Why Conroy, not Garrett, is the Rudd Government's problem

WHETHER skiing with Seven media boss Kerry Stokes or golfing with Foxtel shareholder James Packer, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy is becoming quite the all-round sportsman.

But are the media bosses aware that when Senator Conroy speaks in the Senate he is greeted by catcalls from the Opposition and a nickname - Passionfingers - that he does not enjoy? It is meant to imply that everything he touches is, well, stuffed. Senators from both sides of the chamber confirm Senator Conroy is the only minister in the history of the Senate to consistently read answers to questions from his laptop computer, a practice that Government senators say is designed to keep him on message. His record suggests that the strategy has not been enough to keep him out of trouble, with even his own Victorian right-wing faction regarding him as the loosest of all its wayward cannon. A Canberran who adopted Victoria as his home state in order to secure his Senate preselection, Senator Conroy has lurched from scandal to scandal. Not as spectacularly as Peter Garrett in his embattled role as minister for the dodgy pink batts and lethal insulation program, but in a drier, bureaucratic climate, causing far greater economic damage than the hapless Garrett has yet to achieve. It was Senator Conroy who put out to tender the nationwide broadband network (NBN) rollout and so singularly mishandled the project that the bidding process fell over after $30 million had been wasted, causing the Government to announce it would undertake to build the network and seek commercial partners after the fact. Last week, it was Senator Conroy, again, who unconditionally gave $250 million to the free-to-air commercial TV networks in the form of licence rebates and later, with Prime Minister Rudd's assistance, attempted to justify the handout by claiming it was all to do with ensuring the networks met domestic content quotas. As an excuse for what most business and media experts see as an out-and-out bribe to ensure that the networks give Labor favourable coverage in an election year, the content quota line was utter baloney. The value of the handout to the commercial broadcasters can be gauged by the fact that the market value of Channel Ten jumped by $318 million when news of the licence rebate reached investors. As media analyst Peter Cox said: "This was just a sweetheart deal between the Government and the (free-to-air TV) companies." Exactly. The content quota was an implausible afterthought excuse, nothing else: a great example of the Rudd government's make-it-up-as-it-goes-along policy procedure. While the cash splash to sweeten the airwaves was most obvious, Senator Conroy has been conducting a more insidious practice of giving plum jobs to former associates and staffers from within his office and the ALP. There was the appointment to a $450,000 government relations job with the Government-owned company running the Government's NBN rollout for former Queensland Labor MP Mike Kaiser (a man who narrowly escaped jail time for his role in a vote-rigging scandal), an appointment to a job that was not advertised. What exactly a quasi-government employee will do to advise his employer on how to deal with the Government, the ultimate employer, is a mystery. Why such a clearly nonsensical job would carry a $450,000 salary is a complete enigma. The NBN rollout has sparked an employment bonanza for former Labor staffers. Tim Watts, who spent three years as an aide to Senator Conroy and is one of the architects of Labor's original broadband policy while the party was in opposition, has now taken up a position with Telstra, while long-time federal Labor staffer and self-described Conroy mate Jody Fassina has joined the board of the Tasmanian NBN company. And Kate Cornick, Senator Conroy's former chief broadband adviser, has taken the job of executive director at the Melbourne-based Institute for a Broadband Enabled Society, a $50 million centre opened on July 15 by - yes, you guessed it - Senator Conroy. It is run by Rod Tucker who, in a previous incarnation, was picked by Senator Conroy for his original NBN expert panel to oversee the failed tender process that was terminated when it flopped so dramatically. With Ms Cornick and Mr Tucker having had such close ties to Senator Conroy, it is little wonder industry experts see the institute as little more than an adjunct to the senator's Canberra office. Their appointments also bring into question Senator Conroy's commitment to the Rudd Labor government's own principles on the employment of former staffers, which clearly state that individuals employed in the Offices of Ministers or Parliamentary Secretaries under the Members of Parliament (Staff) Act 1984 at Adviser level and above, members of the Australian Defence Force at Colonel level or above (or equivalent), and Agency Heads or persons employed under the Public Service Act 1999 in the Senior Executive Service (or equivalent) shall not, for a period of 12 months after they cease their employment, engage in lobbying activities relating to any matter that they had official dealings with in their last 12 months of employment. Members of the Rudd government have been told to get their photographs taken with shovels in their hands to indicate engagement in some sort of activity. But as in the case of Senator Conroy last week, more and more people are now asking exactly what is being shovelled and how much more the public will be expected to swallow before the federal election.