7 May 2013

When two tribes go to war

| johnboy
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For those following the fall from grace of former Canberra heavy John Mackay the recently FOI’d correspondence with the Chief Minister is a must read.

One wonders who else will fall out as things shake down?

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thebrownstreak693:25 pm 08 May 13

chewy14 said :

milkman said :

Quite interesting. What I find surprising is the relative naivety of the government here. While a pretty silly mistake was made, a range of options for resolving it were obviously explored, and the ACT government didn’t appear to have helped much. And after that the government basically admits to ‘blamestorming’ to allocate responsibility.

The reason this is getting so much profile is probably because of the numbers involved, and the fact that they are beyond most peoples’ capacity to earn. It sure is a lot of money though.

Yeah that’s what I got. So a number of public servants were told and failed to alert their bosses?

And the story has legs because everyone likes whining about people richer than themselves.

+1.

Deref said :

MERC600 said :

I suspect our local ABC and Fairfax , due to their allegiance to a larger Green/Labour organisation, will not give it much coverage.

Your ideas are intriguing to me and I am interested in subscribing to your newsletter.

No newsletter. Just after 34 years of reading the crimes you can work out its politics. Just as you can from reading News Ltd papeers.

wow, so a job in water security or water management can get you $420k+

Erg0 said :

Am I correct in understanding that his earnings were aparently reported correctly (at $800k+) in the following year’s financial report, and that nobody seemed particularly concerned at the time? If so, it’s funny that the government suddenly became all concerned when this came to the public’s attention due to the error.

Yes, it seems that their concern was directly linked to the amount of media coverage. Either that or they weren’t reading the reports.

Erg0 said :

Am I correct in understanding that his earnings were aparently reported correctly (at $800k+) in the following year’s financial report, and that nobody seemed particularly concerned at the time? If so, it’s funny that the government suddenly became all concerned when this came to the public’s attention due to the error.

After the Rhodium Asset Solutions debacle, the nominated shareholders for Territory owned corporations have become a little more accountable. I won’t mention TotalCare or the Hotel School either.

Am I correct in understanding that his earnings were aparently reported correctly (at $800k+) in the following year’s financial report, and that nobody seemed particularly concerned at the time? If so, it’s funny that the government suddenly became all concerned when this came to the public’s attention due to the error.

marcothepolopony9:09 am 08 May 13

“……myself……. were notified……” the grammar.

milkman said :

Quite interesting. What I find surprising is the relative naivety of the government here. While a pretty silly mistake was made, a range of options for resolving it were obviously explored, and the ACT government didn’t appear to have helped much. And after that the government basically admits to ‘blamestorming’ to allocate responsibility.

The reason this is getting so much profile is probably because of the numbers involved, and the fact that they are beyond most peoples’ capacity to earn. It sure is a lot of money though.

Yeah that’s what I got. So a number of public servants were told and failed to alert their bosses?

And the story has legs because everyone likes whining about people richer than themselves.

Is it just me, or does that link go to the crappiest scanned pdf job ever.

MERC600 said :

I suspect our local ABC and Fairfax , due to their allegiance to a larger Green/Labour organisation, will not give it much coverage.

Your ideas are intriguing to me and I am interested in subscribing to your newsletter.

Quite interesting. What I find surprising is the relative naivety of the government here. While a pretty silly mistake was made, a range of options for resolving it were obviously explored, and the ACT government didn’t appear to have helped much. And after that the government basically admits to ‘blamestorming’ to allocate responsibility.

The reason this is getting so much profile is probably because of the numbers involved, and the fact that they are beyond most peoples’ capacity to earn. It sure is a lot of money though.

HiddenDragon11:14 pm 07 May 13

PS – I really like the Frankie reference, but I reckon this internecine.

HiddenDragon11:06 pm 07 May 13

We have it from no less an authority than Andrew Leigh that Mr Sullivan’s (hitherto) reported remuneration would have put him into the realms of the “uber-rich” and that even the difference between that, and his actual remuneration, if paid as a total, stand-alone remuneration package would be sufficient to categorise the recipient as “ultra-rich”:

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/opinion/political-news/if-you-want-to-be-uberrich-you-will-need-to-earn-668700-20130505-2j1eq.html

As to who, if anyone else, falls out – only time will tell, but I remain rather sceptical as to what is really going on here. I also find myself wondering what other Blind Freddy revelations await us if ACT Labor hangs on to power for long enough.

I doubt very much that Katy Gallagher wrote these letters herself. Someone with a grasp of corporate governence has scribed them for her.
Someone should ask Katy Gallagher why she was not alerted to the extraordinary salaries when she received the 2010-11 Annual Report. I remember clearly reading the salaries listed in that report but that information does not appear to be in the same report currently on the internet. My guess is that the report was not even read by the shareholders.
And what is this nonsense about Mackay not alerting the Chief Minister in 2012 because the government was in “caretaker mode”? What he perhaps means to say is that he suppressed the error because it wouldn’t help the government electorally immediately before the election.
There should also be a separate report somewhere showing the aggregated salaries and perks of the board members for positions they held concurrently with associated Actew/ActewAGL entities.
Still waiting for a list of “special guests” entertained at the corporate boxes too.

Looking at the info there, I’m guessing his salary *had* to be that high, just to be a decent amount above a couple of lower managers listed there, with their salaries at >$420k too! Hahaha!

I wonder if this is another reason Nicholas Whitlam was in town…….looking for an in at ACTEW???

justin heywood9:35 pm 07 May 13

Im speechless. His reported salary was already ‘at the upper end’ (of reasonable), but the non-reporting of his actual much higher salary was some kind of accounting error?

Fascinating to see hints of the truth behind all the glib public assurances. Good on Katy for persisting with the hard questions.

Who was behind the FOI request JB? Are there any more?

JohnBoy thank you for following this. I suspect our local ABC and Fairfax , due to their allegiance to a larger Green/Labour organisation, will not give it much coverage.
This leaves RiotAct in perhaps becoming famous as outing our own ‘Tammany Hall” in our Nations Capital; to the world . Well to those who know where Oz is, and that we do actually have a Nations Capital. A lot of the world would be surprised .
Keep the chase up thank you.

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