Supply shock coming, consumer confidence rock bottom: Warnings from the CommsCon stage

Nathan Jolly

March 26, 2026 11:00

Supply shock coming, consumer confidence rock bottom: Warnings from the CommsCon stage

Ben Wicks, executive director public affairs and advocacy, at the Business Council of Australia issued a grim forecast

The Business Council of Australia has warned PR and communications professionals of a looming financial shock at the CommsCon conference in Sydney.

Speaking at the final session at Wednesday’s event at the Crown, Sydney, Ben Wicks, executive director of public affairs and advocacy for the Business Council of Australia — an organisation that represents 120 of the biggest business in the country — explained that he met with a number of government ministers in Canberra this week, including Treasurer Jim Chalmers.

After meeting with the ministers, Wicks believes that “trust is going to be really tested for all of our businesses in the coming weeks and coming months.”

Wicks explained: “Inflation’s rising … the supply shock’s coming down the line. All these costs are coming down the line and it means trust will be really tested. Confidence is already at Covid levels and below.

“We’re working really hard with our members to look at what are the proactive things that we can do with government to mitigate the challenges. How can our members communicate their organisations to be upfront and transparent about what’s going on? Because, unfortunately, the data is showing that it will be more challenging.”

Wicks warned the coming months business inflation was going to stress-test business reputation.

“From a company perspective, at the start of Covid, reputation for many businesses was quite high,” he explained. “The businesses were seen as helping consumers and helping Australians deal with challenges, and then inflation got involved and that changed very quickly. There was an environment that caused a lot of pain for a lot of Australians. I think we’re already in a high inflationary environment, and it’s about to get more challenging.”

Elizabeth Rudall, ANZ’s head of strategic communications, told the CommsCon crowd that the ANZ consumer confidence index hit its lowest-ever level. The index goes back to 1973.

She said, for the big four banks, “trust isn’t about marketing, it’s not about a branding exercise. It’s actually fundamental to how we operate. People need to know that their money is safe.”

Rudall said that “as a communications professional myself — like many of you in the room are — it’s times like this when you really need to ramp things up and we need to really open up, not shut down.”

Elizabeth Rudall, ANZ’s head of strategic communications (right) said that trust is fundamental to the banking sector during times of financial crisis

She also likened the current financial climate to Covid, when they increased communications — both with staff, and customers.

“Not a media campaign, but just staying really close to our people, our customers, our shareholders. We need to be transparent. Even if the news isn’t good — if the rates may go up, there may be job losses across corporate Australia — we need to be really open and transparent with our people, and most importantly, with our customers. Help them through, if they’re in hardship, if things get really hard, we need to be there for them and tell them that.”

Despite the gloomy forecast, Edelman’s Australian Trust Barometer, which was launched during the session, showed that public trust in the media, business, and governments has actually increased over the last twelve months.

Overall trust levels have risen from 49% in 2025 to 54% in 2026, tipping over from Australians operating from an average position of distrust. Trust in the media has risen 8%, with government trust up 6% and trust in the business sector up 5%.