Top Latrobe Valley job goes to ex-president of Labor Party branch

Premier Daniel Andrews has defended the hiring of a former Labor branch president for a plum six-figure job in the Latrobe Valley, saying she was hired on merit.

Premier Daniel Andrews in Morwell during a trip where he visited Hazelwood power station. Picture: Jason Edwards

Premier Daniel Andrews has defended the hiring of a former Labor branch president for a plum six-figure job in the Latrobe Valley, saying she was hired on merit.

Karen Cain, a lifelong public servant, is the new executive officer of the Latrobe Valley Authority, which has been set up to deal with the hundreds of job losses following last month’s closure of Hazelwood power station.

Ms Cain, the former president of the local South Gippsland branch of the Labor Party, will take home a plum $340,000-a-year in the role.

Mr Andrews said this morning he didn’t know Ms Cain personally, but he believed she was appointed on merit.

Premier Daniel Andrews at Holgate Brewing House in Woodend today. Picture: Kylie Else

“I know of her. I know she’s someone who has spent her entire working life as a career bureaucrat and someone who I think was a school principal, an educator,” he said.

“I don’t believe I have met her, I may have in passing but I don’t know her in any close sense.

“There’s been a bit speculated today, she’s been appointed on merit and she’ll do a fantastic job for the Latrobe Valley, it’s her home, that region, and I’m confident she will be a very good CEO and someone who works really hard to help that community get what it’s never got, and that’s a fair deal.”

When asked whether people in senior levels of the Labor Party should be appointed to such positions, Mr Andrews said: “No offence to branch secretaries in my party or any other party, but I think it’s a bit much to describe a branch president, or indeed a former branch president, as a senior party official.

“I think it would be a pretty sad day when your political affiliation — apart from a handful of roles, the governor for instance — it would be a pretty sad day when your political affiliations or your beliefs or what you might have been a member of five years ago or five minutes ago, stopped you from winning a merit-based process.”

Karen Cain is the new executive officer of the Latrobe Valley Authority.

The former teacher and Education Department bureaucrat will work beside an ex-Labor candidate and a one-time adviser to Mr Andrews.

All three are understood to be on six-figure salaries.

Last year, the government pledged $20 million to set up a dedicated authority, based in Morwell, to work with local residents and businesses to “cut red tape” and give locals “a real say over their future”.

About 700 blue-collar workers and contractors lost their jobs last month when French energy giant Engie decided to shut Hazelwood.

HAZELWOOD POWER STATION SHUTS AND JOBS GO

Workers leave Hazelwood power station after their final shift on March 31. Picture: Scott Barbour/Getty Images

Local community leaders told the Herald Sun on Tuesday the body was “a joke” that had “done nothing but add another layer of bureaucracy”.

“The only well-paying jobs they’ve brought appear to be their own,” one said.

Another said: “I can’t believed the only person qualified … was just coincidentally a Labor Party member.”

The job of executive director in the new authority was advertised in November at a salary of $300,000-340,000 plus generous perks, including a car and travel allowance.

This would likely make it one of the highest-paying jobs in the struggling Morwell area.

Ms Cain, who helped set up the local party branch and was elected its inaugural president two years ago, was among the first people appointed to the authority’s board last year.

The Herald Sun was told on Tuesday she had resigned as branch president after she was short-listed for the top job.

Asked on Tuesday night about Ms Cain’s appointment, Mr Andrews’ office referred to that statement from the Department of Premier and Cabinet, which said the Equal Opportunity Act made it “illegal to discriminate on the basis of political belief or actions” and “No … political views or memberships are ever considered (in) the department’s competitive recruitment practices”.

Premier Daniel Andrews in Morwell during a trip where he visited Hazelwood power station. Picture: Jason Edwards

Tony Flynn, a former Labor candidate for Narracan, is “Team Leader Worker Transition Services” at the authority.

And former Labor government adviser Tim Sonnreich was appointed manager of policy and strategy in December.

Mr Andrews told local media Ms Cain had government and industry experience, “having served as a local education leader, a member of the Gippsland Regional Managers Forum, and as owner of a local commercial beef farm with her husband for the past 21 years”.

Liberal member for the Eastern Victoria Region, Edward O’Donohue, said the appointment to a lucrative role “reeks of political nepotism”.

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