Swan rattles the can for Labor

Labor might have snagged the keys to the battered and bruised federal Treasury but the party itself still needs to keep paying the bills.

Shake it up: Anthony Albanese and Wayne Swan.Credit: John Shakespeare

So with the end of financial year almost upon us, ALP national president Wayne Swan is rattling the can pretty hard in the direction of true believers, no doubt feeling that one financial crisis will be enough to last him a lifetime.

Now, we’re not saying that Swan is demanding the comrades pay up or else. But he’s definitely warning that dire consequences might follow if Labor lacks financial oomph in the coming years.

“While we won the election, we can’t pretend that the radical right wing have been defeated once and for all,” Swan told members. “If we don’t work hard now, we risk a quick return to a right-wing Liberal government at the next election.”

Labor sunk about $13 million into its paid advertising efforts, according to the latest published figure, outspending its Liberal opponents by nearly $2.5 million.

The full figure of who spent what won’t be available until February – pointing to a total campaign spend by the ALP in the ballpark of $20 million.

But a senior official, who didn’t want to be seen speaking publicly about these things, told CBD that it would be a mistake to conclude that the party had blown all its dough on the election, and sent dear old Swanny out to raise a bail-out. Rather, the appeal was business-as-usual EOFY fundraising.

Macquarie Street Movers

’Tis the season for Macquarie Street reunions. Former premier Gladys Berejiklian’s old chief of staff Neil Harley has followed her to Optus, where he’s now a senior director.

We’re told the telco took an interest in Harley when he was contacted as a reference for Berejiklian, who joined as a managing director earlier this year after wisely deciding against a tilt at federal politics.

Meanwhile, the Daily Telegraph takeover of Premier Dominic Perrottet’s media team continues. His office made two new signings, both former employees of the Sydney tabloid, with Clem Hall coming over from the Premier’s Department as a senior media adviser, and photographer Toby Zerna joining.

It means Perrottet follows Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull, Scott Morrison and Bill Shorten in adding a professional snapper to their media teams. It also means nearly all of Dom’s current crew of spinners are Tele alumni, with the new duo joining erstwhile court reporter Ian Paterson, former night chief of staff Leigh van den Broeke, and ex-heads of news Kathy Lipari and Miranda Wood.

Labor’s staffing rush

A change in government always brings a flurry of new and old faces in Canberra. Seasoned political operatives from as far back as the Keating and Rudd years are now trying to get a piece of Anthony Albanese’s Better Future.

But competition is hot. As CBD reported last week, Health Minister Mark Butler has already started filling positions, but it could be a while before his frontbench colleagues sort out their staffing teams. Expressions of interest closed last week, and some interested parties were told the government had received more than 4000 applications.

While that sounds like a terrifying number of CVs, it still doesn’t top the 7000 or so received after Kevin Rudd’s 2007 “Rudd-slide”.

Meanwhile, spare a thought for the glut of independents who can’t even get hiring for key roles like chiefs of staff yet, because they’re still waiting on the prime minister’s office to give them the green light.

“It will be a longer process to recruit Mon’s chief of staff, policy/legislative advisers and media adviser, as these ‘personal staff’ positions are the gift of the prime minister, rather than a statutory entitlement,” Kooyong MP Monique Ryan said in her recent newsletter.

So far, the go-ahead is still caught up in the bureaucratic quagmire that accompanies a changing of the guard. Welcome to Canberra.

Former NDIA boss unzips his lip

Outgoing National Disability Insurance Agency boss Martin Hoffman must have a few tales to tell.

Hoffman had a strained – and at times downright hostile – relationship with sections of the disability sector, pretty much from the get-go of his appointment in 2019 by then disability services minister Stuart Robert.

National Disability Insurance Agency chief executive Martin Hoffman has agreed to step down in July.Credit: Joe Armao

Hoffman’s tenure had plenty of controversy including a furore over his push for independent assessments of claimants to the scheme, political warfare over the scheme’s affordability and soaring numbers of challenges against agency decisions.

The chief executive resigned from the $720,000-a-year-role this month – a week after the swearing-in of new minister Bill Shorten, who had been outspoken in his criticism of Hoffmann’s efforts in the job – and has kept his own counsel since, saying little or nothing publicly and refusing interviews.

But that’s going to change on Thursday when the departing chief executive joins a few big names – including the ABC’s Leigh Sales, Greens senator Jordon Steele-John, former Disability Discrimination Commissioner Graham Innes and Shorten himself – at a two-day national conference run by disability services outfit DSC.

There will be no speech by Hoffman on the day, and he’s not taking questions ahead of the event, where he will be interviewed by ABC Radio National presenter Paticia Karvelas.

But he has indicated to organisers that he has “plenty to say”. Sounds promising, and it’s not too late to get tickets.

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