Brian Toohey, The Australian Financial Review, 13 May 2000
Should the Liberals win tomorrow's Federal election, they will confront a business landscape which has been thoroughly transformed by the networks developed since Labor's 1983 victory. As might be expected after such a long period in office, former Labor ministers and their staff are found throughout the private sector. BRIAN TOOHEY reports.
WHEN Josh Pickard had a private audience with Paul Keating over afternoon tea at the Lodge a couple of years ago, he says he found the Australian Prime Minister to be "very hospitable, very genuine". The only trouble for the embattled Prime Minister is that Pickard does not have a vote at the December 2 election. Pickard is a young American who runs the ultra-cool Time Cafe in New York's Soho.
The cafe's innovative performance program, Undertime, might well appeal to an arts loving Prime Minister, but Pickard's invitation to the Lodge had more to do with the fact that he is the son-in-law of the transport magnate, Lindsay Fox, whose close friend the ACTU secretary, Bill Kelty, thought it would be a nice gesture if his good friend, Paul Keating, set aside some time from running the nation to meet a young holiday-maker.
The ability to swing an invite to the Lodge for afternoon tea is of no great consequence of itself. However, the Fox/Kelty/Keating friendship was to come under much closer scrutiny during last year's brawl over the composition of the Coles Myer board. Both Keating and Kelty came out in passionate support of the attempts by Fox and his fellow Coles Myer board member, Solomon Lew, to fight off calls from leading financial institutions for their resignation.
Many members of the business community could see no public policy justification for a prime minister or union official taking sides in this particular corporate dispute - certainly not in the way Keating lambasted finance sector executives as "donkeys". The perception that undue weight was being given to Labor "mates" was reinforced by Keating's attendance at a small dinner party at Fox's Melbourne mansion shortly before the Coles Myer battle reached its peak. The participants, however, insisted that Coles Myer was not even mentioned, and that the dinner was purely to celebrate Annita Keating's birthday.
Keating clearly enjoys socialising with wealthy Australians, or those with the appearance of wealth. The Sydney developer, Sid Londish, made a strong impression in the 1970s. The late Robert Holmes a Court held a particular fascination in the 1980s. More recently, the property developer, Denis O'Neill, has introduced him to the pleasures of sailing a beautifully restored yacht, the Cambria, while another developer, Warren Anderson, probably remains his closest business friend. Keating's staff make the point that he must be allowed to choose his own friends. He can hardly be expected to divide his leisure time equally among all members of the BRW Rich List.
Nevertheless, the Liberal Party's pre-election research detected concern among voters that Keating governs for an elite drawn from both business and union officials. The research helped inspire the party's campaign slogan, "For all of us". Several commentators have also developed the theme that Keating has presided over a version of a corporate state in which some corporations have far more influence than others. Ultimately, this critique sees the Labor "mates" phenomenon as leading to the sort of "crony capitalism" prevalent in parts of Asia.
Prompted by these perceptions, Liberal Party strategists last year looked forward with much anticipation to following up newspaper reports about Keating's role in two issues relating to Anderson. One involved Loan Council support for the construction of the Northern Territory's new parliament house. The other entailed a proposal to provide $130 million in Australian aid for a cattle breeding project in Indonesia. The Indonesian project was discussed by Keating with President Soeharto on two occasions, but it never eventuated.
When the opportunity to follow up in Parliament arose, however, the Liberals failed to lay a glove on Keating, let alone demonstrate he acted improperly.
While they are unlikely to pursue these claims if they win on Saturday, the Liberals will confront a business landscape which has been thoroughly transformed by the networks developed since Labor's 1983 victory. As might be expected after such a long period in office, former Labor ministers and their staff are studded throughout the private sector.
Ex-ministers have become lobbyists and consultants (Gerry Hand, Mick Young, Ros Kelly) as well as heads of industry associations (Susan Ryan, John Brown). Graham Richardson has joined an ex-Hawke staffer, Peter Barron, in working for media magnate Kerry Packer. Hawke himself has found consulting work to be much better paid than the prime ministership. John Button and John Dawkins have pioneered a new form of employment, working with ambassadorial rank on a part-time basis for the Government while building up a private client list.
FORMER Prime Ministerial staff work for AMP (Anne De Salis), Optus (Sam Mostyn), Westfield (Mark Ryan), Macquarie Bank (John Edwards), Lihir Gold (Ross Garnaut), Port Jackson Partners (Rod Sims), and Fairfax (Anne Summers) among others. One of Keating's former press secretaries, Tom Mockridge, is now on the board of News Ltd. Another ex-staffer, Seamus Dawes, is a director of Merrill Lynch while another, Barbara Ward, is a chief executive with TNT. Yet another, Barry Hughes, is chief economist for CS First Boston.
Among dozens of other examples, an ex-Richardson staffer, Helen O'Neill, is about to move from Foxtel to News Ltd while remaining a board member of the Film Finance Corporation. Gary O'Neill, an ex-Beazley staffer, now works for Crown Casino. Lynn Gallagher (ex-Howe) and Les Fallick (ex-Cook) both work for AMP. Michael McLeod (ex-Crean) is with Corrs Chambers Westgarth. John Stanton (ex-Evans) and Mara Moustafine (ex-Hayden) are both with Telstra. Labor's former national secretary, Bob Hogg, now works for John Singleton's advertising agency. While Hogg is no longer close to the Prime Minister, Singleton has recounted how being accompanied by Keating's sister, Anne, helped open doors for him to complete a radio deal in Beijing.
Not all ex-ministers and staffers stay in touch with one another, let alone form part of what Susan Ryan refers to as the new Labor aristocracy. Nor are they all conscious of belonging to "Labor's family" out in the private sector - a description which Keating used during a farewell speech for two staff who departed after the last election. But many retain clear lines of communication to key policy makers in Canberra. Some, such as Dawes, have taken leave to work on Keating's current campaign. Others, such as Mockeridge, give informal campaign advice.
While Dawes and Mockeridge might not enjoy the same access to the Prime Minister's ear if the Liberals win on Saturday, their employers, Merrill Lynch and News Ltd, are big enough to still wield plenty of clout in Canberra. Howard may baulk at going to the same extent as Keating in visiting the News Ltd Chairman, Rupert Murdoch, at his Canberra residence before agreeing to provide Federal funds to help convert the Sydney Showgrounds into a movie studio/theme park for a News Ltd subsidiary. But Murdoch, Packer and other powerful operators will receive a better hearing from Howard than the operators of Radio Skid Row.
The advent of digital broadcast television will present a revealing test. It should provide an ideal opportunity to encourage new players to compete with the existing pay TV and free-to-air operators. But Howard will come under intense pressure to form strategic friendships in which his Government agrees to let an oligopoly prevail over a more diversified ownership structure. If every segment of the Australian economy was characterised by purely competitive markets, the question of any one group exercising excessive influence over the decision making process would not arise. John Howard, as Liberal Prime Minister, would then have no difficulty in making good on his repeated campaign claim that he is not beholden to anyone in his climb to the top.
It won't take long for Howard, however, to be reminded that significant areas of the economy are dominated by a handful of big players whose continued prosperity depends on government decisions going their way. A Howard victory on Saturday will ensure there is no shortage of former Labor "mates" lining up to become Liberal "mates". It should prove quite a challenge for a party promising to govern "for all of us".