The pair both have two young children, grew up on Sydney’s north shore and came into the roles after the departures of long-time business lobby chiefs, BCA’s Jennifer Westacott and COSBOA’s Peter Strong.

Black’s appointment followed a hamfisted recruitment process in which former Technology Council of Australia CEO Kate Pounder and former West Australian treasurer Ben Wyatt were shortlisted.

Former BCA president Tim Reed then approached the former NSW trade minister Stuart Ayres, before sounding out Perrottet for the job. Black shrugs off the controversy. “It doesn’t worry me,” he says, when asked whether he took the job that no one else wanted.

In Achterstraat’s case, his appointment followed the short and ill-fated stint of Alexi Boyd, who resigned after a backlash by members and Liberal MPs over the industrial relations changes.

“I’ve enjoyed talking to Bran because we’re both relatively new after strong legacies at both organisations, we both have young families and similar backgrounds and northern beaches boys, so it’s been a good relationship,” Achterstraat says.

Black understands the political benefits. They were on display earlier this month at the COSBOA summit in Sydney where the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, the teals and regulators were falling over themselves in their support of small business but widely rounded on big business.

“To my mind it’s a natural relationship,” says Black. “There’s a tendency to think about big business on one hand and small business on the other, but you’ve got $700 billion in commercial exchange between the two each year. That’s almost a third of the economy, so the relationship is fundamentally critical to our way of life,” Black says.

Black, a politico who spends his free-time captaining a patrol at Manly Life Saving Club and kayaking on the harbour, adds his family also run a small business. “My wife runs a childcare business [Futuro Early Learning] and we have a reasonable stake in it, we opened our first centre in July last year.”

Achterstraat’s grandparents came to Australia from the Netherlands in the 1950s and started a hydraulics servicing company. “My fear is it’s harder now than it was in 1954 to start a business,” he says.

‘Stronger together’

Black and Achterstraat united earlier this year – including for a joint opinion piece – to warn about the “economic storm” facing business from the government’s next tranche of workplace reforms to casual worker rules and gig economy regulations they say will “leave all Australians worse off”.

The co-operation is in stark contrast to the virtual war that broke out between the two groups in 2015 over changes to the competition law, with Strong saying that the BCA “should hang their heads in shame” over the campaign to stop changes to the effects test – used to determine whether conduct has the purpose or effect of substantially lessening competition.

The Coalition’s divestiture policy move has the potential to once again split big and small business, but the pair argue that it makes sense to remain united, on most things.

Achterstraat says what they learnt through the tranches of the IR changes is that “the business community is stronger together.

“When industries actually agree on things, government has to respond and when you have industry groups splitting off, their influence is undermined.”

The job of lobbying Canberra comes ahead of next month’s federal and state budgets and a difficult time for the economy. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission expects the number of companies entering administration to hit 10,000 in 2023-24, the highest level in a decade.

Black also has the challenge of presenting a united front across the country’s largest 100 companies and his board including BHP CEO Mike Henry, CBA CEO Matt Comyn and Wesfarmers CEO Rob Scott. Next week he heads to India to meet his counterpart and finalise recommendations by a powerful CEO group chaired by Macquarie CEO Shemara Wikramanayake.

“My vision for the BCA is we are at the forefront of South-East Asian business-to-business engagement,” Black said at the recent ASEAN summit in Melbourne.

But he says a key component of his job is explaining the critical role big business plays in the broader economy.

“If you take taxation alone in [the] MYEFO, $153 billion coming from company tax. That’s almost a quarter of the budget. The top 100 companies are delivering 45 per cent of that, that’s a huge contribution to the budget,” he says.

“Those companies employ 4 million of the 13 million employed Australians, the top 10 companies paid $50 billion in dividends last year. So that’s employment, taxation and dividend payments to support our retirements. Fundamentally, when big business does well, it’s about supporting the broader economy and making sure the country is prosperous. We all need to do well.”

The next big test is next month’s budget, with the BCA long advocating for a permanent, economy-wide 20 per cent investment allowance to drive the transition towards net-zero emissions by 2050, a move for which Treasurer Jim Chalmers has flagged his support.

COSBOA is pursuing an expansion of the instant asset write-off to business with turnover of up to $50 million, and wants the threshold raised to assets worth $150,000. An extension to incentives for energy upgrades, a small business flying squad and one definition for small business are also on the wishlist.

Both men will need their full powers of persuasion to help deliver for their members.

Chance entry into politics

Black has been described as Macquarie Street’s Mr Nice Guy with UNSW chancellor and “chairman of everything” David Gonski describing him as the perfect diplomat. “He has that ability to make everybody like him and to like what he’s putting to them,” Gonski says.

Achterstraat – whom Willox calls a “terrier for his members” – can also be described as a government insider, having worked within NSW government and various lobby groups during his short career.

He worked as an adviser to the Liberal trade minister Andrew Robb, at Smith Street Advisory, as the NSW director at the Property Council of Australia and at the NSW Department of Housing as chairman of the housing advisory panel.

Black denies the pair are painted as Liberals, pointing out he spent 10 years as a corporate lawyer mainly in shareholder disputes at Corrs Chambers Westgarth.

“I saw an ad in the paper one day for general counsel of the Liberal Party. I had no background in politics, I didn’t know anyone in politics, but I thought it looked interesting. I applied for it and got the job and that was my entry point into the political world,” Black says.

“I worked in community housing for a year and then got a call from [now NSW Opposition Leader] Mark Speakman out of the blue, saying ‘I’ve just been made a minister, would you like to be my chief-of-staff?’ It was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.”

After a shortish stint at UNSW, he returned to Macquarie Street in 2019 as a legal and cabinet adviser to former premier Gladys Berejiklian, and then as chief-of-staff to her successor, Perrottet. He admits it has given him a strong understanding of how the political machine works.

“I thought about this a lot coming into this role, I’ve worked in corporate law, the university sector and government, and I think those experiences have given me a useful perspective on a lot of the different issues I deal with.

“I think ultimately the way in which you’re able to work with government comes down to how you engage. My whole philosophy is just be honest and transparent in how you approach things – that’s my approach to work more broadly. I hope through engagement with people they can see how I engage and operate.”