Boral’s unmitigated debacle is a classic rerun of corporate Australia, deeply unoriginal and on infinite loop. A blue chip is run onto the rocks while its board dozes. Activists emerge. Its chairman dispatches the CEO and effects other cosmetic changes but insists on keeping her own job “for stability and continuity”.

Kathryn Fagg joined Boral’s board of directors in 2014. When Boral paid $3.5 billion for North American business Headwaters in November 2016, blind Freddy could’ve seen it was a hunk of junk. Incredibly, Headwaters had bolted on 27 per cent of its gross assets in the preceding 12 months.