politicalowl

Australia has its tawdry tales of former politicians peddling influence for property developers and others told daily before the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption. And we have had the slightly unedifying sight of former Prime Ministers Bob Hawke and Kevin Rudd acting as door openers for companies in China and elsewhere. Departed Treasurer Peter Costello used his influence with the regime in Cambodia to introduce some business colleagues and remains in the consultancy business. Alexander Downer traded on the contacts made as our foreign minister to attract a client or two. It’s all a little sad perhaps but the activities of our retired leaders pale into insignificance compared with Britain’s Tony Blair. London’s  Financial Times  this week brought its readers  the story  of this Prime Minister who turned lobbyist on a truly grand scale. What a depressing read it is as it outlines how the man who not so long ago was a proselytiser...

A trial started in Adelaide this week that should have the attention of political apparatchiks throughout the nation and from both sides of politics. Facing the court is a former ministerial adviser to the South Australian government and as details of the case unfold there are sure to be many Mr Fixits who think that “there but for the grace of God go I”. Randall Ashbourne, 51, has pleaded not guilty to improperly using the influence of his position “to bring benefit to former state Labor backbencher and deputy leader Ralph Clarke” between 1 April and 21 November 2002. The allegation is that Mr Ashbourne offered Mr Clarke a seat on a government board if he agreed to drop a defamation suit he had brought against Attorney General Michael Atkinson. With the trial just under way, this is not the time for commenting on the use by politicians of all stripes of jobs for the boys. Suffice it to say that the Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson should take particular notice of the potential...

April 2005    - Richard Farmer   Former minor level military officers who leave the army with a huge chip on their shoulder generally find it hard to have their views taken seriously in the debate about Australia's defence policy. Give that same officer a grand title with an independent sounding organisation and those same views come blasting out of radios and appear on televisions and in newspapers all over the nation. So it was this morning when Australians woke to find Neil James, the executive director of the Australian Defence Association, giving them the opinion that the nation's Sea King helicopters should have been replaced years ago. He was the media's darling as journalists desperately sought to find somebody, anybody, to talk about Saturday's tragic helicopter crash on Nias Island. Now the opinion of Mr James might well turn out to be absolutely correct but expertise in the subject was not the reason his views were being sought. Today's ...

Thank you for inviting me here today and thank you for the description in your brochure as "Richard Farmer - government relations consultant". That was very polite of you. Whenever I describe myself as a lobbyist there is always something of an embarrased pause so becoming a government relations consultant suits me just fine. In my trade we understand why lavatory cleaners became sanitary inspectors. For one with my political background, a little to the left, or perhaps more libertarian, than most of you here, it is indeed a privilege to be invited to a function organised by the Victorian Branch of the Liberal Party and, because I was once described by a Minister of the Howard Government as "the lobbyist of last resort" I can only assume the reason for the invitation is that every other ... government relations consultant ... in the country - many of them former workers for the Liberal not the Labor Party - is actually out earning a living. That being so, I am ...