Kaiser 'Labor mates' row heats up

James Riley
Thursday, 11 February 2010 14:21

IT Policy - Regulation

Shadow Attorney General George Brandis has stepped up Opposition attacks over the appointment of a former Labor political staffer to a $450,000-a-year role within the NBN Company, calling it a "rolled-gold example of jobs for the boys."

Senator Brandis said the appointment of Mike Kaiser - a former chief of staff to Queensland Premier Anna Bligh - to a plum government relations role in the NBN Co was was a direct result of pressure from Communications Minister Stephen Conroy.

"There was no executive search or recruitment company engaged," Senator Brandis told ABC radio. "There was no shortlist prepared. The position was not advertised."

"This emerged from the Senate Estimates Hearing the day before yesterday - when the CEO of (NBN Co) gave evidence that he was pressured by his minister who also holds 100 percent of the shares in the company, to make this appointment," he said.

"It was an inappropriate appointment and the process that was undergone of looking for nobody else once the Minister has suggested his mate, the Labor apparatchik, '¦ was wrong," Senator Brandis said.

The Kaiser appointment is not the only NBN Company hiring that has caused howls of protest. The appointment last August of former Labor staffer Jody Fassina - a friend of Senator Conroy - to the board of the Tasmanian NBN Company generated loud complaints from the Opposition's leader in the Senate Nick Minchin.