Face of Nation : The South Australian has been criticised for taking a defence industry role with advisory firm EY so soon after leaving the ministry.
The Statement of Ministerial Standards bans former ministers from taking jobs in their areas of ministerial expertise for 18 months after leaving office.
Mr Pyne and former foreign minister Julie Bishop, who accepted a position on the board of aid development company Palladium, are now subject to a Senate inquiry. “On 8 April 2019, I met with Mr Pyne to discuss his retirement from politics,” EY partner Mark Stewart said in a submission.
“At this meeting, we discussed Mr Pyne’s post-retirement plans, and his interest in utilising his experience as a politician and Minister to assist a professional services firm grow their private sector defence industry business.He has denied breaching the Statement of Ministerial Standards. An investigation by the Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Martin Parkinson, found neither Mr Pyne or Ms Bishop had broken the rules. Despite that, the Senate backed a push by crossbench senator Rex Patrick to investigate the matter further.
“Consistent with our public statements on this matter, EY has not, and will not, seek that Mr Pyne lobby, advocate or have business meetings with members of the Government, Parliament, public service or Defence Force on any matters on which he has had official dealings as Minister in his last 18 months in office,” Mr Stewart said.
“EY requires that Mr Pyne will maintain confidentiality over, and not seek to take personal advantage of, information to which he had access as a Minister where that information is not generally available to the public.
Dr Parkinson has also made a submission to the inquiry, reiterating the results of his investigation and commenting on the strength of the Statement of Ministerial Standards.
“I believe that a former-Minister should have the ability to gain employment after they have left the Parliament — whether or not that employment relates to the matters they dealt with as a Minister,” he wrote to the committee. “As I mentioned in my 19 July letter to the Prime Minister, Ministers — and parliamentarians for that matter — gain experience and knowledge in subject matters during their time in the Parliament. Extinguishing that experience is impossible.
