CRIKEY!

Here goes!

Friday, October 4, 2002, 7.20am

Dear Sole Subscriber,

In today's sealed section we have the following items:

0. Coles Myer leaks and share raids
1. AGM season 2002: proxies wanted
2. Paul Keating and The Commonwealth Bank
3. Kennett's 10 years and second Kevin Balshaw book extract
4. Why Eddie Obeid is Australia's worst minister
5. Corrs defends the Westfield astro-turfer
6. Crikey media mentions: Jeff Kennett and Mark Latham
7. NRMA insider rebuts Whitlam board process claims
7.5. Dodgy tactics in the Carlton election
8. James Mackenzie and Portfolio Partners
9. Glenn Wheatley, Kerry Stokes and Kosta Tszyu
10. Bugbear fix
11. Political density
12. John Stone's amnesia
13. Henry Thornton on paranoid investors
14. Crikey wrong on The Age's pro-war bias
15. Gerry Gleeson and NSW Executive pay rises

Yoursay has been updated: http://www.crikey.com.au/yoursay.html
Tell your friends to hit this link: https://subscribe.crikey.com.au
Bid for a monthly banner ad: http://www.crikey.com.au/advertisewithcrikey.html

ADVERTISEMENT * ADVERTISEMENT * ADVERTISEMENT
=========================================================
WANTED: WORKERS, DESKS, COMPUTERS, FRIDGES ETC FOR CRIKEY BUNKER

The Crikey family has just moved into an apartment in South Melbourne freeing up the Crikey bunker to actually become a properly functioning news operation. However, pre-paid rental commitments AGM season investments/losses mean we haven't got the $10,000 needed to fit it out with properly with new desks, computers, a fridge, new phones, a photocopier etc. If anyone knows where we could source this cheaply or has second hand gear that they need to offload we'd love to hear from you. Alternatively, you could snap up one of the 10 remaining life memberships for $500 and give us a hand.

Once the spare room is fitted out we'll be in the market for some students to come around and help with research and even attend the odd press conference so if anyone is interested in working for Crikey, email your CV through to [email protected], fax it to (03) 9696 0452 or post it to PO Box 318, South Melbourne 3205.

* Reach more than 10,000 inboxes directly and thousands more thanks to forwarding through Australia's premium email ad space for just $150 or get the ad as part of a $500 life membership package that includes a Private Eye annual subscription and a Mark Cornwall caricature of yourself.
===========================================================

0. COLES MYER LEAKS AND SHARE RAIDS

Solly Lew, or one of his mates, has been out there leaking like a sieve about this week's two day Coles Myer board meeting. Look no further than Terry McCrann in the News Ltd tabloids or the Richard Gluyas splash in The Australian this morning.

Despite getting all the internal board discussions, it seems very odd that neither McCrann or Gluyas had the Fin Review's line this morning that Solly splurged $60 million yesterday topping up his Coles Myer stake. Gluyas even linked the share price rise to the profit result. Errr, methinks the prospect of a Solly buying spree is a much more important driver.

It is good to see that Rick Allert's related party dealings through Southcorp finally got a mention on the front of today's Australian and from Crikey's point of view he is not an appropriate long term chairman if, as was reported this morning, he plans to remain chairman of Southcorp and Axa.

Solly is clearly digging in for a fight but the board should hang tough and give him the boot. Allert is not the answer so institutions need to get on the phone to either Ric Charlton or Bill Gurry and tell them to step out of the shadows and actually take on a difficult chairmanship for a change.

1. AGM SEASON 2002

Crullers made his debut on Mike Carlton's 2UE show yesterday talking about the Coles Myer profit and will also be the man running much of the AGM Season agenda over the next two months.

He has put together a calendar of upcoming meetings and we'd love to hear from anyone who reckons they can get to a meeting, ask a few questions and provide a punchy write-up. Check it out here:
http://www.crikey.com.au/business/agm02calendar.html

The best action often occurs at the smaller meetings so we need your help on proxies, research and dates. For instance, Mrs Crikey just bought $500 worth of Stargames shares this week so Crikey can quiz the Parrot's great mate John Messara about the game plan to get his pokies into the dodgy Oasis development in western Sydney.

In recent days Mrs Crikey has also picked up some Central Equity, Yates, Westfield Holdings, Looksmart, ecorp. Having ploughed about $15,000 into the market over the past three months we're now proudly swimming in about $30,000 in total debt and Crikey's reputation for stock-picking has not been enhanced by estimated losses of about $2,500 so far.

Please send any spare proxies and annual reports to PO Box 318, South Melbourne 3205 and don't forget the pub night in Adelaide next Wednesday (5pm-7.30pm just down the road from the Tizer) after the News Corp AGM.

We have a couple of spare News Corp proxies and would like to maximise the vote in any show of hands so more Crow Eaters are encouraged to come along to the Hyatt at 10am next Wednesday.

2. PAUL KEATING AND THE COMMONWEALTH BANK

A Commonwealth Bank watcher with loads of leaked bank documents writes:

"Stephen

Regarding your recent stories on David Murray's bonus, Keating and The Commonwealth Bank:

Are you aware there is a CBA internal memo dated 1994 some 6 years before the final Piggery write-offs? We have an internal bank memo from 1994 which shows how long the Commonwealth Bank and the then CEO, David Murray had agreed for the deal to crystallise - in the year 2000. The memo is signed by a Mr Andrew Pavli of the CBA and says in part "residual debt" (only part of the piggery debt) is "for present purposes, assumed unsecured" and "a repayment program has been agreed" starting "from July 2000". However, the CBA did not ever charge interest on the loan or seek the repayment program.

Yes there was an internal CBA document that even sweetened up the big piggy deal of the nation long before (6 years) the famous all night deal with the PM, and big Al and the CBA boys. It was a deal we all dream David Murray the CEO of the ComBank would do for all Australians.

Another ComBank memo records the Piggery debt at $18.6 million then, blow me over with a feather and give me $9 million when I blink, a line is drawn through the amount and the $18.6 million is changed to $9.3 million. This figure is written in by hand and signed by a Mr A Pavli. Maybe David Murray was unaware this had happened?

And David Murray gets bonuses okaying these deals! Amazing! Why isn't someone asking him and the then chairman Tim Besley to explain before the bonus is collected?

Name Withheld

CRIKEY: We remain curious as to whether then Prime Minister Paul Keating was aware of the 10 year bonus deal given to ComBank CEO David Murray back in 1992 which has just delivered him $4.46 million. It does seem very odd that you have such a long-dated bonus arrangement and now it appears some of the piggery dealings that Keating had with the government controlled ComBank involved very long dated and generous repayment schedules. John Howard should have called an inquiry into Keating's piggery dealings with the Commonwealth Bank back in 1999.

3. TEN YEARS AFTER JEFF

Charles Richardson is a former Kennett staffer who sprang to prominence last year when he wrote the Malcolm Fraser chapter in that book charting the history of the Liberal Party. Fraser wasn't at all happy when Charles attacked his failed reform agenda. Well Charles is now also a Crikey contributor with this interesting piece suggesting Steve Bracks could yet gain control of both houses of Parliament at the next Victorian election: http://www.crikey.com.au/politics/charlesbracks.html

Kevin Balshaw, another former Kennett staffer, got Victorian political circles very excited yesterday with the first instalment from his unpublished book on his former boss. In part 2 of this exclusive series for Crikey, Kevin assesses relations with the National Party and the Auditor General:
http://www.crikey.com.au/politics/kennettdemocracy.html

VICTORIANS ON THE MOVE

Ten years ago, who would have thought it. The Kennett forces in the Victorian Liberal Party are in despair at the thought of losing what's left of their influence in the organisation and former federal MP Michael Ronaldson becoming divisional president - even though a ballot won't take place until next year.

MLC David Davis is completely inconsolable, particularly now that the Doyle coup has dashed his friend Louise Asher's chances of the leadership and jobs for the boys all round. Talk now says that he is thinking of abandoning Victorian politics all together for the federal seat of Kooyong - but has anyone told the sitting member, Petro Georgiou?

4. AUSTRALIA'S WORST MINISTER AT IT AGAIN

Isn't the NSW Right of the ALP an honourable institution? You've got Paul Keating putting the heavies on media outlets to lay off his factional mate Eddie Obeid and this morning the Fin Review is reporting Laurie Brereton's Supreme Court injunction to save the bacon of his uninspiring sister Deirdre Grusovin. A political watcher in NSW has provided this account of Eddie Obeid's ministerial incompetence:

"Eddie Obeid's recent performance in NSW Parliament once again shows his Ministerial incompetence at not knowing what had to be the biggest issue in his portfolio for weeks -- a huge fish kill up on the central coast. He couldn't answer the most basic of questions in the Upper House, then lied about claiming not to know about it to the Greens. But we know he's concentrating on other matters.

Just one for your Eddie Obeid file and another feather in the cap of "Australia's most incompetent minister." Last week in parliament, the relevant shadow minister asked Eddie whether he was aware of a massive fish kill in Lake Cathie on the central NSW coast and the putrefaction of the lake as a result.

Despite this emergency having to rate as one the most pressing issues in his portfolio, Eddie told parliament he was "not aware of the issue".

The following day, the Greens turned up two people who had phoned or e-mailed Eddie's office, alerting Eddie or his staff to the fish crisis. "Why had the minister not been aware of the issue when his office had been told at least twice?", Greens MLC Lee Rhiannon asked.

Eddie launched into a tirade of abuse at Lee and had ALP independent (and Shooters' Party MLC and Laura Tingle's dad) John Tingle follow up with a question so he could cover for his lack of knowledge from the day before. Reading from a prepared brief, Eddie outlined what his department was doing to investigate the fish kill.

It turned out his department had responded quickly and was doing all it could to discover the reasons for the fish kill. Public meetings with local fishermen had been organised, fish samples had been sent off for analysis and the Council was undertaking water tests.

All this was going on without the Minister's knowledge, begging the obvious question: who is running that department, because it sure isn't Eddie? He was completely unaware of all the developments - having revealed to Parliament he had no idea of the issue.

Not that a lack of interest in his portfolio is anything new and Parliament knew why. Eddie is completely distracted trying to keep track of his numerous business interests, which have been the subject of recent parliamentary scrutiny for his failure to properly disclose his interests in them.

But as Premier Bob Carr said later in the day of Eddie: It's great to have an entrepreneur in cabinet."

5. WESTFIELD'S ASTRO-TURFING CASE

This one has been bubbling along in the background and it looks like there is a way to go, but the infamous Westfield "astro-turfing" case has been plodding along in the Federal Court, with a few largely procedural matters decided this week:

http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/federal_ct/2002/1223.html

Of interest to us is that our good m'learned friends at Corrs Chambers Westgarth have picked up yet another notable client, this time acting for astro-turfer extraordinaire Ken Hooper and Hooper Communications. We wonder whether the Lowys are giving him a hand with his legals.

Hooper set up Westfield's bodgy community campaign against a development that would have been in competition with Westfield.

There is a bit of mileage left in this one. We only hope that all the gory detail is laid out for all to see prior to Westfield's AGM.

6. CRIKEY MEDIA MENTIONS: JEFF KENNETT AND MARK LATHAM

Drunk or insane? Who knows? The only thing that's clear is that Iron Mike Latham's obsession with Hillary Bray continues.

There he was in the pages of the Oz's Media section yesterday, shouting from the rooftops that lobbyist Andrew Parker is Hillary. All this to avoid making a little retraction in the House. Does he realise how distressing this behaviour is for his loved ones and colleagues?

Meanwhile, The Age's Jonathon Green carried the following in his Last Word column this morning:

Lunch cancelled. Crikey

Sometimes authoritative Internet rumour file Crikey.com.au reported yesterday afternoon that Jeff Kennett had cancelled a barbecue to mark the 10th anniversary of his premiership due to lack of interest. "That's not right," said Kennett, moments before disappearing into the unheard obscurity that is his on-air shift at 3AK. "We had planned a lunch today, but half the crowd was either interstate or overseas. We'll have a bite round Christmas. Tell Crikey he's wrong." Crikey, you're wrong.

7. NRMA WHITLAM BOARD PROCESS REBUTTAL

We carried a piece yesterday complaining about the board process set up to deal with the issue of Nick Whitlam's superannuation and the question of who pays his and the NRMA's legal bills. An informed NRMA insider has sent through the following rebuttal:

"On 26 August, the Board of the NRMA approved the following: "A committee comprising Maree Callaghan, The Honourable Jeff Shaw and Sir Laurence Street (Committee) be authorised to approve any settlement of the matters referred to consultation, which they consider to be in the best interests of the Company".

A resolution approved by the Board on 26 August, provided a framework for resolving issues properly submitted for consultation, such as those concerning Mr. Whitlam's legal costs, in a way which expressly obviated the need for the full Board to approve any settlement which might ultimately be authorised by the Committee in accordance with the resolution.

The 26 August resolution, and the consultation and Committee approval process in relation to Mr Whitlam's legal costs, which flowed from the implementation of that resolution, transparently superseded the position previously adopted by the Board as reflected by the 22 July resolution. That being the case, there was no need for the Board to specifically rescind the 22 July resolution.

At the August 29 Board meeting directors, one of whom appears to be your source, attended and were fully briefed on the process outlined above. Your source appears to have forgotten that Mr John McCombe, Partner from Corrs Chambers Westgarth, informed the Board that a preliminary meeting had taken place the night before, between, among others, Mr Andrew Rogers QC, The Honourable Jeff Shaw QC, Sir Laurence Street, Mr Whitlam and his legal advisers and the President of the NRMA, Mrs Maree Callaghan.

The Board Meeting was informed that the previous night's meeting was in connection with the consultation and approval process relating to Mr Whitlam's legal costs. Far from being a secret, everything was done properly and Board members had an opportunity to state their views. No one, including your informant raised any matters of concern. Those who continue to push a different line have been reminded of the facts. However, it seems to me that they have a selective memory and they are attempting to dupe you. Given past performances, that is not surprising. However, I do think those eminent Australians who were asked to apply their experience and skills to this issue, are owed an apology.

7.5 ELLIOTT'S DODGY TACTICS

An Elliott-watcher writes:

"Stephen,

This was posted on www.bigfooty.com (which incidentally is how I found out about Crikey!!) regarding the tactics to be used in the upcoming board elections at Carlton.:

"Colin De Luitis is a board member at the company my father works at (Bradmill), and they signed up about 100 employees, just to get their vote. My Dad doesn't even barrack for the Blues and hasn't been to an AFL game for six years!"

Can't vouch for its veracity but the guy who posted it isn't in the habit of making stuff up so I would guess that there is something behind it. And reports of 1000 recently enrolled members would seem to support my suspicions.

As a Carlton member (who will definitely be voting for Ian Collins' Carlton One) I am becoming concerned about the integrity of the upcoming elections. Why would a man who is so obviously opposed by numerous members, champion past players and other noted supporters go to such lengths to retain power? If only he could step aside and allow a smooth transition as happened at Collingwood when Eddie took over.

Love your site, David"

CRIKEY: And the great irony is that Colin De Luitus is one of Eddie's best friends but also a Carlton director backing big Jack. Surely we're not seeing ALP-style branch stacking in this Carlton bunfight. Elliott should just go quietly. He's an absolute disgrace.

8. JAMES MACKENZIE AND PORTFOLIO PARTNERS

A Norwich Union employee writes:

Crikey wrote:

"James Mackenzie was also an original investor in Portfolio Partners along with James Packer, Andrew Kroger and a few others. It raised a few eyebrows when he then became the Norwich Union CEO and agreed to buy Portfolio Partners for more than $100 million.

Mackenzie had sold out by this point in time but his successor at Norwich subsequently wrote down the value of Portfolio Partners on the Norwich books."

My questions :

Did Mackenzie sell all his shares in Portfolio Partners, before he ever got to or approached to be the CEO of Norwich Union Australia?

What share did he have? How much did he make? How much was the write down in PP? When negotiating the sale of PP which side was he on?

At the very least, his mates were still big shareholders in PP, so he really helped them out!

CRIKEY: I've had a few dealings with James Mackenzie and whilst acknowledging he tends to attract controversy, reckon he's a good operator. However, this issue does crop up from time to time and it would be interesting to get some answers, especially now that Kroger and Mackenzie are back doing deals together with this Child Care Centre float.

9. GLENN WHEATLEY, KERRY STOKES AND KOSTA TSZYU

By Patrick Fitzgerald

John Farnham is showing box office swansongs are alive and kicking with his so-called "Last Time" tour. Both he and manager Glenn Wheatley have been adept over the years at suggesting retirement is maybe just one more tour away without being totally definitive.

But while Wheatley has astutely come back from the financial graveyard with his long-time loyal chum for support, the former Master Apprentice who was once drowning in a sea of personal debt when the poo hit the "Ivy", is now well down the road with a second wind as an entrepreneur.

Wheatley is set to be stepping into deep end of the sales ring by looking to promote Kosta Tszyu in a world title defence pencilled in for Melbourne next year on January 19.

Now while most of us know boxing to be as corrupt and politically incorrect as any sport going around (although sport is a relative term) it is never short of popular support when good fighters come calling. Anyone silly enough to pay good money to see Anthony Mundine deserves all they get, but in Kosta Tszyu, Australia (and Russia) can lay claim to the undisputed super lightweight world champion and without question one of the best pound-for-pound fighters today.

He is also as one British boxing pundit pointed out perhaps boxing's heavyweight champion in knowing his box office worth. He can barely be bothered to fight more than twice a year these days. Lean but decidedly mean work if you can get it! According to the Pom, their top contender won't get a crack at Kosta until 2004 because his program is already mapped out before then.

That being the case Wheatley has perhaps been just a little coy when declaring his intention to hopefully promote the former Russian migr's first fight in Melbourne for eight years and giving the old Colonial the thumbs up as a most suitable venue. If Wheatley is the promoter then take it, as an absolute certainty Telstra Dome will be home turf. Wheatley has a business relationship with Kerry Stokes Stadiums Operations Ltd and no doubt the financial grunt behind his bid comes with Kerry's active support.

With only one loss in his professional career and unbeaten for five years, Tszyu will command a big crowd wherever he fights which is rarely in Australia, or at least not since 1998. But some old habits die hard, and his opponent is said to be Jessie "James" Leija who at 36, is like Farnham, well past his prime. While Tszyu's taken on and beaten most of the best he still does more than his fair share of "pension" fights given his tangled business affairs that have cost him millions in a legal battle with his original promoter "Break Even" Bill Mordey. It's said Wheatley will need a crowd of 20,000 just to break even which has to be at least something of a risk given people now know wrestling turned out to be a rather distant viewing experience for many people at the "dome".

That ring is not going to get any bigger let alone the little bloke trying to outgun Jessie James, so while the thrills might be remote - (with due defence to Wheatley's rock biz background) they also won't be cheap. So let's just hope two ageing warriors can do more than impersonate "big brothers in holding company" and come out with all guns blazing. Sorry but I don't mind the house of stoush when it's fair dinkum or Mike Tyson is in custody or I'm not paying for the tickets!

Seven's interest in the fight should also be interesting given Tszyu's existing ties to Foxtel's Main Event pay per view channel. Stokes getting a slice of Foxtel Pay-Per-View...whatever next?

10. BUGBEAR FIX

"Hi Crikey

You might want to use this or pass it on to your subscribers:

If you have opened the email and have been infected with the virus (one way to check is to look in the start menu -> Programs -> Startup. If you have a file in there named something like 'mcu' then you are likely to have the virus. You can get it removed by visiting the Symantec Site and downloading the fix.

Information about the virus can be found here:

http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/[email protected]

And the fix that you can download and run can be found here:

http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/[email protected]

Richard"

11. POLITICAL DENSITY

"Dear Crikey,

Thought you might possibly appreciate this small contribution that arose out of a little exercise I did for my own personal interest, which was to see which State or Territory in Australia could most appropriately claim that "there are too many bloody politicians around here". Hence, I present statistics on Politician Density - which, although appearing to be a reference to the collective intelligence of our elected representatives, is actually a measure of politicians per head of population (expressed in terms of population per politician, for simplicity).

State Pop'n Pltns Density
NSW 6,463,000 197 32,807
Vic 4,765,900 181 26,331
Qld 3,556,400 128 27,863
WA 1,883,900 118 15,965
SA 1,497,600 93 16,103
Tas 470,400 57 8,252
ACT 310,800 21 14,800
NT 195,500 29 6,741
Aus 19,153,500 824 23,245

Figures exclude local councils (due to their largely part-time nature and the fact that some councils have popularly elected full-time mayors and others don't), and were obtained from the ABS (for population) and by adding the number of lower and upper house state/territory MPs, Federal MPs, and Senators in each state based on figures provided by the various parliaments.

It would appear, then, that Northern Territorians can lay claim to being the most over-represented state or territory, with one politician for every 6,741 citizens. Most of this number comes from the Territory Parliament however, with only 4 federal MPs/Senators. Compare with second place-getter Tasmania, with 17 federal representatives in their contingent. And the least represented? NSW, with one politician for every 32,807 citizens, helped (or hindered, if you like politicians) by reductions in the number of lower house state MPs from 109 to 99 at the 1991 election and from 99 to 93 at the 1999 election. Queensland, on a similar note, is helped along by the fact that it does not have an upper house.

Does this mean though that the other states should try to match NSW for Politician Efficiency? Probably not - after all, to achieve a density similar to that of NSW, the NT Parliament would have six members in it!

Regards, Marco"

CRIKEY: An Antony Green in the making, perhaps? We wonder how this would compare to overseas.

12. JOHN STONE'S AMNESIA

Adelaide correspondent Charles Cameron Kingston writes:

Remember John Stone - the free market Treasury secretary who opposed the socialist plot to float the dollar?

Nowadays he contributes a column each month to Christopher Pearson's taxpayer funded freesheet, The Adelaide Review. His latest effort is either a pathetic attempt to allege ABC bias or a sign that Stone has lost his memory along with his sanity.

He mentions Ian Henderson, the ABC's economics editor (he gets the title wrong), "whom I seem to recall over many years as a Labor Party staffer in Canberra although I have never heard that acknowledged on the ABC".

Poor old Stone. Henderson's background was reported everywhere when he got the job last year. Does he forget? And what about the intervening years that Henderson spent as a senior writer at the Australian? Was he corrupting innocents then?

Stone seems so desperate to have a shot at the ABC that he is happy to turn himself into a laughing stock. At the same time, he is also guilty of a grave disservice to all those people who are concerned about bias at the "national broadcaster". He is prepared to stoop to idiocy to feed his fanaticism, tarring the critics of the ABC who deal in reality with the same brush.

13. HENRY THORNTON ON PARANOID INVESTORS

Henry Thornton thinks investors are paranoid - fearing Japanese bank improvements and a safer (Saddam-less) world. And when CEOs start talking about not being remunerated with options, he wonders what is going on. Especially when he sees something that walks like a duck, and talks like a duck. See http://www.henrythornton.com/article.asp?viewArticleID=594

14. CRIKEY GOT IT WRONG ON THE AGE'S PRO-WAR BIAS

"Stephen,

As a Life member and a big supporter of yours over here in the UK, I was pretty appalled at your claim of Pro-War bias at The Age.

The Anti- War protest was not news here. I'm pretty sure it didn't even get "above the fold" in the Guardian, which is really scraping the bottom of the barrel. Most other papers (except the Mirror) ran the thing on page 3 or 5.

The main reason is that it was the usual roll-out of eco-weenies, trots, peaceniks and US haters like Pilger who have nothing better to do and were looking for a fun day out. I would be surprised if the Police estimates of numbers were correct. I was in the West-end on the day - they barely affected traffic.

If a bunch of pro-fox hunting landed gentry can round up 500,000 protesters, then it makes the protest march all the more pathetic.

The reason John Major's affair was big news is the same reason that the Gareth / Cheryl thing was huge in Australia. This is on top of the fact he was so strident about his "Back to Basics" campaign against Tory sleaze during his time as PM. You got huge publicity out of the Kernot affair, so to criticise papers running it is pretty hypocritical. The controversy about Prince Charles runs to the heart of the Westminster system - how much influence an unelected monarch should have on government.

Regards"

15. GERRY GLEESON AND NSW EXECUTIVE PAY RISES

It was announced on Friday 13th September that all members of the NSW Chief Executive Service as well as all members of the Senior Executive Service would get a 4.3% payrise. However, the overlap between the various levels of the CES/SES has been removed, meaning that the bottom parts of the pay ranges have gone up by up to 12% or more than $30,000.

With the State election not too far away, the size of the payrises was surprising, especially given that they are well over the rate of inflation.

What is perhaps more interesting, though, is who is actually on the Statutory and Other Offices Remuneration Tribunal that gave the payrises.

The Tribunal is Gerry Gleeson. He is assisted by 2 "assessors". The first assessor is Col Gellatly the second is Ann Sherry.

Gerry Gleeson was the head of the Premiers Department between 1977 and 1988, under the Wran and Unsworth Governments in NSW. He was the head of the Darling Harbour Authority, and is also currently the head of the authority that replaced it, the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority.

He is considered Carr's "Mr Fix-it" and is one of the most powerful people in NSW.

Gerry is also the Deputy Chairman of Transfield. Transfield are the company doing the huge Walsh Bay development in Sydney, which happens to fall under the authority of the Sydney Harbour Forshore Authority.

Gerry Gleeson has been in hot water before on similar issues, though. In 2000, he resigned a decade long directorship of Amalgamated Holdings and 24 hours later the Government announced that Amalgamated subsidiary Rydges Hotels and Resorts were granted consent to develop a $1 million headquarters at Darling Harbour.

Within that development, Matilda Cruises, which is also owned by Amalgamated, built a cruise facility.

Gleeson was head of the Darling Harbour Authority at the time.

A list of boards that he has sat on include:
Australian Catholic University
Kosciusko Thredbo Pty Ltd
Rydges Hotels Pty Ltd
Greater union Organisation Pty Ltd
St George Foundation Ltd
Amalgamated Hotels Pty Ltd
Arena management Pty Ltd
Arena Theatre Services Pty Ltd
Capital Investment Group Pty Ltd
Capitol Theatre Management Pty Ltd
Commonwealth Bank of Australia
Grocon Developments Pty Ltd
Sydney Entertainment Centre
Transfield Construction

Government appointments have included:

Chairman, Statutory and Other Offices Remuneration Tribunal
Chairman, Darling Harbour Authority
Chairman Resource and Conservation Assessment Council
Director, City West Board
Director, Sydney Cove Authority

Col Gellatly is, of course, the current head of the Premiers Department, and therefore probably the most powerful public servant in NSW.

Ann Sherry is the head of the Bank of Melbourne. She is also the former head of the Office for the Status of Women under the Keating Government and has just joined the board of Melbourne Major Events.

So, a very Labor tribunal gives large payrises to senior public servants in the lead up to the State election. Given that senior public servants have enormous power in an election environment (ability to release or not release good or bad news etc) this whole episode sounds like a bit of a "cash for loyalty" deal between the NSW government and senior public servants.

Not good enough.

Name Withheld

Do ya best,
Stephen Mayne, Hillary Bray, Neal Woolrich and The Crikey Team

BECOME A CRIKEY CONTRIBUTOR

* Like everyone else, Crikey is getting screwed by the banks but we're prepared to pay $10 into your PAYbySNAP account for every item contributed to our sealed section. To find our more about this great new internet-based payments system and become a member, click here: https://secure.paybysnap.com/register/

BECOME A CRIKEY SUBSCRIBER

* * Are you reading this without being a subscriber? C'mon, get your own daily email for $66 a year by clicking here: https://subscribe.crikey.com.au/. You'll get 6-8 sealed section emails a week with 100 stories and access to our 4 million word archive. Crikey is Australia's most successful independent ezine with 4500 subscribers and 5800 email freeloaders. We get an average 80,000 page views a week from 30,000 unique users so jump on board right now. Or why not kick in $500 and become a life member who gets two gift subs, a t-shirt, a Mark Cornwall caricature of themselves, a $96 subscription to Private Eye, a $150 email ad that goes to more than 10,000 people and monthly emails on Crikey's financial and legal situation. Similarly, why not bid for one of our monthly banner ads . Click here for details: http://www.crikey.com.au/advertisewithcri