Malcolm Broomhead concludes our conversation with the sort of remark that lives up to his reputation as one of corporate Australia’s top straight-talkers.

“As a director, you’ve got to say what you think fearlessly. If they don’t like you, they can toss you out,” he says, summing up 13 years in the boardroom of the nation’s biggest company, BHP. “You don’t want to get involved in group think.”