Woolworths boss Brad Banducci was warned he could face six months in prison or a $5,000 fine if he was held in contempt by the Senate for failing to answer questions at the inquiry into supermarket pricing.
As I said: not for contempt. Nobody who can afford a good lawyer will ever go to prison for contempt.
Also: That is a depressing short list for 20 years. As if not more CEO deserved to go to prison for wage theft and other things.
I just pasted the names and companies from the first few Google hits. There were plenty more hits, but I wasn't going to read them all.
I actually couldn't find anyone who had ever been imprisoned for contempt of senate. The charge exists, and a prison term is possible, but I don't know that it has ever actually happened. It comes over as an hollow threat.
I mean, establishing that there's a problem with CEOs not going to gaol for contempt of Senate would first require establishing that CEOs are committing contempt of Senate, at the very least to a standard of "a reasonable concern exists".