ASIC needs a new leader and new direction: Terry McCrann

Scott Morrison was quick to demand Christine Holgate stand down over four watches, but where was his same fury for ASIC boss James Shipton who billed almost $119,000 for personal tax advice to the body, writes Terry McCrann.

ASIC head James Shipton. Picture: Getty

Our corporate cop ASIC needs a new boss and a whole new way of doing – or, perhaps more accurately, not doing – its job. And it needs both of them fast.

This was thrown into sharp – and urgent – relief by a former chairman of its fellow regulator ACCC, Graeme Samuel, who unleashed a scathing attack on ASIC’s culture and governance on Wednesday, focused specifically but not only on the ‘Shipton scandal’.

Samuel, who was appearing at a parliamentary committee hearing, also attacked ASIC’s ‘why not litigate?’ strategy and its lack of transparency in its dealings with corporates.

That strategy is in any case somewhat in disarray since its architect – the tough-talking deputy chairman Daniel Crennan – left ASIC, somewhat abruptly, a month ago.

It’s also been a month since ASIC was left leaderless and in limbo when chairman James Shipton “stood down” while an investigation was done into the near-$119,000 that ASIC paid on his behalf for tax advice he got in relation to moving from the US to Australia to take up the job.

ASIC also had to pay nearly $80,000 of fringe benefits tax – although at least that was going from one government pocket to another.

Two things made the payment utterly unacceptable.

ASIC had originally agreed to pay only $4050 for tax advice for Shipton. Later, ASIC – who and how, we don’t know – agreed to pay an increased $9500 and that Shipton would pay the rest.

Secondly, the Auditor-General twice raised red flags over the issue – including, extraordinarily, directly with the treasurer Josh Frydenberg himself; yet ASIC and Shipton sat on it for a year and did nothing.

Two things also made the whole ‘Shipton situation’ all so much worse.

Mr Shipton.

First, at exactly the same time it was revealed that ASIC had also paid nearly $70,000 of rental payments for Crennan. These were “over and above” the total remuneration package that applied to the role of deputy chair, but at least they related directly to the need for Crennan’s accommodation in Sydney, after he was asked to relocate from Melbourne.

Secondly, the Shipton-Crennan payments blew into the public space at the same time as the supposed ‘scandal’ of the ‘Holgate watches’.

These are now the most famous Cartier watches in Australian history – the four watches, adding up to a cost of all of $20,000, that Christine Holgate as CEO of Australia Post had authorised to be given to four executives in recognition of them winning a $660m contract.

Ask yourself: which is more outrageous?

A CEO authorising what was effectively $20k in bonuses to four executives – to stress, not a payment to herself?

Or the chairman of ASIC having it pay $119k for tax advice given to him personally and to his direct benefit?

Well, to the PM the answer was an absolute no-brainer – as indeed, it would be to any (other?) half-sentient person. He went absolutely ballistic – saying he was “appalled and shocked”; demanding the person stand down or failing that be sacked.

That was Shipton, of course? Not a bit of it – all Scott Morrison’s bile was directed at Holgate; he had all of sweet nothing to say about Shipton.

Similarly, if Frydenberg who is nominally the cabinet minister responsible for Shipton and ASIC has had anything the least bit assertive far less even critical to say, I’m not aware of it.

Indeed, if you Google “Frydenberg and Shipton”, apart from links to stories about the scandal, the only link to Frydenberg commenting on Shipton is a throw to Frydenberg’s personal member website.

This has a pic of a beaming Frydenberg – he’s always beaming – sitting at a desk with a semi-beaming Shipton, accompanied by somewhat immortal words: “It was great to be in Canberra to meet with ASIC Chairman James Shipton”. Back in 2019.

It looks surprisingly similar to that more famous pic of a – of course, still beaming – Frydenberg sitting at a desk with a – decidedly not-beaming – former judge named Ken Hayne.

Between them are two mighty tomes which had – what a coincidence – some less than complimentary things to say about a (pre-Shipton) ASIC, and of course a lot more else besides.

Frydenberg’s silence on Shipton condemns either himself or the PM.

If what Frydenberg has (not) done is correct – stay silent and wait for the inquiry – then he is accusing the PM of behaving, to coin a phrase, “appallingly and shockingly”, over Holgate.

If instead what the PM did in relation to Holgate was appropriate, why hasn’t Frydenberg said something similar about the far less excusable situation with Shipton?

In fact both PM and treasurer stand condemned.

The PM demanded AusPost be deprived of its CEO at a time which according to even its chairman, Lucio Di Bartolomeo, was the most challenging in its entire history.

That’s a shocking abrogation by the PM of his basic duty to act in the best interests of the Australian public.

True, it shouldn’t have happened if the AusPost chairman wasn’t an even more dreadful failure; unable to understand far less act to deliver on his basic responsibilities, by refusing to so inappropriately stand Holgate down. And indeed, lose her when she understandably resigned.

Di Bartolomeo could not have more completely and more publicly announced his own total unfitness to remain chairman.

The treasurer similarly stands condemned for allowing ASIC to be left in limbo for months, not only without a chairman but without being able to even start the process of finding a new chairman.

Is there anyone in Australia apart from Shipton who thinks he can possibly return?

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Originally published as ASIC needs a new leader and new direction: Terry McCrann