Big relief at the Business Council of Australia Jennifer Westacott, CEO of the Business Council of Australia. BUSINESS Council CEO Jennifer Westacott and the president Tony Shepherd would have let out huge sighs of relief when Tony Abbott won the election. The prospect of three more years of utter chaos and disfunction from a Kevin Rudd-led government was bad enough. To say nothing of the destructive policies imposed by the Rudd and Gillard governments. But all that paled into insignificance at the real blood-chilling prospect of having to sit through not just one but three more Rudd speeches, like the one he gave to the BCA in the wake of the GFC. As they would have had to have done, as the BCA always has the prime minister address its annual dinner. And boy, did Rudd, with seemingly endless deathless useless verbiage, in THAT speech. Prospect avoided, it makes sense for BCA to most unusually - indeed, uniquely - give Shepherd an extra six months to interface with the new government. Shepherd's been an energetic and focused head of the BCA. He and Westacott make a very effective team. Finding and then blooding a successor is a bit of a hit and miss. It is as important for business as for the government to hit the ground running. In a considered, decidedly non-Rudd - effective - way