There’s been much whining at the Australian Financial Complaints Authority over its enormous workload and record demand for consumer support, as CEO David Locke said in a newspaper interview earlier this month.
Times are obviously tough at AFCA and it’s led to some unusual decision-making at the agency, including shutting the office every Wednesday at 2pm so staff can have the afternoon off. Apparently it makes them more productive, if you can believe it.
Meanwhile, eyebrows were raised over Locke’s appearance at a conference in Perth last Wednesday where he was spotted dressed as a beekeeper in front of 800 people. Yes, and Alan Kirkland, the ASIC commissioner, was there too, styled as a Sherlockian detective in deerstalker cap and trench coat (but no magnifying glass, so the verisimilitude was lost). They were joined on stage by a couple of ladies dressed in bumblebee outfits.
We’re told this silliness and role-play did ultimately have a point, and it was something to do with internal and external dispute resolution processes, the bee-women representing complaints, Locke representing AFCA and Kirkland playing ASIC, which notionally takes care of the most serious issues … like, say, an enormous international scam targeting Australians that the regulator was apparently warned about in June last year (revealed by this masthead on Monday).
All of which is to say that Kirkland in a detective costume looks a little odd while Australians are getting properly screwed by overseas criminal gangs (and overlooked by the regulator). Perhaps it’s even weirder to see Locke find time to don a beekeeper outfit while, by his own admission, AFCA’s workload remains intimidatingly large at the moment.
Well, both agencies gave front-footed responses when Margin Call asked about the skit. An ASIC spokesman said the regulator was pleased to support the work of partner agencies, while AFCA said Locke was happy to be a participant.
“He donned a costume for a fun and engaging educational exercise that had a very serious intent – illuminating the different roles of internal dispute resolution, external dispute resolution, and regulatory enforcement,” a spokeswoman said.
Racial abuse
Those unfortunate enough to have attended a gig at the Museum of Contemporary Art last Friday night found themselves accosted with a spray of racial slurs by the band on stage. An attendee told Margin Call the performance started off ordinarily enough until a random band was invited up, which is when the abuse started.
The singer allegedly shouted “f..k all you f..king white people” at various points during the set and called audience members “f..king crackers” – this while simultaneously launching a diatribe at “racist” media outlets, the hypocrisy of the racism charge resulting in every pot and kettle in a 3km radius to look at each other and roll their eyes.
We can only wonder if the MCA adequately vetted the performance or sanctioned the behaviour, or whether it’s done anything about the toxic and unsafe environment it created that evening.
Its officials didn’t respond when we asked.
Unusual lunch bunch
Spotted at lunch on Tuesday: Treasury Wine’s CEO, Tim Ford, in a private suite at Good Luck Restaurant Lounge with Merivale boss Justin Hemmes and Endeavour Group director Bruce Mathieson Jr.
Their starpower quickly dulled, however, when Anthony Albanese walked into the room flanked by three security guards.
One official close to the discussions, apparently put on by the Australian Hotels Association, said there was talk about the budget and the impending election.
Hemmes declined to comment on the lunch, as did Mathieson Jr, who was boarding a flight when we reached out.
Candid Cadell
Some amusing updates to Senator Ross Cadell’s parliamentary disclosures, which are always touching in their earnestness and superfluous detail. The latest entries lobbed on Tuesday and spoke of a dinner with Australia Post Board members, and others, at EARP Distillery & Co in Newcastle.
“I had a three course meal starting with the wonderful Kingfish Ceviche that I thought was delicious followed by the main of Medium Rare Steak accompanied by chat potatoes and beans,” he wrote. “Dessert was a Chocolate Delice. these (sic) were served on an alternate drop system and I was very happy to not be asked to swap.”
Cadell’s clearly not ashamed of his TMI disclosures. In September he wrote gushingly of his attendance at an NRL game. “I took my father, I ate one single prawn (too nervous to eat) and then had two party pies when we were in the lead in the second half, and had seven Pepsi Max’s throughout. Value unknown.”
Yes, value unknown. But the extreme commitment to transparency? Priceless.
Going postal
Australia Post officials have responded rather flippantly to questions that were taken on notice the last time they were in parliament. Senator Sarah Henderson grilled CEO Paul Graham in February, asking for a clearly defined organisational chart – this after Margin Call revealed there’d been an exodus of women from AP’s upper ranks, to which Graham gave a vociferous denial. All Henderson wanted was proof either way, an organisational chart being the simplest method of ground-truthing the matter. Instead, Graham’s answer, which landed on Tuesday, referred the senator to Australia Post’s annual report and its website, neither of which outline AP’s personnel structure in any meaningful way, or give Henderson any useful information beyond what she possessed at the outset. We expect her to be in a fury walking into the room next week; if nothing else, Australia Post has certainly done nothing to put the founding claim on its problem with women to bed.
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