Sam Kennard, owner of Australia-based Kennards Self Storage, last week railed against the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) after the government agency named his company among 74 businesses identified as “non-compliant” in an annual report that monitors gender equity in business. The self-storage operator reportedly didn’t submit answers to a questionnaire on gender-equality indicators as required by law. In response to the report, Kennard said the WGEA was “dripping in hypocrisy” and “should be abolished,” according to the source.

“My company does not discriminate for race, age, sex or religion,” Kennard told the source. “If someone has a good attitude, [is] not afraid of work and willing to learn, they’re a starter in our view. This is not a particularly profound or enlightened perspective; it is just common sense. It is good for business.”

Australia law requires companies with more than 100 employees to submit information each year to the WGEA that details male-to-female ratios and salaries, among other data. Kennard is among a group of business owners who have criticized the questionnaire as being too time-consuming and a violation of private information. “I can confirm that we do discriminate against time-wasting bureaucracies,” Kennard said. “The WGEA is a prime example of unnecessary government intrusion into the activities of businesses. My business has much more productive endeavors to pursue than filling out paperwork for government agencies like the WGEA.”

By failing to comply with the Workplace Gender Equality Act of 2012, “organizations may not be eligible to tender for contracts under commonwealth and some state procurement frameworks, and may not be eligible for some commonwealth grants or other financial assistance,” according to the WGEA report.

“While politicians and economists lament the declining productivity in our economy, it is exactly this red tape and the imposts of these bureaucracies that tax the efforts of enterprise,” Kennard told the source. “If the government was serious about tackling productivity, it would get out of our way; it would abolish the WGEA and the abundance of other regulations they lay on.”

Kennards operates more than 80 self-storage facilities in Australia and New Zealand. Based in Sydney, the family-owned business opened its first storage facility in 1973 in Moorebank, Australia.

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