Asked about political backlash to the disruption of the labour force, Podesta says broad-ranging consultation and investment in public education were needed.

"If it's not done in a thoughtful way ... things could go in Australia the way they've gone in America," he says.

On the evening of November 8, 2016, it fell on Podesta to inform the Clinton faithful that there would be no further announcements from their candidates that night. The next day, Hillary Clinton conceded the US presidential election to Donald Trump.

Responding to challenges

Podesta says the populist movement that elevated Trump to high office came after a generation of wage stagnation in the United States, and that it was reflective of a global frustration.

John Podesta says there is a "concentration problem" with the giant technology companies. Edwina Pickles

Centrist parties need to respond by building a more sustainable economy with a more equal distribution of income, he says.

That involves attending to wage and labour policy, but also responding to challenges posed by the rise of technology.


Podesta does not explicitly endorse presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren's proposal to break up major technology companies but he says there is a "concentration problem" and that the US needed, at a minimum, to enforce existing anti-trust laws.

He also says that in an age of anti-elite politics, businesses must carefully attend to their social obligations.

Podesta was put in the unenviable position of informing Clinton supporters that Hillary Clinton would not concede on the night of the election. Patrick Semansky

Sitting in the Curtin Room at McKinsey Offices in Sydney, Podesta says nobody at the firm had sought his advice about navigating the politics of its business.

But he says, if they had, he would caution them to be more sensitive to the potential implications of their work on human rights, before engaging a client and not after being exposed by reporting.

Climate change

Media outlets like The New York Times have documented the management consultancy's work with authoritarian regimes in countries like Russia, Ukraine and Saudi Arabia.

"Sometimes it takes a good dose of [journalism] to get people to understand that there is a problem," he says.


Podesta served Bill Clinton as White House chief of staff between 1998 and 2001. WILFREDO LEE

Much of Podesta's time is now spent on climate change, a subject that was central to his 2008 book The Power of Progress and to his work in the Obama White House.

Podesta last made headlines in Australia in 2016, when the release of his personal emails by Wikileaks unearthed a connection to groups opposing the controversial Adani coalmine in Queensland.

The Australian published several articles on a "secretive cabal of foreign-funded green groups".

Asked about the local reaction to his environmental work, Podesta laughs and says he had not known about it but that he would proudly wear it.

"We share one planet. The youth protests are global because the problem is global. It's no longer 'what happens in Canberra stays in Canberra'.

"I don't view that as a global conspiracy ... I think the mine would be a mistake and I'm happy to say that on the record."