To veteran company director Graham Bradley, there may be nothing so sonorous as the sound of himself holding forth on matters of state.

As a former president of the Business Council of Australia (2009 to 2011, or what insiders refer to as “the glory years”), Bradley is all too comfortable sounding off on public policy. When journalists need the temperature of corporate Australia on the latest myopic policy prescription emanating from Canberra, Bradley will almost invariably save the day with an earnest pronouncement.