Scarra 

  

Gary Scarrabelotti.

MA, BA (Hons), Dip. Ed

Director
Aequum Pty Ltd
Political & Business Strategies

Gary Scarrabelotti is the founder of the Canberra-based business and political consultancy firm Aequum Pty Ltd.

In his capacity as Director, Aequum: Political & Business Strategies, Gary combines roles as a political analyst, adviser and advocate on business issues with those of a writer and editor.

Scarra Blog

With the launching of Scarra Blog Aequum: Political & Business Strategies has moved into a more public field of operations. The aim is to provide “open source” political analysis and advice for hard-working entrepreneurs and business leaders.

Given the demanding nature of business and entrepreneurship, entrepreneurs and business executives can rely too often, and more heavily than is safe, upon the mainstream media for their “political briefings”. This can be bad for business. When one is on the go, it’s too easy to soak up unconsciously the anti-business ideas, policies, and political commitments of the “Fourth Estate”.

A good example is how, in more recent times, many people in the business world have been carried along without critically evaluating the political and economic implications of the Green movement and its political allies in the mainstream political parties.

Aequum asked itself the question: Why do so many business people want to jump on the bandwagon of business failure and wealth destruction?

It’s a real problem, and maybe Aequum can help to address it.

We don’t, of course, pretend to be – or even aim to be – an alternative media; but we aspire to be a useful alternative voice and to assume, where necessary, a counter-media critical posture.

Political & Business consulting

A recurring theme in the work of Aequum has been advocacy of employee share ownership and other remuneration and savings-related issues.

As Director, Aequum, Gary Scarrabelotti has a long experience of lobbying and negotiating with federal governments and the major political parties. Since 1995 to the present, he has been deeply engaged in negotiating the terms of employee share plan legislation. From the defeat of the Keating Government’s plan to subject share plans to Fringe Benefits Tax (1995) to the withdrawal and rewriting of the Rudd Government’s share plan legislation (2008), Gary and Aequum have played a pivotal role.

During this time Gary served as Executive Consultant to the Australian Employee Ownership Association during the period March 1995 to March 2002 and then as co-founder and Group Secretary of the Employee Ownership Group from 2002 to the present.

Aequum has also represented clients in the fields as diverse as private health insurance and corporate purchasing technology.

Employee Ownership consulting

Beside representing in Canberra the interests of employee share plan companies and consultants, Aequum also specializes in advising private and unlisted companies in the design and implementation of employee share ownership plans (ESOPs) and employee buyouts using ESOP technology.

Previous experience

Prior to establishing Aequum in 1995 Gary worked

  • As Personal Assistant to the Joint National Secretary of the Australian Workers Union, with responsibility for the AWU’s employee ownership project (1994−1995);
  • As a public servant in the Federal Department of Industry Technology and Commerce — focusing on international science and technology collaboration — and as a research officer in the Department of the Senate (1988−1994);
  • As a parliamentary political adviser and research officer specialising in international relations and defence issues (1985−1998); and
  • As a journalist (1980−85).