As Australia grapples with its local version of a global energy price and supply shock, it’s worth contemplating whether the post-political careers of Liberal and Labor energy and resources ministers has contributed to the problem.
Former WA Liberal premier Colin Barnett said as much on ABC radio this week when he pointed out that Labor’s Martin Ferguson and former Coalition resources minister Ian Macfarlane vociferously opposed any form of east coast gas reservation system similar to the setup in Western Australia.
Australia has a long history of former ministers and premiers cashing in on their political connections with great haste, a broad issue the new federal integrity commission will no doubt look at.
We don’t know all of these arrangements because some are kept secret, such as the undisclosed consulting deal Peter Costello had with BHP for many years after leaving Parliament in 2009.
History is instructive on these matters, so here are some of the more controversial gigs taken up by retiring ministers and premiers in years gone by, including some in the energy and resources space that may well explain something about our current energy problems:
Richard Alston was only six months out of Parliament when John Howard’s first and longest-serving communications minister was lobbying for Austereo on digital radio policy.
Larry Anthony, John Howard’s former children’s affairs minister, joined the board of ABC Learning six months after losing his seat in 2004. It collapsed in 2009.
Bob Carr: Macquarie Bank made a fortune out of its toll road dealings with the Carr government in Sydney and he happily signed up for a reported $500,000-a-year consultancy with the millionaires’ factory just three months after retiring as NSW premier in 2005.
Helen Coonan, Howard’s last communications minister, joined the Crown Resorts board within weeks of retiring from the Senate in 2011, after arguably delivering enormous benefits to James Packer by pushing through legislation that green-lighted foreign ownership of Australia’s free-to-air television networks.
John Fahey: after claiming he’d privatised more assets than anyone else in the world, the former NSW premier and federal finance minister signed with Wall Street investment bank JP Morgan just four months after retiring at the 2001 federal election.
Martin Ferguson, the former Rudd-Gillard resources minister, retired at the 2013 federal election and landed a job with Kerry Stokes’ fossil fuel division less than a month later.
Gary Gray, the former Keating-era Labor national secretary, spent many years working for Woodside before entering Parliament in 2007 and, on retiring at the 2016 election, immediately returned to the resources industry as general manager of corporate affairs at ASX-listed Mineral Resources.
Ian Macfarlane was Australia’s longest serving resources minister for the final six years of the Howard government and eventually retired at the 2016 election, after which he was appointed to the Woodside board and became executive director of the Queensland Resources Council, a position he still holds. Was vociferously defending Australia’s energy policy on radio this week, pointing out that 40% of Queensland’s gas is sold domestically and the nation must remain guided by the international gas price.
Peter Reith: the outgoing defence minister waited about 48 hours after retiring in the children overboard election of 2001 before accepting a lucrative consultancy with Australia’s biggest defence contractor, Tenix.
Lindsay Tanner retired as finance minister at the 2010 election and within a month had landed a special adviser gig with Wall Street investment bank Lazard, where he worked with the likes of Paul Keating, John Wylie and Mark Carnegie.
Michael Wooldridge redirected $5 million from healthcare programs to help relocate the Royal College of General Practitioners just seven days before the 2001 election. The GPs then hired Wooldridge as a consultant after the election before firing him and paying $382,500 to settle an unfair dismissal claim.
We’re yet to see any of the departing class of 2022 land high-profile corporate gigs, but it wouldn’t be a great surprise if former health minister Greg Hunt landed on the CSL board later this year.
Josh Frydenberg is reportedly setting up a corporate office at the Como Centre on Melbourne’s Chapel Street, from where he’ll be able to offer consulting or lobbying services to anyone, including recipients of the $88 billion JobKeeper program or the $45 billion cashflow boost scheme that he rolled out during the pandemic.
As for Scott Morrison, he’s unlikely to follow former New Zealand prime minister John Key on to a big four bank board like ANZ, given he was Malcolm Turnbull’s treasurer when the royal commission was called in 2017-18. He’s more likely to cash in by writing a book about his time in office, something most of our former PMs have done.
However, if history is any guide, don’t be at all surprised if some of these Coalition heavies finish up on the payroll of the fossil fuels sector.
Should there be a set time before they can take up jobs relating to their portfolios? Three years? Five years? Let us know your thoughts by writing to letters@crikey.com.au. Please include your full name to be considered for publication. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity.
