The Business Council of Australia has been a fixture of power and influence for much of its 41 years.
Peter Costello dealt with the BCA for more than 11 years as Australia’s longest-serving treasurer. He is one critic unafraid to express his concerns on the record. The former Nine Entertainment and Future Fund chairman says he is unimpressed by the BCA’s performance for much of the past decade under former chief executive Jennifer Westacott and current chief Bran Black.has spoken to more than two dozen CEOs, BCA board members, senior politicians and other stakeholders to gauge its performance.
Ironically, the backdrop was another national summit in Canberra that brought together unions, employers and politicians to address the nation’s shared economic challenges. And once again, One chief executive who is actively involved in the BCA says it has “lost its mojo” since Tony Shepherd stepped down as president in 2014. The CEO argues Black is more focused on working behind the scenes and less interested in talking forcefully in public.The Business Council of Australia CEO Bran Black , Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and former BCA president Tim Reed at the BCA annual dinner last year.
Central to the strategy is working more behind the scenes with politicians, bureaucrats and other lobby groups to advocate business priorities in a sustained and methodical way. He nominates Labor’s industrial relations changes, the Greens proposal for a “Robin Hood” tax via a proposed 40 per cent tax on the “excessive” profits of big corporations to fund cost-of-living support for households, proposals by the Coalition and Greens to break up the big supermarkets, defending former Woolworths boss Brad Banducci against political attacks, and on the issue of corruption, intimidation and criminal infiltration in the CFMEU in theBlack says he learnt from his time as chief...
Black, a former lawyer, was not helped in his start to the role after a hamfisted recruitment process to replace the long-standing CEO Westacott. Former Tech Council of Australia CEO Kate Pounder and former West Australian treasurer Ben Wyatt were reported as being canvassed for the role. “I know the government relations bosses in these companies say ‘you shouldn’t say anything’. But actually BHP and Commonwealth Bank said something recently and it had an impact because it carries credibility.”policy risks being undercut by the economy’s high cost base, unproductive workplace laws, an uncompetitive tax system and proposed environmental laws.
“It is really eroding trust in institutions, in all of our institutions. I think it’s a real cause for concern.”to make it less reliant on personal income tax and to rely more on taxing consumption, wealth and the big technology giants. Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and Nationals leader David Littleproud both believe big business has gone too “woke” in pursuing environmental, social and corporate governance issues that are increasingly being demanded by institutional shareholders, according to Coalition MPs.
Undoubtedly, big businesses around the world are operating in a more populist and hostile environment compared to the 1980s, ’90s and early 2000s. But some close observers believe the BCA and company chief executives need to push back harder against anti-business policies.“It’s almost at a crossroads in terms of relevance and impact,” they say. “I don’t see it really doing anything other than having polite conversations and having a marginal impact on policy debates at best.
Ralph, a former Commonwealth Bank chairman, led a business tax review for Costello that resulted in the corporate tax rate being cut.says the group’s influence has waxed and waned over the four decades, but “its success and failures owe a lot to the competencies of its CEO and secretariat leadership at any given time”.
“A lot of the job is behind the scenes stopping things too,” she says, such as watering down the former Coalition government’s “big stick” laws targeting energy providers.The Turnbull government fell one vote short in the Senate to legislate a cut in the company tax rate to 25 per cent for big businesses. It was forced to restrict the tax reduction to small companies with turnover below $50 million, which made it impossible for BCA members to qualify.
During the pandemic, the BCA reached an agreement with the ACTU’s McManus to temporarily restructure enterprise bargaining agreements to stand down workers and for staff to work from home.Meanwhile, other BCA critics point to the council’s expanded membership base, which has widened from the top 100 ASX companies to include universities, technology companies and professional services firms.
“It’s important that they’re part of the membership base, and they are. The more diverse our membership base, the greater the capacity we have to speak on behalf of the whole economy.”A divisive issue for BCA members has been the future use of gas, amid a push by climate change campaigners to stop new gas projects.
Over a hot and intense weekend before the submission to government was due on Monday, November 20, last year, Black worked the phones from his home on Sydney’s north shore, where he sought to resolve the stark differences between the CEOs over dozens of calls.
On industrial relations, Black argues that under his leadership, the BCA took the rougher edges off subsequent changes after the jobs summit, including the right to disconnect and casual worker laws.The BCA worked with other business groups to press the government and crossbench senators, such as independent David Pocock, on problems with the proposals.
The BCA has also been trying to influence Chalmers’ push to crack down on anticompetitive mergers that could lead to higher prices for consumers, while also streamlining approvals for deals that don’t raise obvious red flags.Chalmers said at the time, “we always listen respectfully to the Business Council when they engage with us” and “we believe we get better outcomes for people when we consult widely with the business community and that’s what we’re doing with this legislation”.
In April, Chalmers gave business a six-month reprieve on mandatory climate reporting, just a few weeks after the BCA had urged a 12-month delay in theNonetheless, another former ASX CEO and former BCA board member agrees the “agenda has become too wide with different constituents and different issues”, which make it less effective.
Current board members include Rio Tinto Australia boss Kellie Parker, Google Australia managing director Mel Silva, Gilbert + Tobin law firm managing partner Danny Gilbert, former KPMG national chairman Alison Kitchen and the local boss of manufacturing and materials science company Dow, Karen Dobson.
secret sauce is that he goes into complex environments, is calm and sees a pathway through and gets everyone on board.“He speaks extremely well, which is important as chairman of the BCA.” He argues the BCA chief executive should be the council’s day-to-day spokesman, with the chairman helping set the strategic direction and make occasional public remarks.
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