Bank probe provides work for consultants

Illustration: Rod Clement.

Who says Labor’s Bill Shorten is bad for business? Surely not anyone in consulting. Just look at the well-paid special ops troops signed up to advise the big four banks before their CEOs front the House of Representatives economics committee next week.

The biggest of the big four, Commonwealth Bank, recently enlisted the services of former federal Liberal Party director Brian Loughnane. The bank’s chief executive Ian Narev will be first up on Tuesday.

Peta Credlin and Brian Loughnane at the Midwinter Ball. Picture: Ray Strange.

It’s the latest gig for Lough-nane — he was the Liberals’ director from early 2003 to January this year. He has also been talking to Jennifer Westacott’s much discussed lobby group, the Business Council of Australia, to improve its campaigning skills.

Narev already has former federal Nationals director Andrew Hall on staff as his corporate affairs executive.

They’ll hope it’s more of a 2004 federal election reunion than a 2007 one.

So the outlook looks good for dealing with the five Coalition members on the nine-person David Coleman-chaired committee during Narev’s three-hour appearance.

Now they just need to work on the four all-male non-government members: Laborites Matt Thistlethwaite (the committee’s deputy chairman), Pat Conroy and Matt Keogh, and the lower house’s sole Green, Adam Bandt.

Wingrove for Westpac

Westpac has the final slot on Thursday, October 6. That will mean either the committee is razor sharp in their attack on Westpac CEO Brian Hartzer or, along with everybody else, completely over the whole exercise.

Former head of the AWU, now head of wealth management advisory at KPMG, Paul Howes. Picture: Jane Dempster/The Australian.

In a demonstration of the ever-growing remit of professional services firms these days, Hartzer has enlisted Gary Wingrove’s KPMG for external advice to complement his internal team.

Exactly how the KPMG team is helping Hartzer isn’t clear. Debate prep? Voice coaching? Number crunching?

Also unclear is which of its consulting army has been enlisted. Former Queensland Labor state secretary Mike Kaiser? Maybe. Former head of the Australian Workers Union Paul Howes? He’s not without ­expertise. And backstory.

The committee’s “Review of the Four Major Banks” is a response to the pressure Howes’ former best friend Sam Dastyari put on the Big Four, as Dasher made his name in Canberra leading the march for a royal commission, which Howes, as it happens, denounced yesterday in this paper.

The KPMG consultants will complement Westpac’s internal team, Brett Gale (formerly chief of staff to Labor Treasury spokesman Chris Bowen) and Matt Crocker, who joined the bank from NSW Liberal Premier Mike Baird’s office in July.

Walsh nabbed

Brian Walsh is helping out NAB boss Andrew Thorburn, who will appear on the same day as Hartzer.

NAB chief Andrew Thorburn. Picture: David Crosling.

Walsh ran the bank’s corporate comms section back in the Cameron Clyne-era, before leaving to start up consultancy Bastion Group with former AFL boss Andrew Demetriou.

In a way it’s situation normal, as Thorburn has been a Bastion Group client since late 2014. That arrangement is just as well after the flurry of departures from NAB, including Paula Benson, the better half of Stephen Conroy, who still hasn’t been replaced.

The external consultant will help out NAB’s head of government relations Dallas McInerney.

Inside story

The odd one out is ANZ, whose boss Shayne Elliott will appear on Wednesday, the second boss after Narev.

ANZ boss Shayne Elliott. Picture: David Geraghty/The Australian.

ANZ haven’t hired any external help. All of it, from debate prep to live streaming proceedings over Periscope, will be handled by his internal team, including the innovative Paul Edwardsand war horse Gerard Brown.

On solid Grounds

As noted here before, few have as much of a personal stake in the beleaguered for-profit aged-care sector as UBS Australia head honcho Matthew Grounds. Grounds, the UBS chairman of investment banking for the Asia-Pacific, is a shareholder in the private aged-care operator Aurrum Group — one of the extra-curricular projects he’s involved in with former UBS banker David Di Pilla.

UBS Australia head honcho Matthew Grounds. Picture: Renee Nowytarger/The Australian.

So it is a testament to the impeccable Chinese Walls at his integrated bank that UBS’s health analyst, Andrew Goodsall,yesterday caught up with his peers and slashed his price forecasts for listed health stocks Japara (down from $3.05 to $2.65), Regis Healthcare (down from $5.45 to $4.80) and Estia (the biggest change of all, down from $6.95 to $4.10).

Destination Iran

Trade Minister Steven Ciobo is leading a business delegation to Iran as you read this, following the trail blazed by Foreign Minister Julie Bishop.

Julie Bishop and partner David Panton with Tom Harley.

The travelling party are politely sniffing out opportunities to get involved in Iran’s 80 million citizens.

Joining Ciobo are an all-male delegation — not a great surprise, considering the itinerary. They include people who build (engineering giant Worley Parsons Middle East boss Gordon Cowe), drill (Oil Search new business head Mark Wilson), fly (Qantas regional boss Rohan Garnett), teach (University of Melbourne’s Tom Kvan, University of Sydney’s Shane Houston and Curtin University’s Andris Stelbovics), push pills (Blackmores Asia boss Peter Osborne), butcher (Meat and Livestock Australia international business manager David Beatty) and do whatever it is that Tom Harley does at his international advisory business Dragoman.

Harley is also the chairman of the Australia Saudi Business Council. With the Oxford man wandering around Persia, the ancient rift between Sunni and Shia should be fixed in no time.

Spreading their wings

A little more than a month after a Las Vegas offsite, there has been a significant restructure at Crosby Textor, the campaign and communication consultancy founded by Lynton Crosby and Mark Textor.

Mark Textor and Lynton Crosby.

Who says Vegas is no place to do business?

The rejigged arrangement looks like even more travel for the founders, who before expanding into the corporate world and international politics, were best known as the Liberal Party’s brains trust.

Crosby is now the “global leader” of business development around the world — not just his base of London. That sounds as if clients will be seeing more of Sir Lynton in Australia — along with the firm’s other offices in Milan and Dubai.

Textor, based in Sydney when he’s not on a plane or a bike track, is now the “global leader” of research, strategy and innovation.

And in a development that could only mean more time on planes, the firm is opening an office in Washington, DC this month.

The Australian centre right duo’s links in DC are far from Trumpian. They are in something like a loose confederacy with Obama 2012 campaign manager Jim Messina, who runs a shop there, and worked alongside Crosby and Textor on the 2015 victory of then British prime minister David Cameron (RIP).