Chinese walls for MP Anika Wells and husband Finn McCarthy; Barilaro inquiry fallout

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese refreshed the ministerial codes of conduct last week, requiring that cabinet members divest themselves of any interests in public or private companies.

This would include anything that could give rise to a perceived conflict of interest, a difficult proposition for any minister with, say, a husband working as a lobbyist, and even trickier when their firm’s clients appear to fall within the ambit of their portfolios. Margin Call is referring specifically to Queensland Labor MP Anika Wells, who was recently appointed Minister for Aged Care and Sport, and whose husband, Finn McCarthy, is quite a big wheel down at corporate advisory firm SEC Newgate.

McCarthy is listed on the register of lobbyists for the lobby shop, which has a couple of clients in the aged care portfolio, including Besix Watpac and Westpac, each of which has specialty branches dealing with the retirement living sector.

Illustration: Rod Clement

But it’s Newgate’s sporting clients that appear in far greater numbers on the lobbyists register. They include SCT Motorsport, Surf Life Saving Australia, the Sydney Swans, Tabcorp, Viagogo, and others with an arguable interest in this space.

We can only imagine Wells and McCarthy have already established heavily fortified Chinese Wall at home to prevent any intelligence leakage between them. Is that going to be enough to satisfy the benchmarks of the newly inked code of conduct?

As it turns out, SEC Newgate has already gone on the front foot and written to Wells’ office, informing them that McCarthy has had his wings clipped and will be “formally precluded from any client work in the Minister’s portfolio responsibilities”. Talk about career limiting.

And within her own office, and presumably elsewhere, Wells says she has put measures up to prevent any seepage of information.

“On being sworn into office, Minister Wells established internal protocols and handling arrangements between her husband’s career and her own to ensure the highest level of probity,” a spokeswoman told The Australian.

All well and good, yet somehow we doubt whether these safeguards will be sufficient to prevent the usual torrent of rumour and gossip that flow naturally between husband and wife – and later to McCarthy’s colleagues at Newgate – once they take him out for a couple of drinky-poos on Friday night.

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Barilaro brouhaha

The fallout from an explosive public inquiry into John Barilaro’s appointment to a lucrative trade role continues, with two of his former staff having been called to give evidence to the hearings.

Greens MP Cate Faehrmann, who chairs the public accountability committee, said the invitations had been dispatched for the staff members to give evidence next Tuesday.

Margin Call understands one was sent to Joseph Brayford, a senior policy adviser who formerly worked for Barilaro.

These days he manages government affairs for Suncorp.

We’re told the other witness is Mark Connell, who was Barilaro’s chief of staff until late 2019.

He left the position about 18 months before the malarkey surrounding the senior trade and investment commissioner role even began.

On that basis, we’re quite unsure what insights Connell may stand to offer to this inquiry, considering that he left Macquarie Street before the job even came to exist.

That said, the opposition is said to have access to some secret sauce on his involvement in the matter. Added to that, Margin Call understands Connell and Barilaro are no longer on speaking terms.

Regardless, next week is sure to deliver another round of appalling headlines for the Perrottet government, which has been caught hopelessly, perhaps even recklessly, flat-footed in this debacle.

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ScoMo scapegoat

Meanwhile, the autopsy continues for Liberals in the seat of Wentworth, where local officials are blaming Scott Morrison and the decaying credibility of the party’s brand for Dave Sharma’s untimely election defeat.

In a letter distributed on Tuesday, Wentworth federal election committee co-chairs Bruce McWilliam and Fiona Playfair cast much shade in the direction of Morrison for ruining Sharma’s chances and sinking other MPs, including Josh Frydenberg.

“The swing against the government was Australia-wide and was definitely not a reflection on the Wentworth campaign or our candidate Dave Sharma,” they said.

“In a sense we are left with a feeling that forces elsewhere dragged us back and the talents of a good local member were overwhelmed somewhat.”

Dave Sharma speaks to voters during the May election campaign. Picture: Steven Saphore/AFP)

Still attempting to salvage the loss, McWilliam and Playfair noted that the 7.44 per cent swing in Wentworth was only slightly higher than the Coalition’s overall swing of 5.75 per cent, and yet substantially smaller than the 24.34 per cent swing against Morrison in the seat of Cook.

“The swing was against the government and not necessarily specific candidates,” they continued.

Yes, we get it: it’s all the prime minister’s fault. If only that explanation truly sufficed.

Margin Call has spoken to enough officials deeply involved in the Liberal election machine to know that Sharma’s campaign was poorly resourced, slow to respond to events on the ground, and widely regarded as an underperformer in the lead-up to the May election.

It had trouble amassing volunteers, booths were left unmanned, and the campaign effort, according to one former official, was run with a level of apathy and comical ineptitude that suggested not everyone in Camp Sharma fully grasped that Wentworth was a marginal seat.

As to where Sharma is at the moment, he is said to be on holiday with his family and, according to the letter, he is “committed to remaining part of the Liberal family and helping us retain the Liberal brand in Wentworth”.

Does that mean he’ll try again in a couple of years? It’s too soon to tell, apparently. “(He has) not made any decisions about his future at this stage.”