Recently we saw Treasury Secretary John Fraser stroll casually out of the role and straight into a board position at the beleaguered AMP, a firm that is currently being sued for, among things, charging fees for no service as well as to dead people.
That is his decision. But it does not reflect well upon the Treasury. Effectively Fraser will carry the Treasury’s brand value with him onto the AMP board which is obviously inappropriate at such a juncture.
This is a more extreme example of the phenomenon known widely across the Western world as the “revolving door” of policy-makers and business elite. It is, in part, what gives rise to descriptions such as that used by Donald Trump (another example!) in his election campaign that Washington is a “swamp” deserved of “draining”.