Anti-unionist to push Telstra sale

Bob Briton

Telstra has finally got a new chairman. Former National Farmers 
Federation (NFF) President Donald McGauchie will fill the 
position left vacant since last April when the telco's board 
forced Bob Mansfield to resign.

The appointment confirms 2004 as a good year for the "straight 
talking" McGauchie. In January he was awarded an Order of 
Australia for, among other things, "economic reform of 
agricultural commodity handling and marketing" — a sly way of 
acknowledging his crucial role in the 1998 MUA dispute.

It was McGauchie who set up Producers and Consumers Stevedores 
with NFF backing to recruit non-union labour and train them in 
Dubai. Patrick Stevedores then hired the union-busting gangs at 
its facilities and sacked the regular, unionised workforce.

John Howard has been quick to deny that McCauchie's promotion is 
in return for services rendered: "It is true that Don McGauchie 
played an heroic role during that historic dispute and he was on 
the right side, but Don McGauchie's appointment as chairman of 
Telstra was a decision of the board of Telstra. I know that, I'm 
in a position to know it because it's an issue I discussed with 
the board, or most of the members of the board".

The PM is being cute. He knows that, as the majority shareholder 
in Telstra, the Government has the biggest say about who goes on 
the Telstra board. His discussions with its members about a new 
chair would, no doubt, have been anything but free ranging.

McGauchie was originally appointed to the board by the government 
in 1998 in controversial "jobs for the boys" circumstances 
similar to those surrounding his recently announced chairmanship. 
The suspicion that McGauchie keeps being rewarded by the Howard 
Government arises from the fact that Mr McGauchie has a long 
record of being on the "right side" of issues.

He led the NFF in its 18-month long campaign to drain native 
title legislation of any significant benefit to Indigenous 
Australians after the High Court's Wik decision. He helped 
promote the GST. He supported the part privatisation of Telstra. 
More recently he has headed up Brendan Nelson's committee 
inquiring into how to break up and privatise CSIRO and university 
research through a "competitively based science funding system".

He is a non-executive director of James Hardie Industries. He 
chairs a committee for the embattled former asbestos products 
manufacturer that is looking into how best to conduct the rest of 
the case currently before a NSW special commission of inquiry. 
The commission is investigating the adequacy of compensation 
funds left behind for victims by the former Australia-based 
transnational before it sold off its asbestos liabilities and 
moved to the Netherlands. And, of course, Mr McGauchie supports 
the full privatisation of Telstra.

Again, Howard has been swift to deny any special privatising role 
for the new chair. It is true that McGauchie did not stand out on 
the board by being in favour of the complete sell-off of the 
asset. In fact it would be an opponent of the move that would be 
lonely in those circles! McGauchie himself acknowledges that 
public resistance to the sale is stiff and that his mission has 
political difficulties.

However, as National Competition Council President Wendy Craik 
points out, McGauchie does have some special talents. "He 
understands how government works, and in terms of Telstra being 
privatised he would clearly see what's important to do and make 
sure it is done", she told The Australian recently.

Furthermore, while Mr McGauchie would now be more familiar with 
the boardroom than the paddocks of the family's sprawling 
property in northern Victoria, the government is hoping that his 
rural background will help them to clear a major obstacle to the 
full privatisation. They trust that the appointment of the former 
NFF chief will reinforce assurances that great advances are being 
made in telecommunications in the bush and that the time has come 
to flog off the rest of the telco.

Very few seem to be buying the line. Dick Estens, who headed the 
Howard Government's inquiry into regional telecommunications in 
2002, conceded recently that many services are still a 
"shamozzle". Current NFF President Peter Cornish opposes the 
further sell-off of the government's share and National Party MPs 
live in fear of a backlash against the government's Telstra 
policy. City voters are similarly opposed to Telstra's 
privatisation. It remains to be seen if the appointment will have 
the desired impact.

Meanwhile, in Howard's most recent reshuffle of his front bench, 
Helen Coonan has taken over as Communications Minister. She lost 
no time in telling the media that legislation for the sale of 
Telstra could be passed with some further "refining" of the bill 
and the arguments used to support it.

She will find a willing ally in the new Telstra chair. He has 
already made his made his lofty vision for the telco perfectly 
clear: "Telstra has reached an important phase in its 
development. Our greatest challenge now is to deliver shareholder 
value".