The Federal Treasurer, Wayne Swan, has been accused of breaching the Government’s own guidelines on “transparent and merit-based selection” when appointing the new chairmen of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).
The Opposition spokesman on Financial Services, Senator Mathias Cormann (pictured), said the Government had confirmed to a Senate estimates committee hearing that neither of the positions had been advertised according to the guidelines for such appointments.
Cormann said the Coalition was not reflecting on the merits of the men appointed to chair ASIC and the ACCC – Greg Medcraft and Rod Sims, respectively – but believed the inadequate processes had been followed in breach of the Government’s pre-election commitments and its own guidelines.
He said the Labor Government’s promise to strengthen transparency and merit-based selection was “not worth the paper it was written on”.
