Minchin guns for NBN 'Labor mate' in Senate

James Riley
Tuesday, 17 November 2009 06:53

IT Policy - Government Tech Policy

The Coalition has raised the stakes in its campaign against the appointment of Queensland Premier Anna Bligh’s chief of staff Mike Kaiser to the NBN Company, filing a Senate motion to clarify whether any Ministers assisted the hiring process.

The Opposition's Leader in the Senate Nick Minchin has called Kaiser's appointment as the NBN Co’s government relations and external affairs principal as "highly provocative” and “raising serious questions."

Senator Minchin will move this afternoon a motion that demands the Minister table a document  to the Senate by no later than tomorrow morning outlining the process through which Kaiser was hired and how much he will be paid.

Specifically, the motion seeks information about when Communications Minister Stephen Conroy became aware of the appointment, and whether there had been any communications between NBN Co executive director Mike Quigley and the Minister's office, or the Treasurer or the Prime Minister and his staff on the Kaiser appointment.

Senator Conroy's office is known to have been calling the Senate cross-benches to put its case to reject the motion, but it appears to have been looked on sympathetically by at least two Senators whose votes are critical to Government.

With Senator Conroy out of the country this week at an Internet governance conference in Egypt, dealing with the issue falls to Special Minister of State Joe Ludwig.

Government's view is that the Kaiser appointment is a matter for the NBN Company management and not the shareholder, and is likely to respond in this way.

More complex is the issue of Kaiser's salary, and it is likely Government will dig in rather than be compelled to tell the Senate.

As a Government Business Enterprise, the NBN Company would be expected to reveal its top 5 salary earners in its annual report – as all GBEs are expected to do. It is not known whether Kaiser’s salary is top 5 or not within the NBN Co, but there would be great reluctance to reveal any salaries outside of the normal process.

Family First Senator Steve Fielding was still considering the motion, but a staffer told iTWire at first look was inclined to support it in the interests of transparency.

Senator Minchin has said the NBN Co should not be used "as a vehicle to reward Labor mates at the expense of taxpayers" and has made much of the appointment of a former Conroy staffer Jody Fassina to the board of the Tasmania NBN Company.

And at least one Government staffer says Senator Minchin should look at the recent history of appointments under the previous Government, pointing to David Quity’s appointment to Telstra as government relations manager at a time when Government owned 51 per cent of the company under the Coalition.

Quilty had spent six years as chief of staff to then Minister for Communications Richard Alston and then two years in the Cabinet Policy Unit of the Howard Government.