Ziggy Switkowski (Image: AAP/Darren England)

On the face of it, it was another step in Crown’s attempt to resuscitate its shattered reputation. But its hiring of former Telstra boss Ziggy Switkowski has spectacularly backfired. 

Two weeks into the appointment he has already stepped down from his role as RMIT chancellor, amid calls from the National Tertiary Education Union for him to resign. 

It’s just another example of how toxic the Crown name has become. 

Despite the company’s best efforts to shackle itself to credible business figures like Switkowski and incoming CEO Steve McCann, Crown is a long way from extinguishing its legacy of scandal and is now at risk of burning everything — and everyone — it touches. 

The question now is whether it will bring the whole gambling industry with it, lumping it in the same dustbin as tobacco and fossil fuels.

It didn’t take long

Switkowski was announced as the replacement for the former chair, Minerals Council boss Helen Coonan, last month. He’s not due to begin the role until the end of October. But an NTEU petition circulating last week called for his immediate resignation from RMIT, labelling Crown a “socially destructive force” — ironic since Switkowski spent 14 years on the Tabcorp board.

The businessman has denied there is any link between his decision to stand down and the petition, claiming he made his decision to step down known to the RMIT board before the petition circulated. But the push to unseat him is a demonstration that the Crown name now threatens to taint anyone who goes near it. 

Universities lead the way

Universities have maintained a position as moral compasses over Australia’s class of high-profile business people who rotate through directorships and honorary positions. 

In June, former deputy prime minister and Whitehaven Coal boss Mark Vaile was forced to abandon a chancellorship at the University of Newcastle before it even began after a mounting backlash over his longstanding association with the fossil fuel industry. 

The backlash was brought on not only by students and staff but by donors of the university. A group of 16 philanthropists signed an open letter saying they would withdraw their support for the university if it was led by “someone who is determined to build new coal mines when most of the world is determined to reduce fossil fuel use”. 

Not all are tarnished

It’s fair to say that not everyone has been tarnished by the Crown scandals. Some have managed to emerge relatively unscathed. If anything, former Health Department head and Crown director Jane Halton’s profile has risen in the past year as she has become a vocal commentator on Australia’s COVID-19 response. Despite being the interim Crown chair, she remains a member of a number of boards and councils, including the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), Clayton Utz, and Council on the Ageing (COTA) Australia. She’s also an adjunct professor at both the University of Sydney and the University of Canberra.

There is also no moral backlash inside Kerry Stokes’ Seven West Media, which has kept former Crown Resorts chairman and long-time Packer lieutenant John Alexander on its books as a non-executive director.

But with three inquiries now delivering damning evidence of money laundering and gross misconduct inside Crown’s Perth and Melbourne casinos — as well as its appalling treatment of problem gamblers — company boards could do well to listen to universities who know a toxic company when they see one.