According to today’s Fin, Bob Carr has been hired as an advisor by Macquarie Bank, and will work for them out of his (publicly-funded) ex-Premier’s office. The Fin notes that this is “sensitive, given the NSW government’s role in the infrastructure programs that have driven the bank’s growth”, and that is putting it mildly. Of all the post-political jobbery we have seen in the last decade or so, this would have to be the worst, beating out even such egregious cases as Reith and Wooldridge.
The Fin’s editorial calls for a cooling-off period between leaving politics and taking on jobs of this kind, but even a three-year gap, as in the US would not be adequate in a case like this. The Carr government’s dealings with Macquarie have involved billions of dollars of public money, and contributed (probably more than any other government) to Macquarie’s reputation as a “millionaire factory”. Any prospect of future employment when those deals were made, no matter how distant, would have created an unacceptable conflict of interest.
John Quiggin 
as ever, in an australian political column, much talk, no action plan. that’s why aussie pundits are ‘chatterati’.
the reason is simple: the political structure of australia is not democratic, there simply is no way for people to direct their society. until the australian people lift their heads from the grass and demand citizen-initiated-referenda and direct election of state officers, the endless gossip about our political masters enjoying the fruits of their rule will continue.
this, incidentally, is why media figures are despised as much as politicians. both groups are making a good thing out of the medieval political structure of australia.
Anyone who lives in Sydney will be familiar with the pathetic infrastructure we have to put up with. The M5 motoroway, for example, used to be one lane in either direction in important sections (I’m not kidding). And it dumped you in the middle of a traffic jam still 10km short of the city. They supposedly fixed it up by building tunnels with two lanes in either direction to take you the rest of the way. These tunnels regularly turn Sydney traffic into nightmare during the regular breakdowns or accidents in them that require their closure during peak hour.
The story is same for the M4 and the M2. For some reason we build our Motorways to take you only half way to the city. And the trains are just as bad.
Whenever I travel to Melbourne or Brisbane I am made envious of what a sane infrastructure policy can deliver. Why do you even need Motorways in Brisbane? Its a hop skip and a jump from one side of the city to the other and you don’t even have traffic!. And Melbourne, how dare you have a train system that makes sense. Don’t you know that a proper train network is supposed to look random and leave large parts of the city unserviced?
Its nice to know that our previous premier who made his own contribution to this mess is being rewarded for it.
And we complain that aid to Africa is wasted in corruption!
This comment I made yesterday in monday message board about the monkeys is more relevant here:
An interesting article on Public Private Partnerships and the calibre of the deals done by the monkeys in Macquarie St.
“Let’s not forget what happened to the first major project, the M2, which began operation in May 1997, and cost $650 million to build. Earlier this year, after eight years of operation, the M2’s owner, the Hills Motorway Group, sold the tollway to Transurban. The price was $2.07 billion.
That’s a tidy $1.42 billion appreciation over the cost price eight years ago. This superb capital gain was based on the secure revenue flow provided by toll-paying motorists, who are already taxpaying voters.�
http://www.smh.com.au/news/paul-sheehan/the-new-tarts-of-william-street/2005/10/09/1128796406649.html
Indeed, econwit – when I get time I’ll write more and link to this
Much the same situation arose in Queensland recently with former Treasurer Mackenroth accepting a board position with a major builder/developer a few weeks after retiring from politics. Premier Beattie successfully diverted the ensuing debate into a question about whether Mackenroth would be able to use privileged information or gain privileged access to government. The real issue, of course, is the one JQ mentions: there are not unreasonable concerns that the appointment could appear to be a payoff for decisions made when the individual was in government. In the Queensland instance, the former Treasurer’s last major act in government was the unveiling of a major infrastructure plan for south-east Queensland. Among the initiatives contained in the plan is some hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to be spent on connecting new urban developments in the Brisbane-Ipswich corridor to existing transport corridors. Now, it is no doubt entirely coincidental that the company whose board the former Treasurer has joined stands to benefit substantially from this public expenditure, and the fact that this expenditure has underwritten a profit stream for years into the future has surely played no part whatever in the company’s desire to bring Terry aboard. Given the history of such matters, the Queensland electorate could perhaps however be forgiven for harbouring concerns that politicians, even those at the ethical acme like the saintly Mackenroth, can be bought. Cheap debating tricks like erecting and demolishing straw men are unlikely to assuage these concerns, nor to resurrect the electorate’s faith in the political system.
Its a flaming outrage.
And Melbourne, how dare you have a train system that makes sense. Don’t you know that a proper train network is supposed to look random and leave large parts of the city unserviced?
Don’t mean to threadjack, but just briefly, leaving large parts of the city unserviced is just what the Melbourne rail system DOES do – largely because it only radiates out from a hub and can’t cope with across-town journeys – but since the petrol price rises we have had the alarming occurrence of the system literally reaching capacity – passengers left on the platform unable to board overcrowded trains, and we haven’t seen the worst of it yet.
It gets worse when you delve into the fine print of one of his deals. You can only conclude the monkeys of Macquarie St got more than peanuts for selling off all those streets.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/plan-to-force-more-drivers-through-the-tunnel/2005/10/10/1128796467055.html
This reveals Macca’s long term strategy. Go find a rent-his-arse pollie and away you go . Is it any more egregious than Reith or Wooldridge ? No it’s in the same class . It’s not even remarkable for Labor politicians. e.g Hawke and Richardson .The next question is of course , where will they park Howard in his dotage ( He probably is already there )?
The temptation to rort the system starts right at the top, and that’s where reform should begin.
Listen to the PM: “To hell with fixed terms, I like the thrill of picking the poll dates.”
And we, and the puppets in the media, say: “Oh yeah, well, OK then.”
Any ideas on how to cut him off at the pass? Did Bruce Baird die in a ditch somewhere, for expressing a liking for fixed terms?
Good to see Bob Carr maintaining his ALP/Socialist credentials and keeping his snout in the trough, any trough.
I don’t actually have a problem with this. Politicians are woefully under paid. Having the ability to do take skills and knowledge and employ them for further gain is not a crime. When it is a crime then it shouldn’t be allowed.
In WA we have Brian Burke, a ex-convixt and ex-premier, providing lobying services with his daughter being a relatively high office holder in the ALP. Gotta love the business nounce of the socialists! Depsite the public protestations of the current Premier, his business is doing very nicely thank you very much. And then there is Gary Gray (is that the correct name?) working for Woodside and making a motza.
Fixed terms and the Westminster system of government entail contradictory priorities.
Fixed terms are supposed to make elections “fairer”, whatever that means.
Under the Westminster System a government stands only with the support of the House.
Under a fixed-term system, what is supposed to happen if the government loses the support of the House. Certainly, there are fixes, but the cure seems worse than the disease. If voters don’t like going to the polls too frequently, they have it in their power to punish the rascals who make them do it.
In any case, governments exist to maximise stability in people’s lives. Fairness is a secondary, though important, objective. The Westminster system rewards governments who satisfy the voters by giving them the opportunity to decide when it is propitious to go to an election.
Read a good article today talking about Sydneys new cross-city tunnel.
The original problem was too much congestion in the CBD. So they build a tollway underneith the CBD. Now they are increasing congestion (by closing lanes on CBD roads) in order to make people take the tunnel and pay the toll.
Its fundamentally problematic when you have to increase congestion in the name of decreasing it. There is a basic flaw in the economics.
Given the current Cross City debacle, one early MacquarIe project approved by Carr government was the Eastern Distriutor – Airport Motorway and Macquarie Bank despite probrems.
(See AUSTLII Truth About Motorways v Macquarie Infrastructure Investment Management Limited in the Federal Court and eventually High Court regarding traffic volumes and tollways.)
Macquarie Infrastructure Investment Mangement Ltd (MIIML) became Macquarie Infrastructure Group (MIG).
I think Michael Easson has been an Independent Director of MIIML, now MIG since it began.
Nationalise the bloody thing.
swio,
The reason (I was told – I have no proof) that Sydney’s motorway system is disjointed is because the land was put aside in the 50’s and then chunks of it were sold off under Nifty because he did not want to build motorways that ‘divide the city’.
On former premiers joining banks – it does stink, but his greatest asset is his phone list and other contacts, and MacBank is where that is of greatest value. If it is not made explicit that he is working for them he just would have become a ‘consultant’ for them and got paid under the counter. Why is that list of great value? Because the government controls the infrastructure spend. Nationalising it would not fix that.
Hal9000: There is nothing in Mackenroth’s time in public office to indicate he had any saintliness or ethics. He deserved jail, avoided it only because the ALP in Qld closed ranks around him. It is unconscionable to suggest he had any hint of ethics.
Gosh, have not heard a thing about this one in media.
Surprise,surprise.
Clearly, Bob ,the commie, is infiltrating the big end of town.
Having cleverly acted as a mole in Macbank , he will pass on all info to comrades in Labor Party. Having picked up a modest income,he will come good and pass on the news that nationalisation needs to happen. Just so we can have all our infrastucture back.
That man is Robin Hood.
SATP, I think Hal’s irony alerts are malfunctioning, or maybe your irony detectors.
Bob Carr’s efforts are in keeping with tradition in the NSW ALP. Recall Nifty Neville Wran, starting a corporate cleaning company after leaving office and immediately winning lots of contracts with the big end of town. Funny how a cleaning company with no past clients led by people without any cleaning business experience could suddenly win all that business. Perhaps it was Mrs Wran MBA who won it all for them.
Prof Q’s original post is very much to the point.
Bob Carr has trashed his own legacy. He will be remembered as one who, entrusted with the future of the state of NSW, instead breached all fiduciary responsibilities to feed the resources of NSW into the mouth of a corporation, in return for an extremely comfortable “window seat” at the benefiting corporation.
The western world’s equivalent of a corrupt dictator siphoning the non-renewable resources of a nation into a private swiss bank account.
In return for their piggy bank being raided, the people of NSW did not even get decent infrastructure in return.
joe2 Says:
It was on the front page of the AFR this morning. Guess you don’t read the right papers.
According to a letter in today’s Australian, “…Bob Carr having previously appointed Irene Moss, the wife of Macquarie Bank chief executive Allan Moss, as ICAC commissioner….”.
Politics really is a devious ‘profession’ and these days, apart from an occasional change of govt (not that that affects the perks etc.), an unaccountable one.
SJ , was talking about larger media and aware of J.Q.’s source for thread. Mind you,correct, I do not waste the money on “right” papers. And, what else, is there? Sadly, I pay for them anyway through tax. Witness the latest campaign to tell me, I.R. “reforms”,will be good for me. Far cheaper to check sites online.
Heard on the radio this morning that Anne Lamfrey (?sp), recently a senior advisor to Carr, now works for Sydney’s Cross City Tunnel company.
It’s time for the NSW government to heed the recommendations of the ICAC and introduce guidelines for post-service employment of politicians and public servants.