Husic's department pushed for union appointment to $15b reconstruction fund
Internal emails show Industry department officials gave their counterparts at Finance less than a week to consider a union appointment to the $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund.
One of two departments overseeing the $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund was given less than a week to consider the appointment of a union official to the fund’s board, according to internal government emails.
Australian Manufacturing Union assistant national secretary Glenn Thompson was appointed to the National Reconstruction Fund Corporation board by Industry Minister Ed Husic and Finance Minister Katy Gallagher in October last year, more than two months after the board’s other eight members were appointed and a month after it had already held its first meeting.
The board appointments for the NRF have been a politically contentious issue with the federal opposition accusing the government of stacking the fund “with their mates” because directors include two union figures, Thompson and former Australian Workers’ Union national secretary Daniel Walton. The government rejects those claims, but has not explained why there was a more than two month gap between the first eight members being appointed and the appointment of Thompson.
Capital Brief applied to the Department of Finance under Freedom of Information laws for all communication relating to Thompson’s appointment between June and October. Emails between Gallagher and Husic’s departments show that the first time Thompson’s potential appointment was broached with Finance was on 11 October, five days before it was signed off and 9 days before it was publicly announced.
