Independent Senator Nick Xenophon’s push for tough new defence job laws

INDEPENDENT Senator Nick Xenophon wants a two-year ban on the employment of senior defence officers by defence companies or lobbyists.

Senator Nick Xenophon sit son The Senate economics reference committee for the public hearing relating to credit card interest rates being held at Portside Centre, Sydney.

EXCLUSIVE

INDEPENDENT Senator Nick Xenophon is pushing for a two-year ban on the employment of senior defence officers by defence companies or lobbyists.

Senator Xenophon said the current rules were ‘as clear as mud’.

“There are enough loopholes to drive a lobbyist’s Mercedes through,” he told News Corp Australia.

He said there needed to be a complete overhaul to reform the rules and to give them legislative weight.

“Our closest ally [the US] understands the importance of this and the need for a two-year ban,” he said.

At present there is a non-legally binding ‘defence instruction’ that tells defence members to undertake 12 months ‘gardening leave’ before taking a job that might overlap with their role in defence.

They are subject to the Official Secrets Act when it comes to classified material and by binding ‘nondisclosure’ agreements in some other cases.

Defence leaders are taking a hard-line on enforcing the 12-month restriction in the case of the former head of the Defence Materiel Organisation and ex-Navy officer Warren King who has joined lobbying firm CMAX Advisory as a ‘special counsel’.

Mr King’s successor in the newly formed Capability Acquisition and Sustainment Group (CASG) Kim Gillis, who formerly worked for Boeing Defence, reminded his senior staff by email on October 9 that the rules prohibited them from professionally engaging with Mr King during this period.

CASG boss Kim Gillis. Picture: Supplied

Many defence staff retire and take jobs with defence companies.

“Morning all. Given Mr King’s current views being played out in the media if you are approached to speak with Mr King or personnel from CMAX Advisory, please refer the request to me. Thanks for your assistance. Kim,” the email said.

Mr King, who has worked in defence and industry for 48 years, is a strong supporter of the 12-month rule and he told News Corp Australia that he was intensely aware of the need for absolute probity in defence contracting and he flatly denied any involvement with any contracts including the future submarine project.

During the next two years the Commonwealth will let naval shipbuilding contracts worth some $90 billion taxpayer dollars.

“I am complying completely with the rules both in terms of how they are applied and their spirit,” Mr King said.

“The rules have been effective and they will in this case as well.”

He also warned that defence staff needed to be protected from unreasonable restraint of trade once they left government service.

CMAX Advisory is run by former Labor staffer Christian Taubenschlag who was paid $300,000 by Mr King for 10-months work as a consultant in 2007 on the troubled Air Warfare Destroyer project.

CMAX Advisory's Special Counsel, Warren King, standing in front of the HMAS Sydney at the Pacific 2015 International Maritime Exposition in Sydney.

He said Mr King would not engage in any lobbying work when he formally joined the firm in January.

He will provide strategic advice and support to CMAX whose clients include defence companies Northrop Grumman and Saab.

Mr King’s executive assistant at Defence Sharon Sparks was employed in an administrative support role by CMAX at the Pacific 2015 conference.

Senator Xenophon said he would move to have Mr King give evidence before the current Senate Shipbuilding Inquiry.

“I am sure Mr King would have many useful insights now that he is not working in the department,” he said.

Mr Gillis, a former senior public servant and Boeing Defence executive, said he thought the 12-month rule was adequate protection for taxpayers.

“I have been in and out multiple times and what we need is a consistent approach,” Mr Gillis said.

Senior defence sources said the Commonwealth could not prevent former employees from getting a job, but it could prevent any misplaced perceptions of conflicts of interest by strictly enforcing the 12-month probity rule.

“People retire and they are entitled to get another job. You can’t restrain their ability to trade,” the source said.

One senior source said the American approach of a two-year moratorium was worth considering.

“That would properly protect the Commonwealth and would ensure that individuals were not inadvertently using ‘in-house’ knowledge for the benefit of their new employer.”

Originally published as Independent Senator Nick Xenophon’s push for tough new defence job laws