Nev Power group’s key task: save jobs
Former Fortescue chief Neville Power has vowed to take action to save jobs as he heads up a national COVID-19 commission.
Former Fortescue Metals chief executive Neville Power has vowed to take action to save jobs across Australia as he heads up a new National COVID-19 Co-ordination Commission of senior business leaders and public servants to advise the government on ways to minimise the economic shocks from the virus.
The hand-picked commission includes former Telstra chief executive and CSIRO chairman David Thodey (who will be deputy chairman), Toll Holdings founder, Melbourne businessman Paul Little, Energy Australia chief executive and Reserve Bank board member Catherine Tanna, the former head of the federal Health Department and Department of Finance, Jane Halton, who is now an ANZ board member, and former ACTU secretary and government Minister Greg Combet.
They will be joined by the secretaries of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Philip Gaetjens, and Home Affairs, Mike Pezzullo.
The commission has been launched as businesses have started to cut thousands of jobs, with many operations closed under the tough restrictions placed to stop the spread of the virus.
“Australia right now, more than anything, needs to focus on minimising and mitigating the impact of the coronavirus on business, on our communities, on our people,” Mr Power said in Canberra on Wednesday.
“That’s through the preservation of jobs, as much as we possibly can, given the constraints that we have around the restrictions from the coronavirus.
“My role is going to be looking for those problems and those opportunities where we can join businesses together to solve two problems — where there is a workforce no longer gainfully employed and where there’s a workforce that is needed. Where there’s equipment that can be redeployed, where we need to intervene to protect our critical supply chains and our utilities.”
Mr Power, who was chief executive of iron ore miner Fortescue from 2011 to 2018 and now chairs Perth Airport, said the commission would also be looking to the future to help the economy recover from the crisis.
“We know the virus will come and go,” he said.
“We want to be well positioned to make sure that we restore people’s jobs and livelihood as quickly as possible afterwards.”
Announcing the commission, Scott Morrison said it would work to connect business to business networks and business to government to “unlock resources, break bottlenecks and fix problems so Australian families, businesses and communities are supported through the challenging months ahead”.
The Prime Minister made it clear he saw the commission as about “problem solving”.
The commission members, who are believed to have been personally approached this week by Mr Morrison, includes business people with hands-on practical experience in resources, manufacturing, healthcare, energy, and transport and logistics.
Business figures pointed out that the members of the commission had hands-on operational experience in many essential sectors that were being badly hit by the fallout from the virus.
They also pointed out the appointees had a history of running businesses and getting things done in a co-operative way.
“These are excellent choices of high-quality people,” former Business Council of Australia president Tony Shepherd said.
“They cover the breadth of business and all have deep experience.”
Mr Shepherd, who is chair of the WestConnex Delivery Authority and Macquarie Specialised Asset Management, which owns Hobart Airport, said Mr Power had “done an outstanding job” in the development of Fortescue.
As Fortescue chief, Mr Power oversaw a major cost reduction and restructuring exercise to allow the company to cope with a volatile iron ore market.
Mr Power is a mechanical engineer with experience in the coal and gold industry. He worked for four years as chief executive of the Australian operations of contract mining company Thiess after a decade working as a senior executive with Smorgon Steel. Mr Power is known for his operational experience and cool head.
“Nev has always prioritised the health and safety of his team,” Mr Power’s successor, Fortescue chief executive Elizabeth Gaines, told The Australian on Wednesday.
“We are confident that through his leadership of the commission this will extend to all Australians as the government and commission now work on solutions to mitigate the impact of the pandemic while looking to the future.”
Former Business Council president Graham Bradley, who now chairs HSBC, Energy Australia, and GrainCorp, said the commission as a “welcome development”.
“There is a danger of unintended consequences from the social distancing rules and business closure rules which could unnecessarily disrupt the economy and add to the strains on the public,” Mr Bradley said.
“It is a good group of people who are widely experienced across key sectors of the economy.
Mr Bradley said it was important that businesses and their employees were assisted through the crisis by cutting through unnecessary red tape.
He cited the recent example of the Business Council of Australia lobbying local councils to ease restriction on late-night trucks to help speed up deliveries of food and groceries to supermarkets.
Mr Morrison said the commission members such as Mr Thodey as the former chief of Telstra and Ms Tanner and other members, had “deep corporate experience” that would allow them to “reach out to corporate Australia to solve problems on behalf of the nation”.
Ms Tanna is the only appointee who is running an ASX-listed company. A former executive with Shell Australia, she was executive vice-president of gas and power, with responsibility for Shell’s LNG operations in Australia, before heading up the Australia and China businesses of BG Group.
She took over as chief executive of Energy Australia in July 2014.
Toll Holdings founder Mr Little has already been in the middle of the coronavirus storm as chairman of the Australian Grand Prix Corporation. The grand prix in Melbourne was cancelled this month, 24 hours after Mr Little had declared it would go ahead.
He is also the owner of the $100m Melbourne Jet Base private jet facility that opened 18 months ago at Melbourne’s Tullamarine Airport, whose traffic — especially from China — has been hit hard by the virus pandemic.
Mr Little, who spent 26 years of his life working to build integrated logistics business Toll Holdings, will have a strong input on the commission on measures to improve logistics and overcome supply chain issues.
Ms Halton, who is now a director of listed companies Crown Resorts and ANZ and law firm Clayton Utz, was the first woman to run a central Australian government agency.
Ms Halton was the chair of the Howard-era’s People Smuggling Taskforce in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, before she served 12 years as Department of Health secretary and then three years running the Department of Finance.
During her time at the top of the Department of Health Ms Halton was also chair of the executive board of the World Health Assembly, the decision-making body for the World Health Organisation, and for five years was chair of the OECD’s health committee.
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