Off the Record: Liberal purge of public sector claims another big scalp — a former Labor deputy leader and senator

THE Liberal purge of the public sector claims the scalp of another ex-Labor MP, there’s a new light in Jay Weatherill’s life and Gina Rinehart’s daughter is spending big in SA — but not how you might expect. It’s all the latest gossip … Off The Record.

• Last week’s Off The Record: Kevin Foley leaves $100k role
• Clean-out begins: Steven Marshall sacks four senior PS executives

THE Liberal purge of the public sector claims the scalp of another ex-Labor MP, there’s a new light in Jay Weatherill’s life and Gina Rinehart’s daughter is spending big in SA — but not how you might expect. It’s all the latest gossip … Off The Record.

Labor deputy quits board as public sector purge rolls on

FORMER state Labor deputy leader and senator Annette Hurley has quit her $46,000-a-year role overseeing public sector superannuation, continuing a genteel purge from government boards.

Off the Record can reveal Treasurer Rob Lucas has accepted Hurley’s resignation as presiding member of the board of Super SA, the provider for state public servants.

She follows fellow former Labor deputy leader and treasurer Kevin Foley, who we last week revealed was taking a pay cut of almost $100,000 a year by resigning as Funds SA chairman.

Hurley, Labor’s deputy leader from 1997-2002 and a senator from 2005-2011, was appointed Super SA presiding member in 2016, when then-treasurer Tom Koutsantonis said her experience would serve the organisation well.

Latest government records show Ms Hurley, whose appointment was due to expire in September next year, was paid an annual fee of $46,435.

Annette Hurley is another former pollie to leave a lucrative board role. She was the presiding member of the board of Super SA. Picture: Calum Robertson

Super SA services more than 211,000 members in schemes including those for state MPs. Its latest annual report says it had $24.4 billion in total assets under management at the end of the past financial year.

Official figures also show Hurley was paid a $24,000 annual fee as a TAFE SA board member, a position she held from 2012 until April, when the Liberal government appointed interim replacements.

Speaking from France, Hurley confirmed she had offered her resignation from Super SA after Labor’s defeat at the March 17 state election.

“I’d spoken to various people and thought that it was best to offer my resignation to allow that orderly transition if the Treasurer wanted it,” she told Off the Record.

Lucas confirmed he had now accepted, using polite language almost identical to his previous description of Foley’s self-imposed ousting.

“Similar to Kevin, she very generously offered her resignation, which I have accepted,” Lucas told Off the Record.

“We are in the process of appointing a new chair of Super SA. We thank her for her service to Super SA.”

Hurley’s LinkedIn profile lists her term at Super SA as finishing in March. Unlike Foley, she did not opt to continue in the role until a replacement was appointed.

Funds SA, which Foley chaired, invests more than $30 billion on behalf of SA’s public sector superannuation funds, administered by Super SA, and approved public authorities.

Lucas said new appointments for both the Funds SA and Super SA roles were expected to be made in the next few weeks.

Foley, the highest-profile casualty of a public sector clean-out triggered by the end of Labor’s 16-year reign, last week told Off the Record he accepted the reality of politics was “to the winners, the spoils”.

Just days after the election, Premier Steven Marshall fired four high-paid State Government executives, including Department of Premier and Cabinet chief Don Russell, in a $2 million purge aimed at driving change.

New broom sweeps lobby

THE flight from Labor to Liberal-aligned lobbyists has picked up pace following the state election with former Labor pollies bearing the brunt.

In the most recent filings on the State Government register of lobbyists, former State Transport Minister Patrick Conlon has dropped nine clients from his docket, including rail company Genesee & Wyoming Australia and prominent development company Commercial & General, although one client did also go into administration.

Conlon retains four clients, including Bombardier Transportation Australia, which he awarded a $269 million deal to in March 2011.

Conlon said four of the former clients were the same company, C&G was related to their former old Royal Adelaide Hospital project which had run its course and the others were short-term contracts.

Former Labor minister Patrick Conlon is looking for new clients.

Former Senator Chris Schacht dropped five clients including Leigh Creek Energy, which was picked up by former Liberal leader Iain Evans. Evans added four new clients in total, including new ferry operator Kangaroo Island Connect.

Former Liberal deputy premier Graham Ingerson picked up a big client in Walker Corporation, which has been trying to get its mixed-use commercial and retail development on the Riverbank precinct across the line for years.

Former Labor Senator Nick Bolkus has previously lobbied on Walker’s behalf and Conlon also still lists Walker as a client.

Bolkus removed engineering company Fyfe, SSE Australia and Bedford Group from his register.

Capetal Advisory, which has been run by Nathan Paine and Matt Clemow, along with Property and Consulting, lodged an update three days after the election, retaining their long client list and adding in Statewide Super. Clemow though has recently left the business, with Paine saying his former partner wanted to focus on “social and community housing”. He said they would still work together on “multiple projects”.

Renewables company, SolarReserve, which was a darling of the former Labor government with its plans for a solar thermal project near Port Augusta — currently unfunded — has employed Diplomacy Pty Ltd to put their case to the government.

Another in that space, Tesla Motors Australia, has employed a spruiker in MMJ Consulting, aka Melissa Cheesman.

— By Cameron England

Another Rinehart about to plough cash into SA charity

JUST a week after her philanthropist mother, Gina Rinehart, pumped money into South Australian charities, Bianca Rinehart is looking to follow in her footsteps.

Rated by Forbes as Australia’s fifth-richest person (her mother is the wealthiest), Bianca is trustee of the Hope Margaret Hancock Trust, set up by grandfather Lang Hancock in 1988. It holds 23.4 per cent of Hancock Prospecting.

Bianca Rinehart in the Pilbara in a white Gucci safari suit. As you do.

She says she is looking to donate $150,000 to charities in each state.

On Sunday, Bianca, 41, tweeted she was making the donations “in response to @barnaby_joyce on @SundayNightOn7 and in the interests of common decency, compassion, fairness and grace”.

She told Off the Record she had not yet decided which SA charities would benefit but was “looking to support those at the coalface, providing critical hands-on care to victims of abuse”.

Bianca, who in 2012 appeared in Pilbara photo shoot a modern-day, Gucci version of the 1970s white safari jacket that her grandfather made famous, told us she had a few weeks to research and decide where to direct funds this year.

Fierce storm over top business job rages in small tea cup

WHEN a board declares it has “complete confidence” in a footy coach, the incumbent usually starts waiting for a knife in the back.

But Business SA’s statement defending chief executive Nigel McBride could scarcely have been more forceful.

In comments attributed to chairman Vincent Tremaine, the board expressed confidence in McBride and declared “it is deeply regrettable for him, his staff and our stakeholders to suggest otherwise”.

The statement, headlined “addressing unfounded leadership rumours at Business SA”, was triggered by a report in The Australian describing “growing speculation within Adelaide’s business community that he (McBride) could be replaced within 12 months”.

“As the peak representative body for business and employers in South Australia, which has not been afraid to stand up for the best interests of our members and the wider business community, we appreciate that we can be the subject of scurrilous, false and agenda-led gossip,” Tremaine said.

Business SA chief Nigel McBride has been defending himself against accusations he is for the chop.

Indeed, before the business lobby rounded on Labor’s bank tax after last June’s Budget, there were numerous rumours swirling about the peak body.

One that persisted, longer than the scuttled bank tax, was that the Property Council was carrying more currency with the Labor regime than Business SA. This was despite Property Council SA executive director Daniel Gannon being a former media director for the-then opposition leader, now Premier, Steven Marshall.

But that was torpedoed by the-then treasurer Tom Koutsantonis pulling out of a Property Council lunch in late June.

In the wake of Business SA’s fiery statement, Gannon has been keen to hose down any possible scuttlebutt or chatter about him positioning for McBride’s job. Perhaps a storm in a teacup?

Weatherill finds new light in life

WHAT a difference an election makes. Before March the chaotic lifestyle of being premier necessarily meant Jay Weatherill rarely had a moment to himself.

Fast forward to this week and Weatherill was spotted having breakfast alone in Caffe Buongiorno on Norwood Parade. Just a stone’s throw from the Norwood electorate office of his replacement Steven Marshall.

Not that Weatherill, now just the humble Member for Cheltenham is missing his old hectic life.

Former South Australian premier Jay Weatherill is enjoying life on the backbench.

He told Off the Record he was “shopping for lamps” in Norwood and had “16 years of errands to catch up on’’.

Weatherill was either Cabinet minister or premier during those 16 years so the transition to opposition backbencher was a big one.

Since March, Weatherill has had lunch with former prime minister Julia Gillard in the city and was even filmed standing, again by himself, at a local bus stop.

Lorraine’s fishy tale

SHE has quit as LGA president but Lorraine Rosenberg has some experience at comebacks.

Digging through our files, Off the Record fished out a 1998 Advertiser article by former colleague Annabel Crabb, about Rosenberg’s switch from Liberal MP to piscatorial pursuits.

After being dumped as Kaurna MP in 1997, she became GM of the SA Fishing Industry Council. But Rosenberg, said she recovered swiftly from the defeat.

The fish-related history of Lorraine Rosenberg

“I was upset for about 24 hours. Then I thought to myself: ‘Don’t be ridiculous — they didn’t deserve someone who worked as hard as I did’.”

Rosenberg also became radio war fodder on Friday. The ABC’s Spence Denny promoted an “exclusive” interview with Rosenberg at 8.30am. Only problem was she had already been on rivals FIVEaa.

News first

IT was officially announced this week, but Off the Record readers will not have been surprised by the departure of Seven news chief Graham Archer from the network.

Last month, Off the Record reported Archer was poised to retire after he took some time off following a nasty fall at his home. Seven farewelled him with great affection, and his replacement Chris Salter has been warmly welcomed.

Archer’s treatment is an anomaly in an industry where Nine’s Tony Agars and Archer’s predecessor at Seven, Terry Plane, were unceremoniously pushed out.

Graham Archer will no longer be at Seven Network, either today or tonight.

Stalwart Agars was replaced the week after Off The Record speculated Pudney could replace Archer at Seven. One well-placed industry source believes Agars’ departure was “about their OTR-inspired fear of losing Pudney’’.