Lindsay Fox to Aussies returning home: Don’t put your family, neighbours in peril

Trucking billionaire Lindsay Fox says the key to beating the coronavirus comes down to personal responsibility.

Trucking magnate Lindsay Fox. Pictur: Aaron Francis/The Australian

It was a week like no other at the Fox family’s $20m waterfront compound of holiday homes at Portsea on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula.

Three days ago Lisa Fox, the eldest daughter of trucking billionaire Lindsay Fox, returned to Australia from her New York home, where she helps run the family’s philanthropic foundation, to celebrate the birthday of her 22-year-old daughter, Charlotte.

But for the first time in his life, Fox was unable to give his granddaughter — better known to her family and friends by the nickname “Lotte” — a birthday hug.

“I gave her a kiss by going up to the window and kissing the glass,’’ the Fox family patriarch tells The Weekend Australian. “She was behind a glass panel and we all sang happy birthday to her.”

Lisa and Charlotte Fox will remain isolated from the family and each other for the next 11 days on different levels of one of the holiday homes within the Portsea compound.

“The family is the greatest thing we have got. You don’t place that in peril and you don’t place your neighbours in peril,’’ Lindsay Fox says, before telling sternly to others who haven’t followed the same ritual upon returning from overseas:

“To do things that have been suggested by people coming back to Australia and trying to live a normal life, if you are not prepared to do the responsible thing, no matter who you are, you will suffer the consequences.”

The 82-year-old who started Linfox with a single truck in 1956 and today oversees an empire with 88,000 trucks that employ 30,000 people in 12 countries has seen plenty in his business career.

During the global financial crisis he remarked how Linfox was enjoying the best period in its history because most of its businesses were in fast moving consumer goods and mining sectors.

History is now repeating itself as Linfox has ramped up its local fleet to have 800 trucks on the road each day to service the surge buying in the grocery and beverages sectors. This dwarfs the company’s standard Christmas peak of 500 trucks a day.

“We are doing as much as we can for the defence department, and the food and beverage industries. In the daily consumables we have everyone running their arses off at the moment,’’ Fox says.

But while Linfox is in a fortunate position, Fox is deeply worried. His voice almost drops to a whisper as he tells you why.

“At 83 years of age next month, I have seen a lot. But I can’t recall anything in my lifetime, anything like we are seeing today,’’ he says of the coronavirus pandemic and the virtual shutdown of the global economy that has been engineered by governments to fight it.

“I remember what my parents told me about the Depression, about people losing their jobs, not having money — we are not far from that. Be prepared to care and share in times like these.

You never go broke from giving. This is the time to do those things.”

But Fox says opportunity can come from the savage economic downturn that is set to befall the country.

After years of closing local manufacturing industries in favour of cheap imports, he says Australians need to recognise that they have the ability to still make the best things in the world.

“Out of this exercise, we have to try to be dependant on all of the things from within,’’he says.

“Buy Australian made. Do whatever you can to promote anything that is made in Australia beyond all the imports that are coming in today. We need to try to recreate some of the industries we grew up with. We don’t have many of them today.”

Fox has been a long-time supporter of Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews.

Andrews has been a regular at Fox’s legendary birthday parties. The 83rd was due to take place on April 19 before coronavirus intervened.

“All the precautions that have come out from Dan Andrews have been right on the money,’’ Fox says.

“I’m not saying I necessarily favour a total lockdown, the politicians are doing the best within their powers. But as the old saying goes, you can’t be half pregnant.”

He says the key to beating the virus comes down to personal responsibility, following in the footsteps of his daughter and granddaughter.

“No one wants to close doors but everyone wants to preserve life,’’ he says. “The real key going forward is just common sense from the public. They need to focus on self-preservation. None of us are bulletproof and at the end of the day, you can’t dodge a bullet you can’t see.”