Outlook Conference 2018: Business leaders hit out at Canberra

Business leaders have lashed out at the nation’s political leaders, even comparing them unfavourably with the Chinese government.

Jayne Hrdlicka, Andrew Bassat & Diane Smith-Gander at the Economic & Social Future Outlook Conference in Melbourne. Stuart McEvoy/The Australian.

Business leaders have lashed out at the nation’s political leaders, questioning whether it was worth engaging with government given the constant leadership turnover and even comparing Australia unfavourably with the Chinese government.

Seek chief executive Andrew Bassat told the Melbourne Institute/The Australian Economic and Social Outlook Conference on Thursday that while he sympathised with having to govern with slim majorities and an aggressive opposition, the lack of good policy coming from Canberra was concerning.

“The interesting thing is we have probably had the Australian government disappointingly get in the way of our business more often that the Chinese government,” Mr Bassat said.

“There’s no doubt that what we are getting from Canberra versus what we would like to get to ensure we do get prosperous Australia with lots of jobs for everybody, we are a long way away from where we should be for sure.”

Mr Bassat’s Seek is Australia’s biggest online job advertising firm, and he had overseen the growth of several international businesses such as the now privatised Chinese subsidiary Zhaopin.

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Wesfarmers and AGL director Diane Smith-Gander, said the current environment was one in which “where politics is winning over policy” and that the recent leadership change to Prime Minister Scott Morrison was one she would have preferred not to have seen happen given it “seemed to have been very much around internal politics within a political process.”

“I think everybody likes consistency. And if you feel that you as an electorate have already made a decision and have given feedback through a democratic process you would like to see that come to a natural end.”

Jayne Hrdlicka, chief executive of the fast-growing a2 Milk Company that dairy exports products from Australia and New Zealand to China, said Australia was not alone in having “crazy politics at play in our country” but cast doubt on whether business would get much value in engaging closely with a government that had just changed leaders and faced the prospect of potentially losing office as soon as next year.

“Building relationships with the current government when there is an election coming up, how much effort do you put into that relative to the things that are going to drive value and outcomes for your shareholders? I think you have to bother, but how much time you put to it and how much value you get out of it you have to be cautious about.”

“As a business, if you hang everything on managing politics then you’re not doing a great job for your shareholders because you have to be focusing on managing your business … and managing your risks. Yes you have to be connected to what is happening politically [but] your risks that are country-based risks cannot be dependent on politics. It changes and sometimes does so without a lot of logic from a business person’s point of view, which can be frustrating because you invest a lot of time in building relationships, as most of us do in Canberra, and then overnight it all changes.”