There was much to talk about from the business world this week and once again Alan Kohler’s Inside Business had the best of it on Sunday morning television, as Terry Television explains.

Once again Business Sunday promised much, but delivered little, while Alan Kohler’s Inside Business on the ABC was a bit more focused and Michael Pascoe on Seven’s Sunday Sunrise went off on a bit of a tangent with an interview with the retiring deputy chairman of the CBA, John Ralph, who also authored a comprehensive report on changes to taxation a few years ago.

Business Sunday’s policy of lots of little things was infuriating. News Corp’s annual meeting and vote in Adelaide was treated as a bit of a travelogue. Inside Business did a far better story talking to shareholders and analysts about the future. And Kohler weighed in with a nice commentary on the biggest problem confronting investors in this country, the growing lopsidedness of the local market that is going Ex News!

But the once over lightly approach on Business Sunday was typical of the current strange approach on the Nine Network’s show. Nine also covered fashion group Oroton in a neat stockwatch report, the ANZ profit with an interview with CEO John McFarlane and the GE-Wizard deal, which was almost like an in house promotion (PBL, owners of Nine, had 25% stake in Wizard and its parent, Australian Financial Services Group). Ross Greenwood did the standard ‘gee whizz guys, great deal, taking on the banks, gunna grow big’ approach that lacked any insight.

For example, GE Money might be a huge money machine but it uses the parent company’s ungeared industrial assets to grow its business. A sound move, but one that is not particularly appreciated by banking regulators. That is why it has been reluctant to become a bank in its own right Ross, because if it did, it would have to have a stand alone credit rating like, say, the ANZ or St George.

And big as it is, GE Money’s asset base is a lot more volatile than a bank, and less credit-worthy. That’s why it will be reluctant to buy a bank in Australia. It will come under APRA and the Reserve Bank (and possibly the Reserve Bank of NZ, and all three are no pushovers, especially for large American financial conglomerates).

Business Sunday also talked to Andrew Michelmore of WMC Resources in a good package that raised a highly important question about the presence of the secretive Glencore commodities group in the proposed bid from the opportunistic Xstrata. At least reporter Adam Shand had the presence of mind to follow an intelligent investor towards a key point missed by most other finance writers – uranium, the secretive Glencore and national interest (terrorism etc).

And no wonder Ali Moore voice was croaky on the program this week. Besides Adelaide and News Corp, she went to Melbourne to talk to Telstra chairman, Donald McGauchie and the ANZ’s John McFarlane. A busy person, and a sign of how under strength Business Sunday has been allowed to become and how little Nine Finance Editor Ross Greenwood seems to be doing for Business Sunday these days compared to earlier in the year and last year.

McFarlane did say something very important to Moore. He said the bank had cut costs to where it was happy with them (“we are one of the top three low cost banks in the world”). He said lowering your costs was no longer a way to growing earnings. Revenues had to be grown through adding costs and capital to businesses and then keeping a tight rein on costs while watching profits grow.

And that is a warning to the Commonwealth Bank which remains weighed down by the over-priced Colonial business, something that has forced CEO David Murray to drive the ‘which’ bank revamp of its retail financial services business.

When that is finished Murray and the board will wake up to the fact that the bank has arguably been left behind by the ANZ and Westpac.

Kohler and his program should have looked at the ANZ. They are moving closer to becoming the second most profitable bank in Australia and that is worthy of examination in an intelligent way. A poor decision.

But the major interviews for both Business Sunday and Inside Business was with Telstra chairman, Donald McGauchie. Kohler had the best with that simply because it was shot better, had a bit more time, Kohler asked simpler questions that put on the record McGauchie’s views of his role as chairman etc. Ali Moore did ask some questions of that kind, but Kohler got better answers.

Moore focused too much on justifying the silly attacks earlier in the year from Ross Greenwood on Telstra CEO Ziggy Switkowski, by referring to the targets and trying to find out if Ziggy had the support of all the board.

They were wasted questions You can’t really expect the new chairman of a company to dump on his CEO, even if the new bloke got rid of the previous chairman, Bob Mansfield, for getting involved in a dopey scheme to buy Fairfax, which the CEO supported!

The fact is Ziggy has survived and will continue to survive into next year when it will become quite apparent if his growth targets for revenues and earnings will or won’t be met. Then he will go, either retiring, or pushed! A better question would have been about finding a successor for Ziggy.

The privatisation questions were asked. No joy.

But the worrying point of both interviews was how McGauchie was allowed to slip away on the James Hardie board membership issue. He was allowed to wriggle off the hook. He simply slipped it back to Hardie and chairman Meredith ‘sorry’ Hellicar. Ali Moore at least had the quickness of mind to retort that Hellicar wouldn’t do an interview with Business Sunday, leaving McGauchie a little sheepish.

But a smarter way for both would have been to ask him about his role at Telstra as chairman, the view of company morals and ethics held in the wider community, stakeholders was well as shareholders and then to have pressed him on his own personal ethics in taking a position on a company board like Hardie with a questionable view of handling its asbestos liabilities.

He should have been asked what sort of personal due diligence did he do before joining the board? Had that view of Hardie changed? If so why, if so why not? What he though about the possibility of a settlement, the departure and payment of a large amount of money top former CEO Peter Macdonald?

Generally, forcing him to answer simple questions that probed public perceptions of Hardie and big business’ views of the issues raised. The sort that non-financial viewers would relate to. That’s what should have happened in both the Inside Business and Business Sunday interviews

Kohler did get McGauchie to explain why he remained on the Hardie board. But finding out his views on why he joined the board of such a controversial company (even in 2003) would have told much about his views on business and corporate morality generally.