with the thought that the meek shall inherit the earth.  But in modern politics, it’s precisely this sort of attitude that will leave your policy agenda becalmed. And, it’s a lesson the business lobby should long ago have learned.

When the union movement launched its assault on the Howard Government over workplace laws a decade ago, the voices from business supporting reform were few and timorous.

There’s a reason you probably don’t recall the massive advertising campaign from the business lobby when Julia Gillard re-regulated Australia’s workplace relations framework in 2009. There wasn’t one.

Australia is saddled with a business lobby that is absolutely terrified of politics, and succumbs to debilitating attacks of pavidity at the mere thought someone might point out its political activities are motivated by self-interest.

Their response to this charge should be a resounding ‘so what?’ Does the union movement back the ALP out of the goodness of its heart, or because it has an unabashed political agenda which it correctly judges the Labor Party is most likely to deliver?

What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, and it’s about time the business lobby adopted the same attitude.

How often do we read comments from business figures about how they don’t think it’s their place to engage in politics?  Some now boast that they don’t make political donations, or – even more illogically – donate equally to both sides, because they ‘have to work with whichever side forms government.’

This is just another pusillanimous piece of pandering.

The trade union movement makes all of its political donations to the Labor Party (or Greens), undertakes all its political action on behalf of the Labor Party, and devotes all its political energy to ensuring the success of Labor candidates.

Yet, when the Coalition is in Government, the unions seem to have no problem securing seats at roundtables, meeting with Ministers and putting their views to decision-makers.

True, they may not get everything they want – but they still get a seat at the table, despite actively backing the opponents of those seated across from them.

But this seems to escape the notice of the business lobby, which remains curiously reluctant to campaign against candidates they know are hostile to its core interests anyway.

If the business lobby is not prepared to back its own arguments in the political arena, it really shouldn’t be surprised when voters decide not to.

As for the ‘we don’t engage in politics’ claim, that is perhaps the biggest myth of all.

Every time a business boasts about its commitment to the triple bottom line, incorporates ‘Recognise’ livery on its conference banners or posts a rainbow flag on its website, it is engaging in politics. It is making a statement about the organisation’s political priorities.

For the most part, this is not driven by dewy-eyed sentimentalism about creating a better world. It’s because commercial imperatives dictate such behaviour.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with that, of course. But it’s curious that companies are falling all over themselves to appear au courant on social issues of the day, only to go missing when it comes to defending their shareholder’s interests.

More to the point, businesses’ core economic interests are also the core economic interests of Australians. It is business that employs people, and which develops, manufactures and sells the products that consumers want. To be pro-business is to be pro-people; especially if you want people to secure economic advancement and a higher standard of living.

Bill Shorten’s continuing campaign of business-bashing isn’t going to be defeated by curling up and hoping it goes away, or by trying to engage with him ‘constructively’.  It needs to be tackled head-on and exposed for the hollow piece of deception that it is.

Many have been shocked by just how brazen Shorten’s campaign has been. They shouldn’t be. Labor is able to get away with it because they can rely on the fact that an effete business lobby never fights back with sufficient zeal.

Conservatives don’t want the business lobby to defend the interests of the Liberal Party. They want the business lobby to defend the interests of business.

Simon Morgan is a member of the WA Liberal Party. He Tweets at @simontmorgan. These are his personal views.

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