In May 1940, the Menzies government approached Essington Lewis, the CEO of BHP, to formally take up the role of Director-General of Munitions. Reflecting a true sense of national service, he accepted the position with no remuneration. Lewis was well aware of the coming war and had already begun re-configuring BHP to a ‘war footing’, commencing construction of the Commonwealth Aircraft factory and a shipyard at Whyalla.

When the Curtin Labor government took office in October 1941, Curtin – recognising that political ideology must yield to industrial necessity – gave Lewis ‘unquestioned power’. He was granted the authority to bypass standard bureaucratic red tape to build factories, requisition materials, and overhaul the entire manufacturing sector. Under this partnership, Australia transformed from having almost no heavy manufacturing to mass-producing advanced weaponry, including the Wirraway and Boomerang fighter planes. Lewis later used these same wartime techniques to help establish the Australian motor industry with the first Holden in 1948.

Decades later, the need for private-sector rigour returned. In May 2018, David Thodey (former CEO of Telstra and former Chairman of CSIRO) was appointed to review the Australian Public Service. His final report provided 40 recommendations, with 13 now completed and 27 underway. More recently, in late 2024 and extending into 2026, BHP may have been approached to leverage ‘industrial grip’ on global supply chains. By asking for assistance, the government acknowledges that while it has the ‘mandate’, it lacks the ‘machinery’ – both literal and organisational – that only a leader of a trillion-dollar industrial enterprise possesses.

The Technocratic Gap and Operating Ratios

The startling difference between government-elected officials and a job applicant for private enterprise is the qualifications needed to do the job. The political process often circumvents the need for real-world experience. While many in the current executive have academic qualifications, they collectively lack the operational and engineering experience required to manage a complex economy.

Example: Where is the cost/benefit analysis of Australia’s transition to carbon-free?

ASIC demands strict standards of every Australian business: transparency, accountability, and the prevention of insolvent trading. As ‘shareholders’ in Australia, we should expect nothing less than the same Director’s Duties from our leaders. To bridge this gap, Australia needs a ‘Captains of Industry Board’ to oversee the national ledger using Operating Ratios – the same fundamental metrics that ensure a private corporation remains solvent.

A Legacy Squandered: From Net-Zero Debt to the ‘Blank Cheque’

The tragedy of our current financial situation is highlighted by a significant anniversary. Thirty years ago this month, in May 1996, the Australian Federal Government began the march toward a net-debt-free economy – a goal it successfully achieved and maintained for years. We have moved from that position of ultimate sovereign strength to a trillion dollars of federal debt with a $25 billion interest payment that continues to rise alongside interest rates.

Add to that the States combined debt of $688 Billion with much of it maturing and coming back with higher interest rates.

This downward spiral was accelerated by a shift in political culture during the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) and the Covid pandemic. While these crises required a response, the political solution was a ‘blank cheque’ approach. Billions were committed without a clear ‘pathway to repayment’ or the fiscal restraint that a corporate board would demand before approving such massive capital outlays. Decisions made for short-term political relief have created a long-term debt trap that current leaders seem unable to reverse, resorting instead to schemes to gather more tax rather than trimming the expense.

Proposed Fiscal Guardrails

A ‘Captains of Industry Board’ would enforce strict, legislated limits to prevent political ideology from overrunning affordability:

Total Expense Cap: Federal spending must be capped at a fixed percentage of GDP to ensure the government stays proportional to the actual economy.

Operational Expense Limit: A hard cap on government operational expenses (bureaucracy and wages) as a percentage of GDP, forcing an immediate review of rising government employee numbers.

The ‘Net-Debt-Free’ Anchor: Mandating that any budget deficit includes a legislated ‘Path to Zero’. If a corporation cannot show how it will return to solvency, it does not get the loan; the government should be held to the same standard.

The Insolvent State

Australia’s financial situation has steadily worsened over the past three years. A corporation with shareholders would have long ago replaced the personnel from the Chairman down. Our constitution did not envision a professional political class with no financial restraints, where ideology takes precedence over the responsible management of a wealthy country with ample natural resources.

The current budget system is a joke. Submit it to a corporate board, and it would be thrown out in minutes for its ‘off-budget’ items and lack of year-on-year comparisons. Maximum transparency is required:

An income and expenses statement available to ALL Australians.

A ‘Corporate Comparison Table’ showing Actual vs Previous spending.

No more ‘off-budget’ items designed to hide the true scale of the debt.

Our Constitution has served us well for 125 years, but it never anticipated the current state of our finances. The politician’s role is to make policy decisions, but those decisions must always be made within the constraints of affordability. We must return to the standard set by the ‘Steel Master’: managing the nation’s wealth with the same rigour required of our greatest private enterprises.