Whoever cleans this up will be wildly popular. The latest Canberra swamp parasite is Stephen Conroy:
The former minister for the digital economy will serve as executive director of a new outfit called Responsible Wagering Australia, a creation of CrownBet, Sportsbet, Betfair, Unibet and Bet365.
Now even if you just spewed a bit in the back of your throat at the thought of a Labor man – a man who in his first speech to parliament declared his devotion to civilising capitalism – becoming a hired gun for an industry whose business model is based on the ruthless exploitation of all Australians, but in particular working class Australians, you should perhaps not be surprised by it.
He is hardly the first elected public servant to augment his or her generous publicly-funded superannuation scheme like this.
The former Labor energy and resources minister Martin Ferguson left parliament to lobby for energy and resources interests.
Conroy’s mate Mark Arbib – a former sports minister – left parliament to work for James Packer at Consolidated Press Holdings. The former liberal communications minister Helen Coonan sits on the board of Crown Resorts. Indeed former Liberal senator Richard Colbeck, a former tourism minister, will be chairman of Responsible Wagering Australia.
According to a recent piece in The Conversation, of the 538 lobbyists registered by the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet in September this year, 191 were former government representatives.
Public servants, not.
