All of a sudden, Matt Kean loves lobbyists; CBA chief Matt Comyn’s pay jumps 35pc
It was in late 2020 that NSW Energy Minister Matt Kean granted an interview to this newspaper in which he raged against lobbyists and swore unequivocally that he does not meet with them under any circumstances.
“I don’t meet with lobbyists. We will not meet with lobbyists,” he said, speaking for members of his staff as well. “You shouldn’t need a lobbyist to get an outcome (in government).”
Well, plenty can happen in two years. Kean is now NSW Treasurer and, as of Tuesday, cemented himself as the Liberal Party’s deputy leader, a role he unsuccessfully tried to negotiate during a cabinet reshuffle in October last year.
Iron-clad as his moratorium on lobbyists may have appeared in 2020, the ban seems to have been discarded like an old thrift-store coat, with his ministerial diary revealing a meeting with at least one lobby shop – SEC Newgate – in recent months.
The tea and bickies included representatives of Tabcorp, where Kean maintains a longstanding friendship with at least one senior member of staff.
But why should we raise a charge of hypocrisy at this reversal of policy when Kean’s recent career has been replete with instances of saying one thing and doing the exact opposite?
This is the same politician who, sensing a fashionable cause, made very loud noises over a lack of gender diversity in the Liberal Party, only to then back two men – including a policy adviser from his own office (no crony!) – for vacant spots in the Legislative Council.
Kean might have attempted to redeem himself and support a woman for the deputy leadership when it became vacant a week ago but that would have required an extraordinary level of chivalry, which hasn’t always been his strongest suit.
A spokeswoman told Margin Call that while the Treasurer’s office has a practice of dealing directly with stakeholders, a “one-off exception was made in this instance because the stakeholder had a staffing gap”.
What’s a commitment if it isn’t broken from time to time? Surely this has to be one of the laziest, stupidest and ill-conceived defences of half-hearted integrity. Has he not heard of simply rescheduling a meeting?
The only other diary entry of obvious note was a meeting held in April with Gretel Packer, the elder sister of James Packer and the chair of the Packer family foundation. We know Kean loves a bit of shoulder-rubbing with the rich and the vacuous, hence his appearance at an election party for Anthony Albanese in May, held at the home of Lisa Wilkinson and Peter FitzSimons.
The Treasurer’s flak confirmed that he met with Packer to discuss matters pertaining to Taronga Zoo, where she is a member of the board.
McCann’s new chair
The Blueprint Institute, an emerging think tank founded by progressive Liberal lobbyists, has signed boardroom titan Kevin McCann as its chair, in a shifting of the sands that officials are hoping will blast the organisation out of its nascent obscurity.
McCann’s pedigree is extensive, having steered the boards of Macquarie Group and Macquarie Bank, Origin Energy, Healthscope and a slew of equally prominent not-for-profits.
As a side hustle, he also spent several decades driving mergers and acquisitions at Allens Arthur Robinson where he later became partner, then chair.
Some may also recall McCann from way back in the early 1990s when he challenged Tony Abbott for preselection in the seat of Warringah, narrowly losing the opportunity to stand in federal parliament by just a few votes.
We expect his politics should align neatly with those of the Blueprint Institute, given he ran as a moderate candidate all those years ago, and given the institute remains soaking wet with progressive liberal thinking on climate change and renewable energy.
As chair, he is set to replace its co-founder Ian Hancock, who will remain on the board, and whose nine-to-five is spent running lobby shop PremierState, founded by Michael Photios. As it happens, Hancock’s sister, Ava, works for Matt Kean as a head of policy.
Photios, too, formerly advised the institute as part of its strategic counsel, but he appears to have disappeared from the role, and his face is no longer visible on the website.
Banking on privacy
New Commonwealth Bank chair Paul O’Malley looks to be taking no chances when it comes to the protection of his and his family’s privacy in Melbourne’s leafy eastern suburbs.
He’s not the first senior banker or politician to take steps to keep details about his private affairs under wraps, with the likes of fellow banker Ahmed Fahour, who runs Latitude Financial, and former Liberal Member for Higgins turned company director Kelly O’Dwyer having also done the same in recent times.
Home for O’Malley, who took over as CBA’s $890,00-a-year chair on Wednesday, is an expansive 3000sq m Edwardian estate featuring a pool and tennis court in Melbourne’s affluent Surrey Hills, but the street view of which has been blurred on Google maps to ensure privacy.
The home is in O’Malley’s wife Catherine’s name, with the couple – who bank with Ross McEwan at NAB – taking no such precautions with a rental property they also own in the same suburb.
Like an increasing number of his contemporaries, O’Malley, who has played a key role in modernising the governance structure at elite Melbourne Catholic boys’ school St Kevin’s College, hides his home address on paperwork too, instead listing that of the accounting firm that takes care of his affairs.
We are not sure what the former BlueScope Steel boss and current Coles director is more concerned about – cranky bank customers or disgruntled Catholics.
O’Malley is also chair of Australian Catholic Redress – the body set up to represent church authorities in the National Redress Scheme for survivors of institutional sexual abuse.
Chairing the bank should be a doddle.
Laughing all the way
Meantime, happy days are here again for Commonwealth Bank boss Matt Comyn, now into his fifth year running Australia’s biggest bank.
The $171.1bn institution’s bottom line for the 2022 financial year was at $9.7bn, its (preferred measure of) cash profit was up 11 per cent to $9.6bn and – happily for the bank – previously ultra-low interest rates are now on the up so its net interest margin is growing. What pandemic?
Chief executive and managing director Comyn, answerable last year to his chair Catherine Livingstone (now replaced by O’Malley), has been handsomely rewarded for the 9 per cent hike in profit he’s landed, taking home in FY22 a 35 per cent increase in total remuneration of $6.97m from $5.17m previously.
Of that, the real money – read cash – that Comyn pocketed totalled $3.52m, of which $2.5m was his fixed pay. Payment for effort via deferred equity to the chief teller came in at $3.45m.
The bank’s 308-page annual report features what Margin Call can’t help but note is the whitest, Anglo, nuclear family on its cover, with diversity kicking further into the tome.
Speaking of a “brighter future for all”, Comyn, 46, who was added to the board of the Business Council of Australia at the start of this year, now also has $8.25m worth of fully-paid CBA ordinary shares to his name as old performance rights slowly vest.
His final dividend cheque at $2.10-a-share that is set to land at the end of September will be about $180,000.
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