Scott Morrison’s PwC job blow after talent agent rebuffed

PwC, without irony, apparently considered Scott Morrison a reputational risk. Picture: NCA NewsWire/ Dylan Robinson

Speculation continues over Scott Morrison’s anticipated retirement from politics. For now he remains the local MP for the seat of Cook but still enjoys a crust from the odd speaking gig on the side.

And yet, much as he claims to be a humble servant of his constituents, it’s plain the former prime minister has been quietly seeking out higher ambitions for what remains of his working life.

Margin Call has learned the former PM has been busy considering exit strategies post-politics and was rather strongly put forward to PricewaterhouseCoopers for an advisory role.

PwC didn’t take long to weigh the matter and reject this approach, according to three sources who spoke to this column. One reckoned that, in considering the matter, it was felt that hiring Morrison would have brought an unacceptable level of reputational risk to the firm.

Read that last clause again, and then consider the cyclonic levels of brand erosion that PwC continues to withstand over its tax leaks scandal. The fallout has already led to the resignation of PwC CEO Tom Seymour, who on Monday resigned as a partner and is now scheduled to be out the door by September. Morrison, of course, gave a full-throated denial of his alleged approach, telling Margin Call on Monday: “I have not approached PwC nor have I been offered any role by PwC.” The second half of that statement is not in dispute.

Tom Seymour. Picture: Floss Adams

As for the first half, Margin Call is abundantly satisfied, based on multiple, credible points of corroboration, that a talent placement adviser “leaned heavily on PwC” to recruit the former PM.

Of course Morrison would deny making the approach; the use of an intermediary allows him to plausibly do so.

The problem with even trying to take Morrison at his word is that he’s renowned for his elasticity in the recall of events, a skill that’s hardly unique to him as a politician (former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian had an absolute talent for playing games with the truth).

No suggestion, of course, that Morrison tells outright lies, as Emmanuel Macron once accused him over that withdrawn submarine contract. But who could forget his foggy recollection of the secret ministerial appointments, or his smearing of the facts after attempting to invite Hillsong founder Brian Houston to a White House state dinner. Journalists pressed him, but he would only say, “I don’t comment on gossip” (several moons later he admitted to it on Ben Fordham’s 2GB radio show).

Morrison’s sounding out of PwC may not actually be all that surprising. As prime minister, his office sought advice from PwC’s chief creative officer Russel Howcroft – now at Sayers – on how to improve the marketing of his government’s policies. And while Morrison didn’t attend that particular session, he did headline a fundraising event prior to the election at the home of former managing partner Joseph Carrozzi.

Horse has bolted

Speaking of PwC, the consulting major seems to have finally twigged that its internal comms aren’t of a standard to manage the disaster unfolding around it.

Months after the fact, PwC has made a wise-enough decision to run into the arms of the John Brenton-led TG Public Affairs. This kind of delay, this latency, seems to be bog-standard in crisis communications – the clients only turn up when the damage has become visible from space. PwC also seems to have hired the recently established Colbourne Advisory, run by former Bill Shorten staffer Andrew Thomas. Both outfits have been called in to contain the catastrophe.

Former Labor communications minister Stephen Conroy. Picture: David Geraghty

Perhaps our first sense of how they’ll reorient the ship came on Monday with a retirement announcement for the recently boned CEO, Tom Seymour, and the news of an inquiry into the whole tax leak affair, to be led by the stately and distinguished Ziggy Switkowski.

Brenton, a former diplomat, is a low-key figure but he’s been on the books for the meltdown and royal commission into Crown Resorts and, more recently, the cyberattacks on Optus and Medibank.

A glance at the lobbyists’ register notes that Medibank had already been with TG Public Affairs for a couple of months before its sensitive customer details started being tossed onto the dark web.

Optus, not unlike PwC, called in the cavalry months after the hack on its infrastructure hobbled its reputation and, importantly, exposed the telco as defenceless and weak in the face of a hostile Albanese government.

Strategic lobbying can go some way to fix that, and it seems to have worked, judging by the sight of an Optus official sharing a table with Communications Minister Michelle Rowland at Hotel Realm on budget night a week ago.

Brenton was at the same function hosting a table with Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles and clients, although somehow Christopher Pyne was given the credit for that spectacle. Brenton and Pyne look nothing alike.

Working on the PwC account is former Labor communications minister Stephen Conroy, now the chairman of the TG Public Affairs’ advisory board, and Michael Choueifate, a former chief of staff to Anthony Albanese during the Gillard years.