Off the Record: A new boss for BankSA, and Adelaide city councillors downplay suggestions of factionalism

BankSA gets a new boss, kind of, while Adelaide City Council gets a new faction, kind of ... this week in Off the Record.

Here’s this week’s hot gossip from the worlds of business and politics.

Bank on it

BankSA has replaced former boss Nick Reade, kind of.

It appears general manager of Westpac and BankSA’s consumer division in SA, Ben Owen, has been identified as the heir apparent to take over as the new face of the local BankSA brand.

During a whirlwind trip to Adelaide this week to spruik employment of the banking group’s 5000th employee in South Australia – despite moving to shut more branches – Westpac chief Peter King told Off The Record that while he may not have the title of CEO, Owen “runs the place”.

“We look at how we’re getting the best service across all our brands and branches – Ben has picked it up,” he said.

Westpac executive Ben Owen (third on right) is set to take over as BankSA and Adrian Carpenter. Picture: Sarah Reed

Westpac has anointed the successor to former BankSA chief executive Nick Reade, who has become the chief executive of the Department of Premier and Cabinet.

“We’ve just decided to think about how we get the management layer consolidated but really it’s about service in our brands and branches and we’re very happy with how that’s going.

“We’ve got people like Ben, who while the title’s not CEO, he runs the place.”

King said while there were no plans to reappoint a CEO for BankSA, Westpac’s commitment to its subsidiary brands – which include Bank of Melbourne, RAMS and St. George Bank – remained.

Reade developed a high profile in South Australia’s business community while head of the BankSA brand, before departing last month to take up the top job at the Premier’s department.

During his six-year tenure as BankSA boss, he led from the front as a thought-leader in the state, overseeing a rebrand of the bank at a local level, and spearheading the banking industry’s defence against the former Labor Government’s attempt to bring in a bank tax.

It is yet to be seen if Owen, who will continue to report into Westpac’s chief customer engagement officer Ross Miller in Sydney, will be given free rein to put his own stamp on the BankSA brand and pursue a similar position of influence to his predecessor of sorts.

New heads on the block

Perceptions of disunity within Adelaide City Council have been fuelled with the latest newsletter from North Adelaide residents Phillip Martin and Anne Moran.

Devoting much of the flyer to the high-rise development proposed for the former Le Cornu site on O’Connell Street and the council’s financial problems, the pair refer to “Lord Mayor Sandy Verschoor and her Team Adelaide faction”.

Team Adelaide then gets mentioned repeatedly, including a description of first-term councillor Jessy Khera as a “Team Adelaide supporter”.

Moran and Martin sign off by asking “which Adelaide City councillors are truly independent and not associated with the Team Adelaide voting block (sic)”.

The newsletter issued by Adelaide City Council members Anne Moran and Phillip Martin. Picture: Supplied

Alongside the question are their photographs and headshots of fellow elected members Robert Simms, Greg Mackie and Helen Donovan.

Contacted by Off The Record, Mackie and Simms disputed the five had formed a faction.

Mackie, previously a councillor when Alfred Huang was mayor, said they were “more a disparate group of outsiders or like five minor parties on a cross bench”.

Sims agreed, saying it was “natural that opposing voices will gravitate towards each other when you have a faction controlling the council like Team Adelaide”.

“Anne’s a member of the Liberal Party and I’m a Greens candidate. I don’t think anyone would think we are a faction.”

Not surprisingly, there is no mention in the newsletter of the results of the vote for the O’Connell Street development. It was 9-2 in favour.

Strained relations

Anyone who has watched council meetings at Adelaide Town Hall would know Sandy Verschoor and Phillip Martin do not get along.

The pair frequently clash, with Martin repeatedly making references to Team Adelaide during debates on the multitude of motions and questions he proposes or asks each month.

Their strained relationship plunged to new depths this week though when Martin tried to get a special council meeting held to discuss the absence of chief executive Mark Goldstone.

The meeting was called off when Verschoor answered the questions Martin planned to raise in public about Goldstone, who apparently has been unwell since January.

Adelaide Lord Mayor Sandy Verschoor. Picture: Adelaide City Council

In an email, Verschoor asked why he had not asked her directly about Goldstone’s health and when he was likely to return to work.

Martin responded by telling Verschoor it was “misguided and plain wrong to suggest I have not expressed concern about Mark’s health. I have, but not to you”.

“You’ll forgive me if I do not raise matters with you directly as you are sometimes less than transparent,” he continued.

Martin then criticised Verschoor for holding roundtable discussions with North Adelaide business owners in the absence of elected members, namely himself and ally Anne Moran.

He followed up his attack on Tuesday when, during a debate over the aborted East-West bikeway, he described Verschoor as “impotent”.

It was a remark Verschoor and Team Adelaide leader Alexander Hyde justifiably found offensive.

They both called on Martin to withdraw it, a request which was ignored.

Legally speaking

It’s lucky we’re not delicate souls here at The Advertiser. We might think some people don’t like us.

In the Environment Resources and Development court on Thursday a host of lawyers gathered to debate the future of the $50 million Oscar hotel at Seppeltsfield, unkindly known as ‘the slug’ by some of the locals.

David Billington, acting for those trying to have the Oscar held to a tougher development category was keen to submit as evidence a story carried in this very newspaper earlier this month quoting Seppeltsfield owner Warren Randall.

Barossa Valley wine industry figure Warren Randall.

This was not an idea that found favour with Stuart Henry, acting for Intro Architects which lodged the development application.

“With the greatest respect what we read in The Advertiser may or may not be a correct representation of what Mr Randall may or may not have said to the reporter,’’ Henry said. “We simply have no ability to test if what he said is correct and we have no ability to ascertain the context in which he said it or the other things he might or might not have said which may or may not give an appreciation of what he intended to convey.’’

Said reporter managed to restrain himself from shouting “objection, your honour”.

As it eventuated, the article was not admitted as evidence in any case.