A rotting government, as if voters needed reminding

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This was published 13 years ago

A rotting government, as if voters needed reminding

By Heath Aston

AT FIRST glance Matthew Chesher's drug bust appears to be an act of sheer stupidity by a 44-year-old father who should know better.

This latest episode is another reminder that there's something rotten at the heart of the government of NSW.

Consider the case of Scott Gartrell, the man who replaced Chesher as Carmel Tebbutt's main adviser.

Until last week Gartrell was chief of staff to Tebbutt. Instead of sticking around to steer his boss (and fellow warrior of the Left) through what is likely to be her last election campaign, Gartrell chose to up and run.

He will go to a job in the corporate world. Not just any old job, mind you: he will head InfraShore, the consortium in charge of the Royal North Shore Hospital redevelopment.

That's right, the $1 billion redevelopment contract awarded by the Health Minister and overseen by her department - Gartrell's department, until last week.

Gartrell was spotted last week shopping for an M-class Mercedes, the must-have luxury sports utility vehicle of all former Labor staffers.

Referring him to the Independent Commission Against Corruption over his appointment was the quickest decision opposition health spokeswoman Jillian Skinner has had to make for a while.

Years earlier, when he was a political lobbyist, he was paid a ''success fee'' by InfraShore after it won the hospital contract. It will be fascinating to see what the commission makes of all this, particularly because it called Gartrell to give evidence to its inquiry into lobbying last year.

Before going into what Gartrell told the commission, it is worth outlining in more detail why he was called as a witness. Politically connected from the start, he is a cousin of the former Labor national secretary Tim Gartrell.

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In 1997 he started work for Thiess, the construction giant that is a big shareholder in InfraShore and the builder of the new hospital.

After a year at Thiess he moved to rival Baulderstone, which values its links to NSW Labor (its communications director, Adam Badenoch, was chief of staff to the disgraced minister Ian Macdonald).

Gartrell then became a lobbyist at Government Relations Australia, which has given $95,000 to the NSW Labor Party since 2003. During that time he also took leave to work for federal Infrastructure Minister Anthony Albanese.

After nearly 16 years of Labor all the blurred lines and donations have lost their ability to shock, and Gartrell obviously believes he should not be hindered in crossing over to the other side of the fence in the same space yet again. Or does he?

During his appearance at the commission in November, Jeremy Gormly, SC, asked a final question.

''You'll appreciate the issue concerning cooling-off periods for people who have come out of government positions and then move into private positions where relationships or knowledge can appear to be sold.

''The only question I have about that is whether you consider that there is a material difference between the departmental officer on the one hand and the ex-minister on the other in terms of the length of the cooling-off period.''

Gartrell: ''I don't see any reason for any difference.''

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The commission says former ministerial staff should wait 12 months before dealing with their own departments from the other side of the fence. Gartrell seemed to agree with that in November. Maybe the commission should ask him what has changed.

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