Company heavyweights fail to grab ringside seats for the Chalmers-Taylor BCA bout

Treasurer Jim Chalmers and his Opposition counterpart Angus Taylor slug it out. Picture: David Crosling

You’d think Melbourne’s business community would be interested to hear the views of the men who want to control Treasury’s purse strings after the federal election.

Not so much, judging by the turnout to the Business Council’s debate between Jim Chalmers and Angus Taylor on Wednesday.

Barely 150 people showed up to the affair. Of the 15 or so chief executives of the ASX’s top 50 companies based in Melbourne, only two showed up – BlueScope Steel’s Mark Vassella and Transurban CEO Michelle Jablko. Melbourne is also home to 20-odd chairs of ASX 50 companies, and Margin Call spotted only Transurban’s Craig Drummond at the event.

Other senior business figures showed up, to be fair – HSBC Australia boss Antony Shaw, sitting next to Australian Unity’s outgoing CEO Rohan Mead. KPMG Australia chairman Martin Sheppard was sporting a natty red sling on an injured arm, and BHP corporate affairs boss James Agar swapped anecdotes with former colleague Tony Cudmore, now with Woodside Energy.

Transurban chief Michelle Jablko was interested in what was said. Picture: Aaron Francis

Mead, Shaw and Rio Australia chief executive Kellie Parker (also a BCA board member), along with a couple of small business owners, all got a guernsey to pose questions to Chalmers and Taylor.

But, all in all, a pretty thin turn out for Australia’s premier business lobby group. And the numbers might have been even thinner, Margin Call hears, but for a last-minute ring around inviting guests to bring a friend.

Does nobody care what Taylor and Chalmers have to say?

Or is it a sign of the BCA’s waning influence in Melbourne business circles?

A little from one hand and a ­little from the other, perhaps.

BlueScope chief Mark Vassella was one of only two ASX top-50 Melbourne-based bosses to turn up. Picture: Hollie Adams

At this point in the campaign the mood of the electorate would best be described as one of stunned indifference. And Wednesday was the third time Chalmers and Taylor have clashed during the campaign – the first on Sky and the second on the ABC’s 7:30.

A short week between Easter and Anzac Day is a tough time to run a business lunch, even if people did care about the speakers.

HSBC Australia chief Antony Shaw. Picture: Cameron Ramsay

KPMG Australia chair Martin Sheppard. Picture: John Feder

But even though the BCA’s annual dinner in Sydney remains one of the events of the season, more than one senior Victorian business leader – unprompted, we might add – told Margin Call they were hardly surprised the lobby group was struggling to attract punters to the event.

Less a reflection of traditional intercity rivalries, though, than another sign that broadbased business lobby groups – such as the BCA and the Australian Industry Group, as two examples – are struggling to convince members that hefty membership fees are being reflected in policy achievements.

Of the debate itself, the less said the better. Both men were long on conflicting statistics and accusations of lying. Both were short on explaining anything resembling a coherent plan to take the country forward – although Chalmers, at least, was prepared to claim that the government actually has one.

If it was a football match you’d describe it as a scrappy affair. If it was boxing, you’d relegate both of them to the undercard for their next fight.