Minerals Council picks Howard minister Helen Coonan as chair

Minerals Council appoints former Howard-era minister Helen Coonan as the chair of its board.

Former Liberal politician Helen Coonan is set to become MCA chairwoman.

The Minerals Council of Australia has appointed former Howard-era Liberal communications minister Helen Coonan as the chair of its board, in a major departure from tradition at the peak mining lobby group.

Ms Coonan’s appointment marks the first time the Minerals Council has appointed a chair from outside the ranks of its own members, given the former communications minister — who also served as the minister for revenue and assistant treasurer — has never served as a senior executive at resources company.

She takes over when current chair Vanesse Guthrie steps down on June 18.

The decision to look outside the ranks of its members and industry — taken before Saturday’s stunning election result — required a change of constitution, according to an MCA spokesman.

But while Ms Coonan is a newcomer to the mining industry, she is no stranger to the high-powered lobbying game, having served as a director of blue-chip lobbyist GRACosway since 2013, shortly after she left parliament.

Ms Coonan, an influential member of former prime minister John Howard’s cabinet, was last year named the inaugural chair of the federal government’s small business financial complaints body, the Australian Financial Complaints Authority, and serves as a non-executive director of Crown Resorts and Snowy Hydro Limited and serves on the advisory board of JPMorgan.

She replaces Vanessa Guthrie, a Western Mining, Alcoa and Woodside executive who also ran West Australian uranium hopeful Toro Energy before being appointed as the MCA’s first female chair.

Ms Coonan said she was honoured to be appointed to the position “at such a great time” for the resources industry.

“If Australia is to stay in front of its global competitors in an increasingly competitive world, we must continue to push for faster project approvals, greater sustainability and reforms in a whole range of policy areas,” Ms Coonan said last night.

Ms Coonan was selected as the Minerals Council chair in early May as it appeared former opposition leader Bill Shorten appeared to be cruising to victory, and as the mining industry — and particularly its members in the Queensland coal sector — were gearing up for a potential battle over the future of the industry.

Even so, her appointment comes at a critical time for the ­resources sector which is expected to see job losses in coming years as the major players roll out ­automation across mining sites.

Meanwhile, miners are coming under pressure from investors to bolster environmental, social and governance scorecards.

She is also the latest of a number of political heavyweights appointed to senior positions in industry lobby groups.

Former Queensland Labor premier Anna Bligh is now the chief executive of the Australian Banking Association, one-time Federal Labor resources minister Martin Ferguson heads the ­advisory board of the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association and former West Australian Liberal Party state director Paul Everingham now runs the state’s Chamber of Minerals and Energy.

The transition between industry lobby groups and federal parliament also works the other way. Prime Minister Scott Morrison is the former boss of Tourism Australia and was the national policy and research manager for the Property Council of Australia in the early 1990s.