Off the Record: South Australia Liberals have Labor Party appointed board members in their sights

WHO is likely to get the chop from Labor-appointed board positions? How much are retiring pollies going to get in super? Why did Labor change the date for making Peter Malinauskas its new leader? It’s Off the Record time.

THIS WEEK, why Labor-appointed board members may be getting jumpy, a political insider runs the numbers on MPs’ superannuation payments and Labor caught on the hop over its leadership over Easter.

Libs ready to chuck over boards

A WISE old sage (it was Paul Keating) once noted that when you change the government you change the country. He could have added you also change all those lovely juicy board positions and directorships as well.

As you would expect from a government that was in office for 16 years, it populated multiple boards and statutory authorities with its favourite people.

The guessing game is now who will be given the flick as Steven Marshall’s new government looks to replace the Labor types with its own hand-picked replacements.

Just last year, the now Treasurer Rob Lucas said it was “clear that a number of these ex-Labor MPs add little value to their boards and have been appointed primarily because of their Labor connections’’.

While some of these appointments have a while to run, the likes of former Labor MPs Carmel Zollo (History Trust and Homestart Finance) and Terry Groom (Parole Board, Renewal SA) may be getting jumpy.

Former Labor premier Mike Rann with then education minister Jane Lomax-Smith making an education announcement at Adelaide High School.

Former Labor deputy leader and senator Annette Hurley is the presiding member at SuperSA.

Former minister Jane Lomax-Smith heads up the SA Museum, while the Art Gallery board includes the Labor-linked lawyer Adrian Tisato. Another Labor-friendly figure is former radio personality Amanda Blair, who holds a spot on the Housing Trust and the Independent Gambling Authority.

Ex Labor minister Chloe Fox is on the Lifetime Support Authority, while former Victorian Labor minister Bronwyn Pike sits on Renewal SA. The SA Water board includes both Carolyn Pickles and the former Nationals MP who joined Mike Rann’s cabinet Karlene Maywald.

One job is on the verge of changing hands already. SA Multicultural and Ethnic Affairs Commission deputy chairman Norman Schueler, who has been president of the state’s Jewish Community Council since 1994, this week paid tribute to Grace Portolesi, who quit the commisson’s top job last month to contest Hartley at the state election.

Schueler seems to have the the credentials to take over the chairmanship. In July last year, he was re-appointed by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to the National Australia Day Council Board.

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Inside figures for retiring MPs’ pension payouts

DECIPHERING the formula used to determine retiring MPs’ superannuation payouts can be as complex as nuclear launch codes — and just as secretive.

So Off the Record was delighted when an experienced political insider volunteered to calculate the figures for the group exiting parliament after the March 17 state election.

Topping the list were former speakers Michael Atkinson and Jack Snelling, who will, based on our insider’s figures, pocket $245,000 and $241,000 per year respectively.

Atkinson’s partner, former education minister Jennifer Rankine, gets $217,000 a year.

In fairness, we should point out that, just before the election, Atkinson said he believed his pension would be “closer to $100,000 than $200,000.

Atkinson, who served as a Cabinet minister from 2003-2010, is a member of an exclusive parliamentary pension scheme which closed to new members in 1995.

Jennifer Rankine and Michael Atkinson enjoy a coffee at Queen St Cafe, Croydon, after announcing that they are resigning from State politics.

Former Liberal leader and Labor cabinet member Martin Hamilton-Smith gets $193,000 annually, former Labor minister Steph Key $175,000 and her former Cabinet colleague Paul Caica $203,500.

Another former Labor minister, Gail Gago, gets $238,000, while a handful of retiring Liberals get a bit less.

These are former opposition leader Isobel Redmond ($182,000), Mark Goldsworthy ($142,000) and Mitch Williams ($164,000).

The Atkinson/Rankin partnership gets a total pension of $462,000. If Atkinson passes away, Rankine’s pension becomes $400,750. If Rankine passes away, Atkinson’s pension becomes $407,750.

Our helpful political insider based the calculations on publicly available information but, of course, if any of the aforementioned think the figures are wrong, we’d be delighted if they’d contact us at the email above with corrections.

It’s Wingard ... Corey Wingard, Super MP

WHO better to be overseeing the state’s police force than super spy James Bond?

Well, if you close your right eye and squint with your left, you might mistake new police minister Corey Wingard for Ian Fleming’s most famous creation.

Corey Wingard dressed as James Bond.

The above picture was taken when Wingard was but a humble employment, small business and manufacturing spokesman for the-then Liberal opposition. It was part of the 2016 Oscars edition for this organ’s standout SAWeekend magazine.

At the time, Wingard said he was trying to channel the James Bond as played by P ierce Brosnan in GoldenEye.

“I’m a Sean Connery fan but Pierce Brosnan ... I always thought Pierce should have done more James Bond,’’ he said. “I would like to be the Daniel Craig James Bond but I don’t have the rig for that. I’m too old, I can concede that.

“Pierce was very well groomed and together, so maybe that’s saying something about who I’d like to be. I’m probably more of a wannabe Brosnan.

“I love the James Bond movies, I love the humour in them, the way they depict the time and how we’ve progressed. They are a cultural history. Some of the fashions you can laugh at, and the one-liners. Full of Dad jokes, really, which probably suits me to a T.’’

Post-Easter leadership parade

LABOR’S bid to anoint a new leader after Easter nearly left the new Opposition looking like bunnies.

First, the date for the caucus meeting to elect rising star Peter Malinauskas as leader was set for Sunday, April 8.

But there was one hitch. That Sunday is Orthodox Easter, which would have excluded the observant former treasurer Tom Koutsantonis from the meeting.

Alerted to this, Labor’s wheels then turned very quickly and fixed the date for the next day, Monday, April 9, ensuring Kouts could attend.

Malinauskas’s talent has been appreciated within the ALP for some time — he was elected to the party’s five-person national executive committee in 2015, aged 34.

Malinauskas will take over from former premier Jay Weatherill, who was spotted relaxing this week at powerbrokers’ hotspot — Joe’s Kiosk at Henley Beach.

Diplomacy continues at Crows

THE diplomacy career of Alexander Downer — Australian’s longest-serving foreign minister — is over, at least for now.

The scion of the South Australian political dynasty, Downer finished on Wednesday an almost four-year stint as Australian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom.

He will return to Adelaide, where he will be an adviser to Whyalla steelworks owner GFG Alliance, run by British tycoon Sanjeev Gupta.

Downer’s term in London was extended in April last year, then further extended late last year.

Alexander Downer presentis Condoleezza Rice with an Adelaide Crows football club jumper.

This unleashed speculation that Downer, once mentioned as a potential Liberal premier, was being kept in London so he did not overshadow now-Premier Steven Marshall during the campaign for the March 17 state election.

This suggestion was bolstered by Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop announcing former attorney-general George Brandis as Australia’s next High Commissioner to the UK on March 20 — the day after Marshall was sworn in as Premier.

There is one non-traditional diplomacy role Downer will retain. He has been Adelaide Crows ambassador since 2001 and once even presented the-then US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice with a guernsey (above). At least now he will, once again, be able to watch his beloved club live.