politicalowl

Thursday, 12th April, 2007    - Richard Farmer   Andrew Peacock, AC Andrew Peacock, the former Liberal Party Parliamentary Leader, Foreign Minister and Australian Ambassador to Washington, retired back in February from his position as President of Boeing Australia. In early March the Minister for Defence, Dr Brendan Nelson, made the surprise announcement of a decision to spend $6 billion with Boeing on a batch of Super Hornet fighter aircraft for the Australian air force. That Boeing should win a major contract is not surprising. The American company, after all, is the world’s leading aeroplane manufacture and a substantial supplier of defence equipment to countries around the world. What has made this acquisition different, and the recent connection of Mr Peacock to Boeing potentially embarrassing for the government, is the direct involvement of Dr Nelson in making it. For the purchase of the Super Hornets is not the result of some orthodox procureme...

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 ...