Bishop and Pyne to face new inquiry into private sector jobs

Christopher Pyne and Julie Bishop have been called before a Senate inquiry to explain their new jobs in the private sector.

Former foreign minister Julie Bishop has founded her own boutique advisory firm, Julie Bishop and Partners.

Former cabinet ministers Christopher Pyne and Julie Bishop will be asked to front parliament to explain if their new roles with ­global consulting firms represent a breach of ministerial standards, after the Senate yesterday voted in favour of an inquiry.

The parliamentary inquiry into Mr Pyne and Ms Bishop was moved by Centre Alliance senator Rex Patrick and supported by all six Senate crossbenchers, Labor and the Greens, despite the secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Martin Parkinson, clearing the for­mer MPs in his own review.

The successful push for a parliamentary inquiry came as Labor seized on a 2017 video, filmed in Ms Bishop’s office when she was foreign minister, in which she commended the “business partnerships platform” — a program run by Palladium, the company on whose board she now sits.

Labor argues the footage casts doubt over Dr Parkinson’s advice to Scott Morrison stating: “Ms Bishop indicated to me she did not have any contact with ­Palladium in the five years she was minister for foreign affairs.”

Former defence minister Mr Pyne is also the subject of scrutiny over his new role at EY, which ­involves consulting to companies in the defence sector.

Since leaving politics, Mr Pyne has done a deal to regularly ­appear on the Ten Network, as well as writing a weekly column for the Adelaide Advertiser, published by News Corp Australia, also publisher of The Australian.

Ms Bishop has founded her own boutique advisory firm, Julie Bishop and Partners, and advert­ises her services as a public speaker with Claxton Speakers Inter­national. The Australian also revealed earlier this month that Ms Bishop and production house Screentime had been spruiking a big-budget new TV show, The Conversation with Julie Bishop, to major networks.

Having entered parliament before 2004, both former ministers are entitled to annual six-­figure pension payments for the rest of their lives. Earlier this month, the Prime Minister responded to a Senate order by asking Dr Parkinson to investigate whether Mr Pyne and Ms Bishop’s roles contravened the ministerial standards.

Clause 2.25 of the standards stipulates that, for an 18-month period after leaving office, ministers must not “lobby, advocate of have business meetings with members of the government, parliament, public service or defence force on any matters on which they have had official dealings minister in their last 18 months in office” and that, after leaving ­office, “they will not take personal advantage of information to which they have had access, where that information is not generally available to the public.”

Dr Parkinson concluded that “on the basis of the information available at this time I have no grounds to believe that either Mr Pyne or Ms Bishop have breached the standards.”

Manager of opposition business Tony Burke yesterday used question time to highlight Ms Bishop’s appearance in the video posted on Palladium’s website and Facebook page, on June 9, 2017, with the caption: “Australia’s Foreign Minister, Julie Bishop, commends Palladium’s Business Partnerships Platform as DFAT’s flagship shared value program.”

The video features the then ­foreign minister discussing her ­realignment of Australia’s aid program to more directly link poverty reduction with economic growth by encouraging private investment. While she does not mention Palladium by name, the “business partnerships platform” she promotes is administered by the company.

Mr Burke also told the house Palladium and related entities had entered into contracts with DFAT during Ms Bishop’s time as minister “valued at over $600 million”.

A spokeswoman for Palladium referred The Australian to a July 1 statement announcing Ms Bishop’s appointment but declined to respond to questions regarding the Senate inquiry and whether Ms Bishop may have breached the ministerial standards.

Ms Bishop did not respond to a request for comment but has previously said she is “entirely confident” there has been no breach of the code, stating all Australia’s foreign aid contracts and tenders are signed at arm’s length from the foreign minister.

In his successful Senate motion calling for an inquiry, Senator Patrick noted Mr Pyne had publicly stated he was “looking forward to providing strategic advice to EY, as the firm looks to expand its footprint in the defence industry.”

His motion stated AusTender government contract notices showed that over the past four years EY had secured more than 830 contracts with the Australian government worth more than $370m, including 138 contracts with the Department of Defence worth $148m.

EY responded to questions over Mr Pyne’s employment earlier this month by saying he would “not be lobbying or meeting with public sector MPs, public service or ­defence in his EY role” and would be “supporting the private sector side of the business”.

Mr Pyne has said he intends “to ensure anyone I provide advice to has rigorous processes and procedures in place to ensure I am not put in a position where the ministerial code might be breached.”

He did not respond to a request for comment yesterday.

Senator Patrick said he intended to call Mr Morrison, Dr Parkinson, Mr Pyne, Ms Bishop, EY and Palladium before the inquiry.

“And of course we’ll get some ethical experts in as well … to get a feeling of what the expectation is with respect to the community, because clearly there is a bunch of people in this place who aren’t able to gauge that very well,” he said.

Senator Patrick noted Dr ­Parkinson’s “$914,463 per annum” salary, saying his investigation was “troubling,” because he had failed to examine key public statements made by Senator Pyne and EY.

“I’m concerned we have neutral public servants who serve the public coming in with these political fixes,” Senator Patrick said.

Senator Mathias Cormann said the government opposed Senator Patrick’s motion because “there is no credible proposition there has been any breach of the Statement of Ministerial Standards.”