Anna Bligh: mouthpiece, creative genius or sell-out to the Australian Bankers Association?

The most surprising development in Australian politics last week was the announcement that former Queensland premier Anna Bligh was to become chief executive of the Australian Bankers Association. Bligh, also a former national president of the Labor Party, was described by a former state government colleague as being "as core Labor as you can get".

On face value, she seems an unlikely fit with the association, the peak lobbyist for 25 banks, including the big four, especially at a time when the federal Labor opposition, led by Bill Shorten, is pushing hard for a royal commission into the banking industry. The Treasurer, Scott Morrison, certainly thought so as did other Coalition MPs. Morrison said he would bypass Bligh and, as is his normal practice, deal directly with the banks rather than their intermediary. The Coalition would have been hoping for a new chief executive with solid conservative political credentials rather than this Labor icon.

What does Bligh think she's doing? What does the banking association think it's doing? What do peak lobby groups do, anyway? The diverse reactions to this move show there is confusion about the answers to each of these questions.

The cleavage between the major political parties runs right through Australia's social and economic systems. Among non-government organisations, there are the unions, the ACTU and most of the welfare and environment lobbies on the left, and business, mining and farmers' lobbies on the right. In the middle are other big lobbies, such as the Australian Medical Association, the Red Cross, sporting bodies, the NRMA and much of the health industry.

These lobby groups are well aware of the sensitivities associated with the government of the day and, while cognisant of the embedded political bias of their members, they do sometimes pick chief executives for their party-political record. They want the contacts that their chiefs bring with the incoming government. The same is true of the independent lobbying organisations. So they load up with confidantes of the new government.

Nevertheless, former MPs and political leaders normally stay true to their political values and, after leaving politics, accept jobs with NGOs on their side of the political fence or in the middle. That's what Bligh seemed to be doing when she moved to Sydney and became the YMCA NSW's chief executive. Earlier, former Northern Territory Labor chief minister Clare Martin had become the Australian Council of Social Service's chief executive. Former NSW Labor premier Kristina Kenneally took a position with Basketball Australia. Those moves seemed right. The new jobs were either politically neutral or on the progressive side of politics.

It's true that some former Labor MPs went to work for big companies, like Crown Casino, but that work had a lower profile than leading a peak business lobby in the maelstrom of Canberra politics. In searching for precedents to the Bligh move, Michelle Grattan pointed to occasions when conservative governments were unhappy with business organisations. One such example was when former Hawke staffer David Buckingham was chief executive of the Business Council of Australia. But Buckingham was much less partisan than Bligh and more like public service figures, including David Morgan and Ken Henry, who have joined the banking world in various capacities.

In explaining her decision, Bligh makes several plausible points about the work of NGOs. It's true, as she says, that "every industry association needs to work with all sides of politics". But working with the government always takes precedence over the opposition unless a change of government is in the air. In making clear that she opposes a royal commission, she explains: "I've always believed that you get more done inside the tent."