Integrity experts say Scott Morrison’s reported links to an Aukus-related job in the UK defence industry show the pressing need for reforms to guard against the revolving door between government and industry.
The Nine newspapers on Tuesday reported Morrison had been “sounded out” by a UK defence firm and that that his associates were in “talks with corporations interested in the former prime minister’s Aukus insights”.
The report has raised renewed concerns about individuals using knowledge gained while in office for private gain.
The ministerial code of conduct and the lobbying code of conduct require that former ministers serve an 18-month cooling-off period before lobbying on issues related to their former portfolio. Morrison only has six months left of his cooling-off period, although it is unclear whether the reported UK role would involve lobbying as defined in both codes.
The ministerial code of conduct also requires that former ministers undertake that they will “not take personal advantage of information to which they have had access as a minister, where that information is not generally available to the public”.
But the code has no real method of enforcement for departed ministers, and at least one expert, University of Queensland law professor Graeme Orr, said it would be unlikely to apply to Morrison anyway.
“It would meet [the] letter of the Code, which does not make former ministers monks,” Orr said. “But it would not be a good look if, as with Mr Abbott (trade/Brexit), he had a role with an overseas entity where Australia’s sensitive international interests are involved.”
Morrison did not comment on the Nine report except to say, “I’m very engaged with things in my local electorate and enjoying being back in my local community”.
Guardian Australia approached his office for a response.
Both Transparency International Australia and the Centre for Public Integrity say the situation posed by Morrison’s potential job is a stark reminder of the need for reform.
Clancy Moore, chief executive of Transparency International Australia, said the ministerial code of conduct was “woefully inefficient” and “effectively a toothless tiger”. He said the code should be expanded to enforce a three-year cooling off period, commensurate with some other western nations, and that sanctions should be available for former ministers or prime ministers who “seek to move into industry lobbying roles”.
“We know that a more than a quarter of major party federal MPs who served in executive government have moved across to peak bodies, lobbying firms or directly into big business in their political afterlife,” Moore said. “This creates an unfair playing field and erodes trust in democracy.”
Han Aulby, executive director of Centre for Public Integrity, said the code of conduct needed independent enforcement. The code is currently enforced by the government of the day.
