The Business Council of Australia has defended its decision to meet representatives from the controversial research firm Cambridge Analytica, saying there was only one meeting and nothing came of it.
But it says it wants to know why nobody questions the political left about campaigning methods, saying whenever the “centre” ran a campaign it was ascribed sinister motives.
The BCA’s chief executive, Jennifer Westacott, has admitted that after Donald Trump won the US presidential election its executives travelled to Washington DC to meet a range of people to discuss modern campaigning and polling methods.
She said she had met executives from Cambridge Analytica – which has now announced it is closing down – but nothing had come of it.
“They were not our cup of tea,” she told ABC radio. “We decided that we didn’t want to use them, and we’re not using them.”
The BCA says its new advocacy body, Centre Ground – which is running the For the Common Good campaign – is a non-partisan, policy-driven unit that aims to tackle what it calls “anti-business forces”.
The body has been the subject of scrutiny after company records showed the former Liberal party acting federal director Andrew Bragg, who has been engaged by the BCA, is a director.
The idea of establishing an advocacy group to act as a foil to progressive groups such as GetUp has been discussed within conservative circles for some time but has been stymied by competing interests.
The BCA’s new campaign is being viewed as the business community going it alone, although the BCA, which now is the sole funder, has not ruled out joining forces with other groups to square off against progressive activism.
Last week in Senate hearings Westacott was unable to answer when asked whether Bragg had had dealings with Cambridge Analytica and, after tweets from the Labor senator Kristina Keneally, the BCA was unable to confirm that Cambridge Analytica was not involved in the advocacy group.
But on Thursday Westacott said the BCA had chosen not to work with Cambridge Analytica.
“We went to Washington to do a whole lot of things,” Westacott said. “The idea that you wouldn’t go to Washington after a very unexpected – although I always thought Donald Trump would win – election result, and go and talk to a whole range of people about campaigning, about modern polling; I mean, people have been on our backs for years about getting with modern campaigning – people can’t have it both ways.
“I mean, this is one of these things that people, you know, it’s so interesting that nobody ever questions the left side. No one ever questions that the ACTU is campaigning.
“When the centre pushes back and says, ‘We actually want to play in the same field as these organisations but we’re not going to tell lies, we’re not going to give people misinformation, we’re not going to misrepresent data, ours will be a campaign of policy and integrity,’ people want to conflate things.”
Westacott was also asked about company tax cuts. Elizabeth Proust, the Australian Institute of Company Directors chair, said on Wednesday that the public did not support the push for large company tax cuts.
The BCA chief said the Coalition’s plan to lower the corporate tax cut to 25% was a long-term goal, to be ushered in over a decade, and company taxes were the biggest impediment to investment and productivity growth.
