Trucking magnate Lindsay Fox lends his support to the flood recovery effort
By <a href="mailto:bgardner@acpmagazines.com.au“>Brad Gardner | January 19, 2010
Trucking magnate Lindsay Fox has lent his support to the Queensland flood recovery effort by joining a business taskforce established to help the stricken state.
Fox has agreed to take part in Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s business roundtable to drive corporate support for Queensland, which is reeling from floods which left 75 percent of the state a disaster zone.
The roundtable of 10 business executives will also help coordinate donations from corporate Australia and provide advice on recovery efforts.
Linfox played a key role in helping Victoria during the Black Saturday bushfires, and Fox hopes to use that experience in helping Queensland clean up the mess from flooding.
“I guess one of the things that we gained out of the fires throughout Victoria was how to try and look after all the people within those communities and while water and fire are totally opposite the same devastation exists for all of the people within those communities,” Fox says.
“Ultimately there will be a process by which goods are put together here in Victoria and in NSW and they’ll become the supply chain to all of the requirements that are currently today in Queensland.”
Fox says he will work with Major-General Mick Slater, who was appointed to lead Queensland Premier Anna Bligh’s flood recovery taskforce.
“He has the main role of running the front of the show and some of the areas where he needs supply of some goods, we’ve probably got the access and I guess it’s my job to help create a lot of that access to come through in ultimate outcome for the people of Queensland,” he says.
The business taskforce will be chaired by Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer Wayne Swan. It will include Assistant Treasurer Bill Shorten and Queensland Treasurer Andrew Fraser.
Business executives on the roundtable include Woolworths CEO Michael Luscombe, Australian Industry Group CEO Heather Ridout, Business Council of Australia President Graham Bradley and Leighton Holdings CEO David Stewart.
White Energy CEO Brian Flannery is involved, along with National Farmers Federation President Jock Laurie.
Gillard has also appointed Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry President David Michaelis, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Chairman Wayne Goss and Catherine Livingstone, who is a director of Telstra, Macquarie Bank and WorleyParsons.
Gillard says corporate Australia has already given to the recovery effort by making donations, allowing staff to assist with clean-up work and sponsoring community fundraising efforts.