What a small universe
A Migration System for Australia’s Future
The Albanese Government has today announced the appointment of Dr Martin Parkinson AC PSM, Dr Joanna Howe and Mr John Azarias to guide a comprehensive review of Australia’s migration system.
Patricia Azarias - Crossroads in Cairo, 1942
“Alan Manly has come back from the coal face with a sack of gold – nuggets of wisdom about how to succeed in business by really trying. No-one knows that better than Alan; no-one can write about it so hilariously; no-one can compress years of experience into such valuable little chunks. He’s a born teacher. Buy the book and have fun making a motza.”
After three decades, Deloitte’s local chief financial officer bows out
Jody Burton has managed partners, overseen risk mitigation and run the firm’s finances. In 2003, she thought her career might be over before it really took off.
More than two decades ago, then a director at Deloitte, Jody Burton asked for something she feared would be seriously career-limiting – six months off work to have her first child. As the lead auditor on the firm’s premier account, supermarket giant Woolworths, it would have been particularly difficult to take extended leave given the client’s importance.
“In those days, the paternity and maternity leave policies were not significant, and so I went to the leadership and tried to push the envelope,” Burton said. “I asked if I could have six months off because I’d been with the firm a long time, and they rejected my proposition. Instead, they came back to me and said, ‘take 12 months off, get to know your son’.”
Jody Burton is retiring after a lifetime career at the firm. Roy VanDerVegt
It was a transformative moment for Burton, a personable and driven partner who is retiring from the firm after a groundbreaking career of more than three decades that included stints in London, Sydney and Darwin.
“It blew me away that the culture of the firm was so bold to be able to entertain my request because they knew that that would be setting a precedent,” she said. “It was right at the forefront of the whole diversity, equity and inclusion movement, and so it really spoke volumes.”
By the time she made the request in 2003, Burton had already been at Deloitte for two decades. She started as an audit graduate in 1993, was sent to the United Kingdom in 1996 and worked on a range of mining and energy clients before moving on to the key role at the flagship Woolworths audit.
“At the end of the day, I ended up coming back after four months because I’m a driver, and I really need to do stuff other than bring up my family,” she says. “But I had the option. They said, ‘just see how it goes’. Because you don’t know what sort of baby you’re going to have, and so my leadership was telling me just play it by ear, and you’ve got the 12 months to play with.”
Change of direction
When she returned, Burton changed direction, helping start a then-innovative audit advisory practice for companies transitioning to global accounting standards. The role still allowed client contact, and she built a $2 million “book” of work that helped her secure a partnership in 2006.
She shifted lanes again after becoming partner, moving with her family to Darwin to run an office with four partners and about 50 staff.
“I chose Darwin because I knew I would learn so much more. There you have to do everything. You have to do your own networking, do your own recruitment, solve your own problems, navigate your own cyclones,” she said.
After three years of learning how to run the business in Darwin, Burton moved back to her home town of Adelaide to run the state audit practice and join the firm’s national audit leadership. She was made the Adelaide office managing partner in 2012 and the firm’s chief risk officer in 2015.
The appointment as chief risk officer came when her second child was just six months old. Burton asked if she needed to move to Sydney to take the role, and was told to try commuting. The arrangement worked, and she has split her time between Sydney and Adelaide for the past decade.
In 2021, Burton was made Deloitte’s chief financial officer, a role she will hold until the end of the month when she is replaced with another female high-flying partner at the firm, the well-regarded Frances Borg. Borg has been the firm’s chief operating officer for audit and assurance for seven years, and a Deloitte Australia board member since 2023. She will step down from the board once she takes up the CFO role next month.
Burton intends to spend time with her family, but admits she is also thinking beyond what will be a brief respite from working.
“I’ll work out some structure with my daughter Charlie, my son Jack and my husband Troy, and focus on my own health and fitness as well ...but then I think I’ll end up probably in the governance space.”
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