Jac Nasser’s last word: Let’s revive can-do spirit

BHP’s departing chairman Jac Nasser says business needs to regain lost community trust.

Incoming BHP chairman Ken MacKenzie with Jac Nasser at yesterday’s forum in Sydney. Picture: James Croucher.

BHP Billiton’s departing chairman Jac Nasser says Australian business needs to regain lost community trust and actively try to boost the mood of the nation, rather than blaming Canberra for its problems.

Speaking at theCompetitive Advantage Forum hosted by The Australian in partnership with BHP in Sydney yesterday, the departing chairman of the global mining giant called for a revival of the spirit that led trucking magnate Lindsay Fox and unionist Bill Kelty to head up a post-recession jobs roadshow across Australia in the early 1990s.

“In many Western countries, people have lost their trust and confidence in institutions and the establishment,” Mr Nasser said in his final scheduled appearance as BHP chairman.

“They believe government and businesses don’t listen to them, that they don’t understand how difficult life has become for them and how concerned they are about the future for their families.

“We see that here, where Australians are also losing their brand loyalty, whether to major political parties or to businesses.” He said individual businesses and business groups needed to listen and respond and change.

“We cannot be spectators as this unfolds,” Mr Nasser said.

“There has got to be an equivalent of a Lindsay and a Bill out there today, and we should get in a truck and drive around Australia and actually get the mood of the country working again,” Mr Nasser added.

The roadshow that the Liberal-supporting Mr Fox and Labor heavyweight Mr Kelty went on focused on unemployment in mostly country areas at a time when the jobless rate was nearly 11 per cent. The pair were on the road for 15 months and are said to have created 50,000-60,000 jobs in the 1990s.

Mr Nasser did not say whether his post-BHP plans included an Australian roadshow.

But he said it was the type of self-help attitude that Australian business needed more of.

“That’s what I would like to see come back to Australia: not sitting up every day and saying, ‘he’s not inspirational, he’s not good enough’,” Mr Nasser said when asked if he was confident in Canberra’s leadership.

“That all may be true, I don’t know, but I’m not that type of person. I would rather say, ‘let’s all get into this, let’s not be spectators, let’s play the game and don’t play the man — play the game’.”

Partly in response to fading corporate trust, BHP recently launched a $10 million advertising and rebranding campaign, removing the word “Billiton” from its public face (but not its official company name).

It is the first advertising campaign from the company in 30 years, since BHP hired the late actor Bill Hunter to promote it as “the big Australian”.

Mr Nasser, who has split his time between the US and Australia since becoming BHP chairman in 2010, will step down at the end of August and hand over to former Amcor chief Ken MacKenzie.

Melbourne-raised, he forged a career at Ford that culminated in him running the business from 1999 to 2001.

Mr Nasser said the nation needed to play to its competitive strengths.
These were its location near Asia, a strong global brand supported by rule of law, natural resources and the potential for world-class educational institutions.

“Australians are innovative and open to new ideas; we are a society that rewards personal endeavour,” he said.

“We can’t lose these building blocks. In fact we need to get better in all of them to stay ahead, as we have to do for some other issues.”

These included competitiveness, innovation and education.

“These metrics would suggest we are falling behind.”