2021 CEO survey: Business urges no retreat on borders

A survey of more than 80 chief executives at the nation’s largest companies found significant anger at two years of squabbling between states, warning there needs to be a national plan to keep borders open.

Afterpay chief executive Anthony Eisen. Picture: Damian Bennett

The country’s business leaders are urging state and federal governments not to splinter and retreat in the face of new Covid-19 variants, warning there needs to be a national plan to keep borders open and overcome significant shortfalls in skilled workers.

The Weekend Australian’s survey of more than 80 chief executives at the nation’s largest companies found significant anger at two years of squabbling between states, and growing concern that a pervasive threat of talent shortages would blunt economic growth.

“I think in the past year there have been some clear signs of strain, and there has been much more variation between states,” Commonwealth Bank CEO Matt Comyn said. “Some of this has been understandable in the short term, but ultimately we need to remember that we all live in the same country.”

The survey comes as the number of Covid-19 cases in NSW rose by 2213 on Friday, and authorities warned some local government areas to cancel social events until after Christmas.

Despite plans to lift travel restrictions in February, Western Australia closed its border to Queensland and Tasmania following the spread of cases.

CSL chief executive Paul Perreault, who runs the country’s largest pharmaceutical company, told The Weekend Australian the three most significant risks to economic recovery included the possibility a slowing vaccination rate will lead to new Covid-19 variants taking hold.

Policy decisions that took a “short term, reactive view” and a “lack of general business confidence impacting private sector investment” were other major worries, Mr Perreault said.

A large number of business leaders – including BHP chief executive Mike Henry and Toll Global Express boss Christine Holgate – nominated shortages in staff, as international travel restrictions kept away migrants and other workers, as the most pressing concern heading into 2022. Ms Holgate said she would employ 1000 people immediately, if she could.

But most are upbeat about an economic recovery and how governments had managed the pandemic, even in the face of new variants, inflationary pressures and the likelihood of new restrictions and increased hospitalisations.

“While there’s continued uncertainty from Covid-19 and its variants, and an uneven pace of recovery in different markets and sectors, disruption has also continued to present opportunities to accelerate change and find new solutions for challenges that predated the pandemic,” Macquarie CEO Shemara Wikramanayake said.

Optus boss Kelly Bayer Rosmarin added: “The challenges of the past two years weren’t anticipated, and while we may not have been prepared, we definitely made up ground quickly and recovered from any missteps.”

Worries of border closures and renewed restrictions was a constant among survey respondents, in particular those in the heavily affected travel and hospitality sectors.

Geoff Culbert, chief executive at Sydney Airport, said “the fracturing of the federation (has) been sad to watch, and our national identity has never been more challenged”, while Qantas’s Alan Joyce said the “patchwork approach to reopening” was “the greatest challenge to the recovery”. “Hopefully we’ll see things normalise,” he said.