Coalition senator Andrew Bragg and Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) chair Joe Longo matched up at senate estimates yet again over a newspaper article that revealed historical information about a blue between two former senior ASIC commissioners.
Bragg sought to get Longo to talk about the article related to a reported recorded conversation between former ASIC chair James Shipton and former deputy chair Karen Chester that appeared to show the relationship between the two was frosty.
Chester is reported to have told Shipton, according to Bragg, that assertions that she was ambitious and had thrown him under a bus needed correction.
“There’s a quote here in the paper apparently from the former deputy chair saying, ‘There are two ways to correct this, and it’s going to be up to you. It’s your decision which way we do it because if I had wanted to throw you under the bus I could have done it in my first year here — I could have leaked to a journalist’,” Bragg said.
The senator threw the first question at Longo and asked whether conversations of the kind that were documented in the newspaper article that same morning that included a reported reference to Chester telling Shipton she could have thrown him under the bus and leaked to a journalist.
“Is this the sort of conduct that you saw widely exhibited at ASIC,” Bragg asked.
Longo responded: “I don’t have anything to say about today’s article”.
Bragg dug his heels in and told Longo that under the standing orders for estimates, Longo was required to answer questions.
Longo asked Bragg to repeat the question, and Bragg obliged.
“I’m wondering about the sort of conduct that is going on at ASIC — is that a common statement to be uttered within the commission,” Bragg repeated the question.
Longo told Bragg he had no knowledge of such comments being common in the commission.
“So that’s unusual, is it,” Bragg asked in another attempt to canvas the internal ructions under a previous ASIC administration.
Longo fired back.
“Senator, I do not want to be drawn on the article today. It is true that you have the prerogative to ask me whatever you want, but that article is clearly historical as your earlier question acknowledged,” Longo said.
“Of course, as a matter of general principle, the idea of leaking and behaviour of that kind is, of course, unacceptable, and to my knowledge does not happen at ASIC and certainly not since I became chair.
“So as a general matter, I hope that response is both uncontroversial and unsurprising.”
Every gag has a punchline and most Senate estimates lines of questioning — like water — eventually find their own level.
Bragg said he thought Longo’s response was “good”, but it was not enough to deter him from wanting to pursue the core issue further, and that was whether there were gaps in relation to dealing with poor behaviour of statutory appointees such as that reflected in the newspaper.
Longo said that the commission had its internal policies that he sought to enforce, but he also told Bragg that some of these issues relate to a cohort of people — statutory appointees that were selected by cabinet — and that any issues raised in the ASIC context could also apply to bodies such as APRA and the Reserve Bank of Australia.
He said he had previously given evidence about certain gaps in the law, the law had not changed, and that there is a fairly high bar in the ASIC legislation for conduct that could potentially allow for a statutory appointee to be turfed from their role.
Finance minister Katy Gallagher told Bragg the government is looking at the breadth of options for dealing with poor conduct of public service leaders and leaders of statutory authorities.
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