Achi news desk-
Much has been written, and rightly so, about the revolving door between the Senedd and the private sector. We’d say we’ve lost count of the number of politicians who wait around 15 minutes to start a lucrative career lobbying on behalf of industries they’ve recently been charged with regulating, but it’s kind of our job keep an account.
However, less attention falls on the staff who leave politics. Skipping some of the most obvious ones — we can’t imagine Cricket readers need a primer on how Sean Kelly, Peta Credlin or Chris Kenny fill their hours these days – here’s our list of where some former members of influential political staff have ended up.
Four former advisers to former Victorian premiers And Andrews – Lissie Ratcliffe, Jessie McCrone, Ben Foster a Adam Sims strategic advisory firm Foster McCrone Ratcliff & Sims launched earlier this month.
Sean Sammon was a member of a Labor senator’s staff at the time Kate Lundyuntil 2013 when he became CEO of Bastion S&GO, a government strategy and community engagement consultancy, a role he held until 2019. In 2020 he founded political and business advisory firm York Park Group with a fellow Labor veteran Geoff Walsh.
David De Garis most famously advised employment minister at the time Michaelia Silver, and was the person to jump on the grenade that was the saga of the raid on the Australian Workers Union. In January this year he became general manager of government relations and industry affairs for Crown Resorts after six years at the WA branch of the Australian Hospitality Association.
Between 1996 and 2006 Kieran Snowman held a number of staff positions in the Howard government, including as chief of staff to a former Liberal senator Nick Minchin and former Coalition MP Peter McGauran before becoming head of government affairs for the Australian arm of pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca.
Mark ReedWA’s COVID era strategic director emperor Prime Minister Mark McGowan starting in 2017, he resigned in 2022 to head the newly opened Perth office of lobby group Anacta.
Kai Cantwell advised the social services minister at the time Ann Ruston on, among other things, online blanking laws until the 2022 federal election make her minister no more. The next year he became chief executive of online gambling industry body Responsible Wagering Australia.
After the change in government in the state, former NSW digital minister Victor Dominello senior adviser, Boutelet Jeromehas taken a position as public affairs manager with electronic property settlement company Sympli, noting that it is “a great opportunity pushing for reform, competition and innovation in the digital space, most of which benefited from the hard work and leadership of Victor Dominello”.
Hey, why wait until you’re actually out of the office? Late last year the office of Northern Territory premier Natasha Fyles had to defend a senior political adviser Gerard Richardson dual roles as an adviser to the NT Labor government and as co-owner of Brookline Advisory, a company that lobbies for Tamboran Resources, a gas company with huge interests in the Beetaloo Basin. The matter has been referred to the NT anti-corruption commission.
And it doesn’t have to be a move to the private sector. Some high-ranking public servants started as staff: Phil Gaetjens is a former chief of staff to Peter Costello a Scott Morrison before being appointed, very much in keeping with the mood of the time, with Morrison appointing Gaetjens Prime Minister and Cabinet secretary, which is essentially the main public servant role, in 2019.
Secretary of the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment (until his retirement in 2023) Andrew Metcalfe was chief of staff to Philip Ruddock in the late 1990s, and secretary of the Department of Defence Greg Moriarty was chief of staff to the prime minister at the time Malcolm Turnbull.
Secretary of the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources David Fredericks he was former staff to a variety of Labor MPs, including Kevin Rudd, Kim Beazley and Penny Wong, and prior to his time as secretary of the Department for Infrastructure, Transport, Cities and Regional Development, Simon Atkinson who at the time was finance minister Mathias Cormann chief of staff.
