Peter Costello didn’t mince words when shocking the political world on November 26, declaring he was “looking to build a career post-politics in the commercial world”.
The News Ltd papers reported that he could pocket $10 million a year, but 42 days later there is no sign of any resignation and increasing talk that Costello hasn’t received any great offers and instead will stick around and wait to be drafted into the Liberal leadership.
Suddenly being the Emperor with no clothes must be a galling experience for someone who, along with Paul Keating, is one of two genuine contenders for the title of “Australia’s most successful Treasurer”.
To start with, Costello’s former loyal Parliamentary acolytes such as Mitch Fifield, Tony Smith and George Brandis, all voted for Malcolm Turnbull to take the leadership, when Costello himself voted for Brendan Nelson, largely due to petty jealousies dating back to Turnbull’s tax options paper as a backbencher in 2005. Yesterday’s man had suddenly lost his voting power in the Liberal Party room.
That would have hurt but the apparent lack of corporate job offers must be even more disappointing. The former Treasurer’s record and experience should enable him to carve out a successful commercial career but there’s one major problem – the contempt with which he treated many senior business figures over the past 11 years.
A gig with Macquarie Bank would be an obvious start but privately Costello has been scathing of the millionaire factory in recent years, culminating in this front page story in The Australian last May.
Given the woeful performance of Melbourne-based directors in recent years, the directors’ club should have scooped up Costello by now, but it appears Nick Greiner will remain the only former politician who truly made the boardroom grade.
There was ample opportunity for job-hunting at last week’s KPMG Couta Boat Classic in Sorrento when Costello joined one of the largest line-ups of CEOs, investment bankers and directors for a day of cancelled racing.
Given Costello’s vehement anti-Telstra posturing in recent years, chairman Donald McGauchie probably gave him a bollocking rather than a job offer over lunch at Portsea.
There were some nice pictures of Costello with NAB’s Australian boss Ahmed Fahour, who has clearly ignored the former Treasurer’s jaw-boning over interest rates with the cartel-leading interest rate rise announced on January 3 – the same day as the KPMG event.
As Cossie is now discovering, “you reap what you sow”. Maybe a political future still offers better prospects than the commercial world, especially given the disappointment his best mate Michael Kroger is said to have felt about the mooted departure from politics.
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Frank is correct…as a Treasurer, Costello made a good lawyer. He arrived as treasurer with little economic grounding, and deployed the only two approaches that fitted, i) a strategy-free ‘balance the books’, and ii) a policy-free ‘let the market lead’.
What “record and experience”? Costello is a lawyer with zero business experience. Moreover, Treasurer of Australia, while an important job, relies heavily on Treasury expertise and support. At least Paul Keating had imagination and vision.
Hmm, this must be why Cossie looked so glum when I saw him sneering down Spring St in Melbourne Town today. Looked younger than his smirking treasurer persona on TV, has ditched the catholic choirboy haircut. He could sneer for Australia, though.