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There is nothing illegal about Stephen Conroy's new job - but it smells bad

Nick O'Malley
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Year's end can be a contemplative time, a time when we reassess our lives or even commit to changes to embrace in the New Year.

So it is for Stephen Conroy. Having quit politics in September, the former senator will soon take up a new role that will again see him strolling the long corridors of power in Parliament House, though he might have to dump what's left of his conscience in the bin by the door as he arrives.

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Conroy'€™s first interview post resignation

In an interview with Andrew Bolt, outgoing Labor Senator Stephen Conroy explained his reasons for his swift exit. Vision: Sky News

The former minister for the digital economy will serve as executive director of a new outfit called Responsible Wagering Australia, a creation of CrownBet, Sportsbet, Betfair, Unibet and Bet365.

Now even if you just spewed a bit in the back of your throat at the thought of a Labor man - a man who in his first speech to parliament declared his devotion to civilising capitalism - becoming a hired gun for an industry whose business model is based on the ruthless exploitation of all Australians, but in particular working class Australians, you should perhaps not be surprised by it.

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He is hardly the first elected public servant to augment his or her generous  publicly-funded superannuation scheme like this.

The former Labor energy and resources minister Martin Ferguson left parliament to lobby for energy and resources interests.

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Conroy's mate Mark Arbib - a former sports minister - left parliament to work for James Packer at Consolidated Press Holdings. The former liberal communications minister Helen Coonan sits on the board of Crown Resorts. Indeed former Liberal senator Richard Colbeck, a former tourism minister, will be chairman of Responsible Wagering Australia.

According to a recent piece in The Conversation, of the 538 lobbyists registered by the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet in September this year, 191 were former government representatives.

These are people hawking their government experience - and contact books - to the very industries that many of them previously regulated.

Of course there is nothing illegal about this. It just smells bad.

And for some reason the Conroy example smells worse than others.

Perhaps it is because the industry that has bought him is so peculiarly ugly. It vacuums up cash, often from the addicted, and provides nothing of societal benefit in return. At least the resources and energy sector is useful.

Perhaps it is the Orwellian nightmare of the name itself, Responsible Wagering Australia. It is a name that manages to suggest that the victims of Australia's out of control gambling addiction are to be blamed for their addiction.

And on the very day its existence was first announced we were subjected to a torrent of hogwash from the RWA.

"Responsible wagering lies at the heart of many Australians' enjoyment of their racing and sporting interests," Colbeck said on Wednesday. "Responsible Wagering Australia is committed to meeting that need with the highest standards of consumer protection, integrity and harm minimisation."

Really?

So new is online gambling that we don't yet quite know how much damage it does, though as a former minister with oversight of the sector, Conroy might have a decent idea.

In any event, according to a recent study by Dr Sally Gainsbury, internet gamblers with problems are more likely to be single young men with limited formal education and who are unemployed or students than those without problems.

We also know that Australians spend more money per capita on gaming than any other nation on earth.

As Nick Xenophon, the senator who locked horns more than most with this industry, told Fairfax Media on Thursday morning, the clear role of the gambling industry lobbyist is to warn it ahead of time if some politician has worked up the courage to propose reform, then help dilute that reform.

That's why the industry keeps employing recently retired pollies - they're the ones with the right contacts.

"It is a cheap insurance policy," says Xenophon.

There is one other thing though.

Any member of parliament from any centrist party in any nation should have noticed by now that this is pitchfork-sharpening season.

Across Europe and the United States, from Turkey to the Philippines, centrist politicians are being dumped precisely because of this sort of feathering of nests. "Drain the Swamp!" declared Donald Trump as he cruised towards his unlikely victory, promising to ban his administration's officials from serving as paid lobbyists within five years of leaving government work.

Surely Australia's two major parties know by now that unless they act now to slow the revolving door between Canberra and industry mouthpieces, they are only going to further fire the loathing of the electorate.

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