In the old days no one liked to get a “Dear John” letter and you certainly wouldn’t want to get one from current Commonwealth Bank boss and former kiwi child thespian, Ian Narev.
But the secretary of the Treasury, John Fraser was definitely the recipient of a “Dear John” letter from Narev and Outsider believes our top Treasury mandarin was also in receipt of similarly earnest missives from the likes of National Australia Bank’s Andrew Thorburn, ANZ’s Shayne Elliott and Westpac’s Brian Hartzer.
But unlike other “Dear John” letters those received by Fraser weren’t saying, “it’s not you, it’s me”, rather they were saying “it’s not you, its ScoMo”.
The letters were uniformly pleading with Dear John to endorse a consultative approach to the design and implementation of the major banks levy, perhaps believing that Mr Fraser might exert some influence on the Treasurer, Scott Morrison – the same Scott Morrison who on Budget night suggested to the banks “cry me a river”.
Of course, with an eye to his future, Fraser might consider urging his minister to lend a sympathetic ear to Ian, Brian, Shayne and Andrew because the former head of Treasury, Ken Henry, is now enjoying all the perquisites of being chairman of NAB and it pays for a senior public servant to plan ahead.
Outsider understands the pain being felt by Ian, Brian, Shayne and Andrew – it is possibly the same pain Outsider felt when he saw the interest rate applying to his Mastercard bill. Thanks and good luck guys.
