What do the Victorian government, KPMG and the AFL have in common?
They have all failed to uphold the highest standards of governance.
It is a great sadness that the three organisations and their leadership have, for reasons of greed or self-interest, dramatically devalued their brand, the reputation of so many well-educated individuals, and the community at large.
Each of the three organisations has, through their priorities and actions, caused immeasurable damage to those they were serving.
None of my comments below are made for personal reasons but to illustrate what happens when the highest standards of good governance are not delivered.
The Victorian government has been corrupt to its core since their election in 2014.
They have failed any test of good governance where their only goal has been to win at any cost.
Lying, cheating, acting in secret, failing to execute its responsibility in the public interest.
The damage and pain caused by the Victorian Labor government is being felt, and will be for decades, falling most heavily on Victoria’s young, because of the size of the debt, interest payments on that debt, and the decline in the services any government should provide its community.
I do not need to say more here, as the Victorian public is increasingly aware of the failures of the Victorian Labor government, the corruption it has allowed, the crimes on our streets, and the potholes on our roads.
KPMG is one of Australia’s largest accounting and auditing firms, employing approximately 10,000 employees including 200 partners.
Thanks to a brave whistleblower, some of KPMG’s senior personnel have been found to have acted in secret while abusing the trust of a number of their clients.
So widespread has this abuse been that many senior KPMG partners and personnel have already left the firm.
Clients have been lost to KPMG; many organisations will not employ KPMG in the immediate future.
No government in the country should issue KPMG new mandates until it has been demonstrated that KPMG has cleaned up its act and established a totally independent board.
Greed seems to have been the motivation for cheating by some, in order to increase KPMG’s chances of gaining new commissions while cheating on those clients they already serviced.
While the damage done by KPMG will not be as adversely and widely felt as that by the Victorian government, hundreds of innocent employees of KPMG will lose their jobs, and the damage to KPMG’s reputation will take years to rebuild.
The Australian Football League for too long has been answerable to no one.
So many examples over the years, when issues arise, of them circling the wagons to protect their own.
So many conflicts.
Perhaps the most important, facing the AFL, is the issue of concussion, mainly faced by players past, present and future.
For all employers, the welfare of their employees must be the unquestioned priority.
Too many knocks resulting in concussion can lead to permanent damage and may even contribute to death.
The Geelong Football Club Board, knowing a player had suffered several concussion incidents, and knowing the player wanted to continue to play, after much discussion, entered into a secret contract, allegedly to absolve the club and the board from any claim if the player continued to play and suffered further concussion episodes that affected his health.
The Geelong Board at the time was chaired by senior commercial director Craig Drummond.
He has recently been elected to the chairmanship of the AFL Commission, the highest administrative body of the AFL.
If Mr Drummond was prepared to put the potential legal liability of the Geelong Football Club and its board above the welfare of an employee, he has no authority to make demands or insist on higher standards of governance within the AFL when he has so demonstrably failed to live by such a standard.
To indicate the sycophantic nature of the AFL — which fined the GFC for failing to notify the AFL of the secret arrangement they had made with a player — the AFL and AFLPA failed to act on the moral irresponsibility of potentially putting a player’s health seriously at risk.
However hard Mr Drummond works at his task as chairman of the AFL, he will be forever marked as having failed the most serious of tests.
The welfare of an employee is secondary to financial benefit.
The public at large do not worry about the administration of the AFL. They just want to support their team.
Each of these three organisations has three components at play: secrecy, selfishness, greed, and a failure to apply unto themselves the very best of workplace practices.
Sadly, standards are falling everywhere. But if governments, businesses, sporting organisations and not-for-profits that we, the public, rely on do not adhere openly to the highest standards of governance, society is substantially weakened.
In sadness, but in hope!
