Don't forget performance: Goss
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The new chairman of accounting firm Deloitte, former Queensland premier Wayne Goss, says a lot of Australian businesses would like to focus more on performance and less on corporate compliance.
Deloitte announced last week that Mr Goss, a lawyer before he entered politics, would take over as chairman on June 1 when Harley McHutchison retires.
Mr Goss says a much greater focus on corporate governance in recent years is a "good thing" but that "performance is just as important or more important than compliance or conformance".
"I think a lot of companies feel that they'd like to be able to keep that in its box as it were and concentrate a bit more on performance," he told ABC TV's Inside Business.
"I think we also have to remember that what [corporate governance] is ultimately about is having honest senior executives, company directors who actually understand the business and are prepared to ask questions, sometimes dumb questions. I think I'm pretty good at asking dumb questions," Mr Goss added.
Mr Goss says he will scale back his other commitments, which include directorships with five other firms, now that he has taken on the new role at Deloitte.
"I was knocking my head on the ceiling a bit with the workload that I've got and over the next few months I'm going to be reviewing those directorships," he said.
"Obviously there'll have to be some changes and I'll be talking to those companies in the weeks ahead."
Mr Goss says one challenge facing Deloitte is Australia's shortage of accountants.
"I think it's very serious," he said. "I think across the country it's not just in accounting but in a number of professions or callings we are short of skills and this has to be addressed by governments at both the federal and state level but also by the professions themselves."
"The challenge for accounting firms is when we get people and we get some very good people, to retain them," he added.
"You've got to do that by giving them interesting work, challenges and investing in their careers."
