Christopher Pyne defends post-politics job for Ernst & Young at inquiry
Ex-defence minister Christopher Pyne says his new job doesn’t breach the code of conduct for ministers — and in fact he’s never seen it breached.
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Former defence minister Christopher Pyne has defended his new job with professional services firm Ernst & Young at an inquiry prompted by the role.
The probe into post-ministerial employment rules, pushed for by Centre Alliance senator Rex Patrick, held its second hearing in Canberra on Thursday.
Former foreign affairs minister, Julie Bishop, gave evidence about her new role on the board of Palladium and called for the ministerial guidelines to be updated.
“You could amend the guidelines as to make that explicit what would be required should a serving minister ever find themselves in that position,” Ms Bishop said.
Mr Pyne, who appeared via teleconference, said he did not think the ministerial standards were “too weak”.
“Every cabinet minister is aware of the code of conduct,” Mr Pyne said. “I have not seen any evidence of the code being breached.”
Cabinet members are required to wait 18 months before taking roles that could bring them in contact with matters they dealt with in their old jobs.
Ernst & Young, in a submission to the inquiry, revealed it had met with Mr Pyne about his career plans post-politics while he was still in Cabinet, before offering him a defence consultant role after the federal election was called.
Mr Pyne said having a meeting with Ernst & Young about future jobs did not breach the standards because he did not divulge any information that wasn’t publicly available, or lobby.
“Every Australian is entitled to look for a new job,” he said.
Transparency International chief executive officer, Serena Lillywhite, accused Mr Pyne and Ms Bishop of contributing to the loss of public trust in government.
She encouraged the publishing of ministerial diaries, done in New South Wales.
Mr Pyne said he had not formed an opinion about whether ministerial diaries should be made public.
Former Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet secretary Martin Parkinson, at a hearing last week, backed his investigation into Mr Pyne and Ms Bishop’s new jobs which cleared them of any rule breaches.
Centre Alliance Senator Rex Patrick maintains that Mr Pyne’s job doesn’t pass the pub test.
The inquiry is due to report back by September 10.