Which is worse, that Labor kept secret a report critical of its own — and its predecessors’ — predilection for appointing mates to public office for two years? Or that when it released it, its response was a risible set of “principles” that will do nothing to end government cronyism?
Labor hadn’t been in power long when it commissioned former senior public servant Lynelle Briggs to review the appointment process for government boards. Perhaps there was some commitment to integrity lingering from Labor’s three terms in opposition, when it had talked a big game on opposing cronyism and the politicisation of government appointments — the relentless stacking of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal with Coalition hacks and failed MPs, the appointment of Liberal apparatchik Phil Gaetjens to head the public service and failed Liberal MP and WorkChoices advocate Sophie Mirabella to the Fair Work Commission — among many, many others.