Mark Scott: Mike Baird’s good mate scores plum job with the NSW Education Department

MIKE Baird has raised eyebrows by handing family friend and former ABC boss Mark Scott a plum job paying more than half a million dollars a year.

• MARK SCOTT OFFERED PLUM NEW NSW JOB

PREMIER Mike Baird has raised eyebrows by handing family friend and former ABC boss Mark Scott a plum job paying more than half a million dollars a year.

Mr Scott will become head of the NSW Education Department, earning a salary of $560,000 plus a possible performance bonus of $67,200.

The appointment is the latest link between the Baird and Scott families. Mr Scott’s daughter Laura works for the Premier’s office and Mr Baird’s sister, broadcaster and journalist Julia Baird, worked for Mr Scott at both the ABC and The Sydney Morning Herald.

Mr Baird insisted yesterday the employment of Mr Scott followed an independent process: “We know each other well, that’s right, but we ran an independent process.

“The ministers and I interviewed the final two candidates as part of this.

“Let me tell you, the head of the public sector, Blair Comley, on interviewing Mark Scott, said he’s never had a more outstanding interview.

“I think Mark’s track record speaks for itself.

It is understood the Premier had earlier approached Mr Scott about potentially heading up NSW Health, but he declined the offer.

Mr Scott was on more than $800,000 a year at the ABC, a job he left last month. The Premier introduced performance pay for some of his top public servants and Mr Scott will be eligible for up to 12 per cent.

“We are incredibly lucky to have someone of Mark Scott’s expertise, experience and leadership capability ... to add to the NSW public sector and obviously, in particular, education,” Mr Baird said.

“I strongly believe the best way you can deliver the best possible services, the best possible infrastructure, the best possible outcomes for the people of NSW is by getting the best possible people.’’

Mr Scott served as chief of staff to former Greiner government education minister Terry Metherell, who shut down schools in the late 1980s and increased the funding of private schools.

Mr Scott denied he did not have a proper perspective on public education, given he and his children had attended top private schools and his wife, Dr Briony Scott, was headmistress of Wenona School.

He also said that while during the Metherell years schools were being shut, there was now demand with a growing population for more schools.

“I think if you really want a sense of how I’m going to tackle the job, you need to look at what I did in the last decade, rather than in the last century,” Mr Scott said.

The opposition’s education spokesman Jihad Dib said it was a “surprising appointment” and “something I’m going watch with great interest”.

There is no suggestion whatsoever that Laura Scott or Julia Baird were undeserving of their positions