Jobs for mates for life
Jobs for mates for life
It's been a hard year for Australian workers. Many have not experienced the security and good fortunes that have been bestowed on friends of the federal government.
In a country where press concentration is a close third to China and Egypt, a country stunted by the amalgamation and consolidation of media led by the hegemonic influence of Murdoch, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has just appointed the new chair of the ACCC: the long-time Murdoch trust fund lawyer, Gina Cass-Gottleib.
The 2011 Egyptian uprising was not just a revolt against the dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak, but also a rebuke of the cronyism and corruption of the ruling class who had profited from its open support and exclusive access to the government. Rami Makhlouf, the maternal cousin of President Bashar Al-Assad and owner of the country’s largest telecommunications network, became a symbol of “connected capital” in the leadup to the Syrian uprising that would eventuate into one of the largest humanitarian catastrophes in recent memory.
From Riyadh to Rabat, the Arab world is more perceptive to the machinations of cronyism; its private sector has generally been a vessel of the state, surviving and thriving within the petri dish of a ruling class, generally despotic in nature. It seems to work a little bit differently in Australia. Here, the government mistakenly identifies with the corporate leviathans, making vital political decisions that affect the entire nation at the whims of their desires and ambitions, satiating their threat to make or break our nation by offering their henchmen and enablers jobs as arbiters, chairs and commissioners over the engine rooms that drive the fundamentals of Australian life.
Allowing politically motivated appointments to stream unchecked into our regulators and institutions sacrifices impartiality and fairness in society, resulting in the degradation of our key institutions from within. Gina Cass-Gottleib, a person who for decades has managed the howling screams constrained within the labyrinth of the Murdoch family trust, someone who has helped to train the Minotaur, should not be permitted the chair of the independent consumer watchdog charged with reviewing matters pertaining to issues of consumer fairness. Cass-Gottleib, a director and 12.5% stakeholder over the Murdoch private interest, someone who served as Lachlan Murdoch’s personal lawyer, does not have business running our ACCC.
If there was an example of a long-term strategic goal to be had in allowing an ex- Murdoch fox into our consumer protection chook house, it was here, with the LNP sending a clear message that there is only one party truly committed to the Murdoch experience. Murdoch fears the stifling influence of big tech on his agenda as much as Australians ought to feel the stifling influence of Murdoch on theirs.
In a world where LNP electorates can be blatantly given 47 times more funding than neighbouring Labor seats, it is no surprise that the same behaviour is being carried out in the government appointments across the key institutions, boards and government bodies that regulate and ensure fairness across our society. On April Fool’s Day this year, Michaela Cash announced the appointment of five new Fair Work Commissioners, adding to the 13 former Liberal MPs and staffers appointed key federal government jobs for the year to that point.
Among these appointments, adding to the couple of dozen of employer background LNP candidates embedded into our Fair Work Commission, were former private lawyer and champion of the workers, Sophie Mirabella, and corporate heavy and daughter of a former Liberal member for Macarthur, Alana Matheson.
In a year where sections of Australia are falling apart from financial duress and job insecurity, it's amazing to think that a gig as a Fair Work commissioner would come with a $387,960 per annum salary and an effective lifetime tenure. In Mirabella's case, the role is locked in until 2033, and in Mathieson's case it's an even more staggering 2047, just a couple of years before the setting of the Blade Runner sequel. Commissioners for life. Of the five commissioners and ten of the deputy presidents of the Fair Work Commission, every single one of them was appointed just prior to, or during the period of this Morrison government (2017-2021).
Senator Cash mentioned that the appointments to the industrial umpire were totally qualified, but a former Liberal MP who since worked in government relations for Gina Rinehart, and the 15 years of combined job experience from the child of a friend of the LNP, who in her time at KPMG helped to “support clients in a range of different contexts including workplace relations and enterprise bargaining strategies”, only represent a small section of the workforce in theirs, the employers.
Senator cash assures us that they're qualified, but what qualifies a former liberal MP and an ex-KPMG heavy to fairly represent the interests of Australian workers, for the term of their working life?
In all the argie-bargie and the handshakes, the “she'll be rights” and the “mateship”, an undeniable cronyism is developing in lockstep with a corporate agenda in this great barren land. In the grey areas of this loosely amalgamated and increasingly ridiculed federation, exploits are available for all the governments that choose to use them, and this government is bringing back the time-honoured tradition of getting your political mates high paying tax-payer funded jobs. Once only cheekily whispered has become overt and disturbing under the Morrison government and this iteration of the LNP.
What’s more impressive is how these appointments are happening so close to the end of an unpopular term of government, at odds with the nation across a broad range of issues, in a country still devastated from over three years of acute Murdoch misinformation and spin from the bushfires and the pandemic. It’s kind of like sowing landmines in the retreat from a murky battleground, a new government is faced with the dozens of LNP aligned commissioners, board representatives and appointees for life, strewn throughout our public institutions and regulatory bodies. It takes a lot of time and money to reappoint lifetime government roles, it’s very hard to sack a senior public servant.
How can politically motivated governments be allowed to reshuffle the fundamental regulatory and administrative architecture of our country to favour their political leanings? What are the major parties doing to ensure that they will not allow friends of political influence to arbitrate over the regulatory arms of our nation? Why can’t these roles be open to the best candidate, the most independent and the most detached from the political class? Surely that would be one of the prerequisites for such vital independent roles?
We need qualified and engaged technocrats campaigning for representation in these vital roles, and governments that support them. Australians must join them in rallying against and protesting the culture of “jobs for mates” to ensure public scrutiny of appointments, and demand impartial and qualified people to contribute to these vital public roles that define Australia. Any incoming government will have to deal with the consequences of nearly a decade of politically motivated appointments; how it chooses to approach this definitive situation will shape the next era of Australian life.