26 August 2010

Zed tries to slow down the revolving door

| johnboy
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In perhaps a tacit admission that the Liberals will never regain power in the ACT their leader Zed Seselja has announced he’s introduced legislation to stop Ministers sliding straight into the big bug jobs running Territory Owned Corporations (TOCs), and in fact making them wait two years.

“This is an important public policy reform which prevents Government Ministers from taking up a role on the board of an Authority or TOC immediately or soon after they leave their role of regulator of those organisations,” Zed said.

“Government Ministers are often exposed to Cabinet documents in their role as regulators of Territory Authorities and Territory Owned Corporations. This will put an end to any potential conflict of interest for these individuals who potentially go from the role of regulator to a board member of these organisations,” Zed said…

“This sensible legislation will mean there is a clear delineation between Government Ministers and the Corporations and Authorities they are charged to regulate,” Zed said.

One wonders, if this gets up, how long before a different structure is found which can still employ former ministers at great expense.

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colourful sydney racing identity2:23 pm 26 Aug 10

perhaps a Minister is lining themselves up for something at the moment?

sepi said :

Bill stefaniak went straight to a court job I think.

Judicial roles aren’t included in the proposal, but yes.

Bill stefaniak went straight to a court job I think.

The CT article pointed out that ACTEW’s Michael Costello earns about $500K. He’s a Labor man (once stood for preselection), but this law wouldn’t have stopped him getting the job. And he’s more than qualified to run a relatively small joint like ACTEW anyway, given his experience.

The law still sounds like a good idea. But was it designed to thwart Hargreaves or Stanhope?

M0les said :

So: How many and which former MLAs have slid-over to some Authority/TOC in recent times?

Just because it hasn’t happened, doesn’t mean there shouldn’t be a law against it.

But I think Ted Quinlan may have been on a couple of govt boards etc.

johnboy said :

“This sensible legislation will mean there is a clear delineation between Government Ministers and the Corporations and Authorities they are charged to regulate,” Zed said.

This actually sounds like sensible legislation. Where is the catch?

So prima-facae, this sounds like a sensible idea, but I was wondering what the impetus is.

Rather than take the effort to actually do the research myself, I thought I’d just ask youse guys.

So: How many and which former MLAs have slid-over to some Authority/TOC in recent times?

amarooresident310:38 am 26 Aug 10

Was it a problem? I can’t think of one off the top of my head.

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