Antinuclear

Just one of six Covid commission members volunteers to release conflict-of-interest declaration

Federal government refuses to release disclosures, saying they were made ‘in confidence’, amid calls for greater transparency, Guardian,       Christopher Knaus @knausc  Fri 12 Jun 2020 Only one of the six commissioners on Scott Morrison’s Covid-19 commission has volunteered to release their conflicts of interest, prompting calls for greater transparency from the publicly funded body.The government has refused to release the conflict-of-interest declarations for members of its National Covid-19 Coordination Commission (NCCC), a prominent advisory body shaping non-health aspects of Australia’s Covid-19 strategy.

There have been increasing concerns about a lack of proper governance structures around the taxpayer-funded commission, which operates with a broad remit and a budget of more than $5m.

The commission is headed by Nev Power, the former head of Fortescue Metals, and other commissioners include the Industry Super chair Greg Combet, former health department secretary Jane Halton, rich-lister Paul Little, EnergyAustralia chair Catherine Tanna and CSIRO chair David Thodey

Officials from the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet said it could not release their conflict-of-interest declarations because they were provided “in confidence”.

The Guardian approached each of the commissioners and asked whether they would release their interests of their own volition.

Only Combet agreed to do so. A spokesman told the Guardian Combet’s “interests are already publicly available and widely known”, and provided a list including his chairmanship of Industry Super Australia and IFM Investors, as well as his membership of the Invest Victoria advisory board and occasional consulting roles.

The interests he declared had already been published on the NCCC’s website, where others had also published their public directorships…….

The Australia Institute’s climate and energy program director, Richie Merzian, said publicly disclosing conflicts was “the least the government commissioners” could do, given they had been handpicked to advise the government on spending billions of dollars taxpayer funds.

“The roles of the NCCC commissioners are, by design, intended to influence government,” Merzian said. “It is clearly in the public interest for any conflicts of interest to be publicly declared. There is no excuse for any potential conflicts of interest to remain secret.”

Crossbench senator Rex Patrick also urged “full disclosure” of the commissioners’ interests.

“The commissioners are being paid from the public purse, are performing public activities and their output may have significant influence over the future expenditure of public money,” he said…….. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jun/12/just-one-of-six-covid-commission-members-volunteers-to-release-conflict-of-interest-declaration