[IMG] Colin Goodall. Picture Campbell Brodie. SA Business Colin...

Colin Goodall. Picture Campbell Brodie.
SA Business
Colin Goodall on a mission to make SA grow
Belinda Willis, The Advertiser
June 14, 2014 12:30am
COLIN Goodall has been in Adelaide only three years.
But when he declares himself perplexed as to why South Australia’s resources sector is so far behind Western Australia’s booming industry - take note.
In a former life, the chartered accountant was BP’s Europe’s chief financial officer and the company’s senior representative in Russia.
In the United Kingdom he was chair of an independent oil company Dana Petroleum until it was sold to the Koreans for $4 billion.
And he hasn’t taken long to do his research in the top end of Adelaide town either.
Already, he is chair of the self-funded Adelaide Committee formed by South Australian business and arts leaders wanting to kick start the state’s economy.
He’s working with some “ex-Santos guys” as chair of Adelaide-based Golden Horde, a company looking at coal bed methane in Mongolia.
And the Irish-born, English-raised chartered accountant is an Osmoflo Holdings director.
Armed with this diverse global CV he is pondering SA’s future.
“I just don’t know why (the SA mining industry is not performing like WA’s),” he says.
“Obviously, on the mining side Olympic Dam would have been a disappointment for the state.
“I think it will grow in time…. (but in mining) the focus was all on the west, there are opportunities here.”
One can’t help but feel there are plans to change the status quo lurking inside this energy and resources entrepreneur’s head.
When he was in Russia, he was in charge of developing BP’s market share in the late ’90s.
He had two body guards, made few friends and was recognised as a straight shooter.
“I was certainly offered physical violence but never offered a bribe,” he says with a laugh.
In Adelaide, he feels positive about the state’s resource sector showing signs of awakening.
His old company BP is working on its $1.4 billion exploration program in the Great Australian Bight with plans to begin drilling four holes next year.
It is likely Mr Goodall played some hand in the deal but he admits to nothing, simply answering with a twinkle in the eye “I don’t work for BP anymore”.
He does admit to regularly catching up with the likes of Phil Home, BP Australia Upstream’s managing director, and others in the resources industry’s global elite.
And it didn’t take him long to make new powerful friends when he and his wife, Marie, arrived in Adelaide from the United Kingdom.
“I think one of the first people I met here was Natasha Stott Despoja, I went to a lunch and Penny Wong was the speaker,” he said.
“She said, you need to meet my other half - I met Ian (Smith) and then I met Alexander (Downer) and Nick (Bolkus).”
The three are behind powerful lobby group Bespoke Approach.
Before long, his new mate, former foreign minister Alexander Downer was off to London to take on a new job as UK High Commissioner, and suggested Mr Goodall take on his old role as chair of the not-for-profit Common Ground organisation.
There, his relationship with energy company Santos has grown.
The state’s only company in the ASX top 20 is also the largest private contributor to the organisation that houses the homeless, committing $3 million over five years.
Mr Goodall believes it is all about committing to the state’s future and thinks the new Adelaide Committee can play a strong role in helping it grow.
Its Agenda for Growth report released earlier this year lists ideas to attract more talented people to Adelaide, more high net-worth migrants, new approaches to helping small business grow, to cut red tape and attract more corporates.
“We should be rolling out the red carpet to migrants,” Mr Goodall says.
He says if SA attracted just 60 high net-worth migrants to the state this could equate to a $600 million investment in the economy.
And it was also important to grow the central business district’s resident numbers to keep it vibrant, the number of residents living in the city centre had fallen to 20,000 compared to 60,000 in its heyday some 50 years ago.

As the state’s population continued shrinking Mr Goodall warned, the tax base was shrinking too.
Add to that a growing number of lost corporates – and not only in the motor vehicle industry, and it spelt lost jobs and dwindling sponsors for important income-generating events like bike races and festivals.
He says the state must work hard to win them back.
One of his first moves would be to ensure there was a daily international flight between China and Adelaide every day of the working week.
Increasing international flights was one of the first things the Melbourne Committee did when it was established back in the Kennett era, he said.
And it was a success.
“I would like to see a China Airlines plane land five days a week in Adelaide,” he says.
“Just to let people know we are open for business.
“The solution is to grow everything you can grow, do everything you can and have a diverse economy.”