Off The Record: Kiwi shepherd’s Marshall’s flock

This week in Off The Record, why the man dubbed New Zealand’s “most influential unelected official” has been in town, SA’s blackout woes spread to government documents and the ‘First Lady’ of oil and gas leading the push for SA’s biggest company.

Wayne Eagleson, former chief of staff to ex-New Zealand PM John Key.

THIS week in Off The Record, why the man dubbed New Zealand’s “most influential unelected official” has been in town, SA’s blackout woes spread to government documents and the ‘First Lady’ of oil and gas leading the push for SA’s biggest company.

Kiwi shepherds Marshall’s flock

THE man once described by former New Zealand prime minister John Key as that country’s “most influential unelected official” has been in Adelaide this week tutoring the new Liberal government.

Former NZ National Party official Wayne Eagleson, who was chief of staff in the prime minister’s office from 2008 to 2017, has been embedded in Premier Steven Marshall’s office.

Eagleson, who was chief of staff to Key and his successor, Bill English, has been mentoring the newly minted State Government officials on decision-making processes within a Cabinet government.

The Liberals want to be sticklers for due Cabinet processes and standards, which they argue slipped under the previous Labor regime.

Marshall is an admirer of the way Key turned around New Zealand after coming to power in 2008.

Back then, NZ had an exodus of bright young people, losing about 3000 per month. Key turned this around by focusing on lowering business costs, cutting payroll tax and fostering business start-ups. Sound familiar?

“There are a lot of similarities between South Australia now and where New Zealand was at then,” Marshall said, just before winning power at the March 17 election.

Marshall first went to NZ in May, 2014, just after losing that year’s election and on the day former Liberal leader Martin Hamilton-Smith defected to the Labor Cabinet.

Like John Howard, Key is now a mentor of sorts to the Premier.

So it’s little wonder Marshall wanted advice on running his government from Eagleson, who was often said to be the person running the country when Key was out of town.

“When Eagleson says it, Key says it,” was a popular aphorism. Eagleson, who launched a political consultancy career in February, was renowned for being calm and unflappable.

Despite these peerless credentials, Eagleson is not in the running to replace former Paul Keating loyalist Don Russell as head of the Premier and Cabinet Department.

Apparently Marshall favours a strict process to ensure he ends up with a top-notch new departmental chief — an appointment more important than usual given his businesslike approach.

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‘First lady’ is Santos’ new suitor

THE chief executive of Harbour Energy, the mob currently stalking Santos, was once named by Fortune magazine as the 11th most powerful businesswoman in the world.
In 2007, Forbes reckoned Linda Cook was the 44th most powerful woman in all the world.

At the time Linda Cook was known as the “first lady” of oil and gas, but she left her job running the gas and power division for Royal Dutch Shell in 2009. Cook had worked for Shell for 29 years, but left when she missed out on the chief executive job.

By walking away she also left behind a $1.5M loyalty bonus.

Harbour Energy chief Linda Cook.

The job at Shell also gave her an insight into the Australian sector as the company’s Australian projects were her responsibility.

The 59-year-old American is trying to snap up Santos for $13.5b. Cook has already spoken to new premier Steven Marshall to assure him the company’s head office would remain in Adelaide and flag more investment in Australia.

Refugees from Libs’ big purge

AS Premier Steven Marshall busily cleanses the public service, a few apparatchiks from the previous Labor regime have found new homes.

Australian Services Union state secretary Joseph Scales is heading to Sydney to become the national director of renewable energy group Solar Citizens, which unsurprisingly lobbies to protect and grow the Australian solar industry.

Rebecca Puddy, previously the spin doctor for anointed Labor leader Peter Malinauskas, has started as a digital producer at the ABC.

Former Premier and Cabinet deputy chief executive Tahnya Donaghy.

Having attempted the difficult task of creating favourable media coverage for former water minister Ian Hunter, Tanalee Smith has become the principal media and communications officer at SafeWork SA.

Their former communications and media director in Jay Weatherill’s office, Chris Burford, is enjoying time with family, according to his LinkedIn, before “considering new opportunities outside of government and politics”.

Former Premier and Cabinet deputy chief executive Tahnya Donaghy (pictured) has joined with former Attorney-General’s chief Ingrid Haythorpe to form boutique consultancy Peg, providing services to all tiers of government, nationally.

Speaking of social media, incoming Labor leader Peter Malinauskas is poised to launch himself on Twitter once he is formally elected by caucus on Monday - he now maintains a Facebook page.

He might want to have a word to Enfield MP John Rau, whose Twitter profile still lists him as Deputy Premier.

EY on future with Manifold potential in new venture

FORMER Ernst & Young Adelaide managing partner Don Manifold has wasted no time hanging out his shingle, setting up Manifold Advisory Partners.

Manifold parted ways with EY in March, following sexual harassment claims from a female staff member — both parties had been suspended pending an investigation.

While allegations “of victimisation, bullying and sexual harassment against Manifold were not substantiated, breaches of EY’s “code of conduct and internal policies were found’’.

Manifold resigned from EY in early March and was replaced by Mark Phelps.

“The findings of the investigation in respect of the staff member will remain confidential,’’ EY said at the time.

Former Ernst & Young Adelaide managing partner Don Manifold.

Manifold has a long history in the mergers and acquisitions space and was the lead partner on the sale of the Kidman family’s cattle empire which was eventually sold to mining and pastoral magnate Gina Rinehart and Chinese company Shanghai CRED after a drawn-out sale process. Manifold’s LinkedIn profile talks up his M & A background as well as his time working overseas.

“During the past 15 years in transaction advisory, I have advised on over 30 completed mergers, acquisitions, divestments and capital raisings with a combined value in excess of $1 billion and prepared over 50 independent expert’s reports and valuations with a combined value in excess of $25 billion,’’ Manifold writes. “I returned to Adelaide in 2006 after spending some 10 years in London, Sydney and Melbourne.

“I have advised on transactions in Australia, England, Croatia and Papua New Guinea and ... worked across a variety of industries, including financial services, consumer goods, agricultural, manufacturing, retail and information technology.’’

Information blackout keeps public speech in the dark

TURNS out Labor’s blackouts were not restricted to just the state’s electricity system.

The Advertiser’s esteemed political guru Daniel Wills lodged an Freedom of Information application in December 2016 trying to discover what the last government knew about potential risks to the energy grid before the big blackout that year.

Well, this week he received a “reply”. If you consider a reply to be pieces of white paper containing big blocks of black ink. It looked like the state had employed US painter Mark Rothko as its new Freedom for Information officer.

Most bizarrely, one of the documents supplied was a speech given in public by former Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis. Yes, even the speech was heavily redacted, right, featuring those big black inky blots.

Which prompted Koutsantonis, apparently the only Labor MP still working, to reply on Twitter: “Or you could have turned up & heard it in person. Not that I used my notes.’’