Does anyone, at least those in their right minds, have any sympathy for the Business Council of Australia?  This clique of overpaid, big-headed chief executives is being widely ignored, bullied and pilloried. My reaction: diddums.

Having swallowed the woke Kool-Aid big time and cosied up to the newly elected Albanese government, it’s hard to take the BCA’s current complaints seriously. Put ‘reap’ and ‘sow’ in the one sentence and you get my drift.

Once upon a time, the BCA was a decent, even reputable, organisation. It was headed by current CEOs who had the courage to speak out. Some of the things that were recommended were not always in the best interests of all the members, but this was a strength rather than a weakness. It was national interest advocacy, and both the Hawke-Keating and Howard-Costello governments took notice of what the BCA had to say.

Fast-forward to today and the BCA is a shadow of its former self. Current CEOs no longer play an active role in the leadership of the organisation – the president has been a retired executive for some time. The current president is Geoff Culbert, former chief executive of Sydney Airport. Recent chief executives of the BCA itself have been very mediocre, coming from the public sector.

Instead of the BCA membership just being made up of large, listed companies as it once was, there are now several professional service companies – think here the large law firms, the accounting and consulting outfits – as well as some universities.  (It’s not cheap being a member – at least one hundred grand per year.)

Apart from clearly diluting the scope for achieving commonality of interest, the disparity in the BCA’s membership has caused all sorts of problems. The professional service firms have an interest in complex regulation because they make money out of providing compliance services.

Anything that smells of a trading scheme is always welcome – clipping tickets is easy money. Reducing red and green tape is simply not on their radar, even though this should be something that the BCA strongly supports.

As for universities being members, pass the smelling salts. What would a vice-chancellor know about dividend imputation, thin-cap taxation rules, the tax deductibility of expenses and the like? Universities don’t pay company tax.

But it does explain the nauseous remarks made by Culbert at the recent BCA annual knees-up held in Sydney which was attended by Albo, Chalmers, B1, Clare in Red and a few others. ‘Over the past two decades, our university sector has built a product that is truly world-class and is now our second-biggest export market behind mining and resources. But rather than celebrate that success and support our most globally competitive industries, we seek to slow them down.’

Oh dear, where do you begin? What is world-class about providing a migration pathway to international students? Where is the evidence that international students, let alone local ones, receive world-class teaching and training? And, Geoff, it’s not really an export industry because most of the students fund their fees and living expenses by working in the country.

Mind you, the rot at the BCA set in quite some time ago as chief executives of large, listed companies decided to turn their backs on just making profits and serving their owners – the shareholders. Let’s face it, it’s easier to serve numerous stakeholders because it dilutes any accountability.

Whatever the current fad – corporate social responsibility, triple bottom line accounting, diversity, equity and inclusion – most of the CEOs were fully on board. Sucking up to the government of the day became a critical key performance indicator in the eyes of most of the board members appointed along strict diversity, equity and inclusion criteria.

This was on full display during Covid as big businesses were only too happy to vacuum up the largesse on offer. We didn’t hear too many complaints about the billions of dollars that were received by big businesses, even ones whose sales hadn’t taken a hit.

In exchange, the CEOs stayed mum about the outrageous suite of restrictions imposed by governments and impositions such as mandatory vaccination. Quite a few large companies made vaccination a condition of continuing employment.

But the joined-at-the-hip connection between the BCA and the federal government peaked early in the term of the Albanese Labor government. It was always clear that the Jobs and Skills Summit held in September 2022 was a stitch-up, a cover for imposing Labor’s outrageous pro-union agenda.

But there was Jennifer Westacott, then BCA chief executive, going on the ABC’s Insiders program with ACTU secretary, Sally McManus – a sort of joint ticket.  Indeed, the BCA and ACTU were putting out joint press releases.

All the time, the plan was to usher in multi-employer bargaining – one of the key objectives of the beleaguered trade union movement – notwithstanding Treasurer Jim Chalmers having specifically ruled the option out during the election campaign.

Having been annihilated at the Summit, the BCA, in its wisdom, decided to throw its full weight behind the Voice. Many of the members donated big time to the Yes side of the campaign and vocally supported the case for change. The fact that such action was undermining the public’s trust in their organisations didn’t seem to occur to them.

Big business is hardly flavour of the month with many members of the public as they read about the whopping salary packages of their senior managers and are forced to listen to lectures about social matters that have nothing to do with the companies. ‘Stick to your lane’ must be a common reaction.

There is a salutary lesson in the case of Woolworths. Don’t forget that company made a big thing of refusing to stock any Australia Day paraphernalia – it is happy to stock stuff related to Diwali and Chinese New Year, mind you – as well as being a very generous supporter of the Voice with broadcasts in its stores over the PA system.

On the most recent survey of brand trust undertaken by Roy Morgan, Woolworths had fallen by 194 trust rankings. This was after three years as the nation’s most trusted brand. In June of this year, Woolworths was Australia’s fifth-most distrusted brand and the sales in their supermarkets have taken a noticeable hit.

The CEO, Brad Banducci, has exited the premises, but the incoming CEO has a huge job trying to restore confidence in the company. Once trust is lost, it is difficult to regain it, and certainly never quickly.

Am I shedding any tears for the BCA and its ostracism from the government’s inner circle of decision makers? Not at all. Failure to make the case for free enterprise and the important role that businesses, both big and small, play within this system is the core problem. Being diverted by social and political issues that are not the concerns of businesses – their executives can of course have their private views – has resulted in this dark place for the BCA.