Following newspaper reports indicating that the federal government may seek to nominate Mr O’Sullivan to replace current chair Greg Medcraft, Mr Bowen has announced that the opposition would try to block his nomination.
“Labor makes it very clear, we will not support Mr O’Sullivan’s appointment, should it proceed,” Mr Bowen said in a statement.
“Labor does not do this lightly. We do this in light if our most serious concerns and our respect for the importance of ASIC’s independence.”
The shadow treasurer argued that Mr O’Sullivan – a former member of and donor to the Liberal Party of NSW – is too “partisan” for the high profile public sector position. He also referenced Mr O’Sullivan’s alleged ties to Godwin Grech, the former Treasury official at the centre of the so-called Utegate scandal in 2009.
Mr Bowen did not mention Mr O’Sullivan’s work history as a former general counsel at the Commonwealth Bank or partner at commercial law firm Freehills (now Herbert Smith Freehills).
“The reputation of the corporate regulator and its leadership team must be beyond reproach and so to appoint Mr O’Sullivan would raise serious questions around ASIC’s independence and its ability to command trust across markets and the Parliament,” Mr Bowen said.
“The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has a vital role to play in regulating financial conduct and protecting Australian consumers and the last thing it needs is this sort of controversy fixing itself upon ASIC’s leadership team.”
I don’t often agree with current ALP officials, but Bowen seems more sensible than most. He’s absolutely right that the ASIC chair needs to be beyond reproach. ASIC needs to recover trust and credibility from the damage inflicted by Medcraft and his band of sycophants. The new chair needs to be someone free of personal biases, who will act with fairness and common sense, in the best interests of consumers.
Seriously? Bowen has spent time in the ISA as well as the unions, so anything he looks at he will always have them at the forefront of his mind. If he is rejecting this guy, that is enough reason to appoint him as far as I am concerned. The Kell and Medccraft blatant anti-adviser debacle era started due to Labor appointments. Clearly you are as gullible and short sighted as the media, and believe that Bowen is doing this for the reasons he’s pretending to, not for the self interest that is really his concern. Grow up.
Agree if Bowen is against it ergo it’s a reasonable appointment
Lets get Allan Fels out of retirement
good one
The removal of Medcraft is a good move and the replacement by anyone who can introduce common sense, conduct and a culture of being fair and reasonable as well as removing the Stasi Police attitude and socialist agenda would be and should be welcomed by all Australians who have suffered under their unfortunate Reign
If only he worked for those nice people over at Union Super Funds, Mr Bowen would have been happy. That way the flow of money out of Union Super funds into the hands of their Union mates wouldnt be addressed. But dont worry, ‘we’re all in this together’ cue the music…..
…but Medcraft was a member of the Labor party and was instrumental in creating securitization (selling off packages of car loans and credit cards) which then attributed to massive financial ruin globally. That didn’t seem to be a problem.
i’d like to suggest Professor Gillian Triggs for the next ASIC chair and a complete clean out of the dead beats that are currently there