Govt to comply with Minchin 'Labor mates' motion

James Riley
Tuesday, 17 November 2009 11:21

IT Policy - Government Tech Policy

The Government says it will comply with a Senate motion seeking information on the circumstances in which senior Queensland Labor staffer Mike Kaiser was hired by the NBN Company.

While objecting to the use of the Senate to procure such information, Government also looks likely to supply details of Kaiser's starting salary with the NBN Company. Kaiser is currently Queensland Premier Anna Bligh’s chief of staff, and was previously chief of staff to former NSW Labor Premier Morris Iemma.

NBN Co executive chairman Mike Quigley announced on Friday Kaiser's appointment as government relations and external affairs principal.

The Senate this afternoon passed a motion put by shadow communications spokesman Nick Minchin requiring that Government provide the chamber with details of any correspondence related to the appointment between Quigley and the Minister's office, the Treasurers office, the Prime Minister, and the Prime Minister's staff.

Senator Minchin described the appointment of such a senior and high profile Labor staffer to the publicly funded NBN Co as "highly provocative" and said it raised "serious questions."

Senator Minchin's motion was supported in the Senate by the Greens. It called on Government to provide the Senate with the requested information by 10am tomorrow.

A spokesman for Communications Minister Stephen Conroy told iTWire that NBN Company appointments were a matter for the company, but said the Government intended to comply with the Senate's wishes. Senator Conroy is currently in Egypt attending an internet governance conference.

"NBN Co has made this appointment independent from Government – it is responsible for making appointments of this nature and the Government will be responding to the motion in this regard," the spokesman said.

"The Government is not of the view that the Senate is the appropriate forum to obtain information about the salaries of Government Business Enterprise employees but will comply with the motion."

The spokesman said Kaiser brought to the National Broadband Network a strong set of skills that would greatly assist the rollout of a project of such large scale and national importance

"He is expertly qualified, with substantial business and governance experience, to assist in establishing the largest nation-building infrastructure project in Australia’s history," he said.

Western Australian Greens senator Scott Ludlam said he was happy to support the motion – including the demand to know Kaiser's salary – but did not want to see the issue lead to any blocking or delaying of the telecommunications reform legislation that is currently before the Senate.

"I don't think there's any reason why we shouldn’t see exactly what we've asked for (including the salary)," Senator Ludlam told iTWire. "Why not? It's taxpayers' money."

"It is the Senate’s job to ask exactly these kinds of questions. We didn’t come up with (the motion) but I was reasonably happy to support it."

"But if Senator Minchin were to come back and try and turn it into some kind of blocking tactic then we would have to very carefully consider that," Senator Ludlam said.

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 Kaiser to the NBN Co, as well as of a former Conroy staffer Jody Fassina to the board of the Tasmania NBN Company.

Government has been keen to note while Kaiser was appointed independently by the NBN Co management, that the Rudd Government has appointed a large number of conservative politicians and staffers to important roles, ranging from Tim Fischer and Peter Costello to former Prime Minister John Howard’s long-time chief of staff Arthur Sinodinos.