The former CEO of Telstra, Sol Trujillo, says doing business in Australia is like taking a "step back in time", there are racist views here and the nation must change. He claims many Australians have approached him to apologise for the Prime Minister over his use of the word "adios" when responding to the news that Mr Trujillo was leaving Telstra. Mr Trujillo says there are racist views abroad in Australia and trying to do business here is like taking a "step back in time".
SABRA LANE: In San Diego, the BBC's Steve Evans asked Mr Trujillo for his reaction to that.
SOL TRUJILLO: Many Australians have come up to me and they've apologised, because they're embarrassed by that kind of behaviour.
STEVE EVANS: Because I noticed reading the papers there, that when you were referred to they would always point out that you were, had a Hispanic background, or whatever.
In other words in Britain and in America it would have been neither here nor there; in Australia it was invariably pointed out.
And the Prime Minister, when asked what his parting words to you would be, said "Adios".
Was that racism?
SOL TRUJILLO: I think by definition - there were even columnists who wrote stories that said it was.
But you know, my point is that that does exist and it's got to change because the world is full of a lot of people and most economies have to take advantage - including Australia - of a diverse set of people.
And if there is a belief that only a certain people are acceptable versus others, that is a sad state.
SOL TRUJILLO: Well, I would say that Australia definitely is different than the US.
You know, in many ways it's like stepping back in time, just simply because of some of the policies, some of the laws that, you know, are more recent.
So if you think about, you know, the immigration policies that weren't changed until about 30 years ago or so, which were very...
STEVE EVANS: The White Australia policy?
SOL TRUJILLO: ...Which were very restrictive. If you think about privatisation of companies - you know that's only that's 10 or 15 years old, you know, in terms of what most people would call a developed economy.
And essentially you know, the isolation of the country, by virtue of distance, you know there's a lot of considerations there that say it's a much different operating climate, environment than most other countries.
STEVE EVANS: Do you think there's racism there?
SOL TRUJILLO: Well I think it was evidenced in a lot of ways there, you know, with me personally, but more importantly with others as you look at some of the events that have occurred over last five or 10 years, some of them before I was there, some while I was there.
But, I'm sure that that will continue because of you know, what I would call the evolution, and the maturation of a country.
