According to its website, Ingeus Australia, through Assure Programs, now offers “organisational development services and employee assistance programs”. That is, services to corporate clients, instead of getting the unemployed back to work.
Rein is the first spouse of an Australian prime minister to keep working, and the first to be asked pointed questions about her business.
But such questions are likely to become far more common, says lobbyist and former Labor ministerial adviser Jody Fassina. Already one can foresee similar questions being asked of Lucy Turnbull should her husband ever become prime minister.
“Say there is an attorney-general who’s partner is a judge, given the attorney-general oversees funding for the courts, and also the government could well be a party to a legal action in the very same court, would that be construed as conflict of interest?
“My point being, where do you draw the line, where do you say what is appropriate and what isn’t?
“When she divested in 2007, he was opposition leader, and they didn’t want the distraction. It was about politics.”
Politics is also the reason why former prime minister Julia Gillard’s partner, Tim Mathieson, stopped working shortly before she became prime minister.
He worked as a property agent with Urbertas Group in Melbourne until March 2010, when he “took leave” from the role after “ridiculous” media scrutiny, according to his then boss. Gillard became prime minister three months later, and apart from being the first male partner of a prime minister, Mathieson busied himself with the charity roles the partners of prime ministers have usually done in Australia.
There are few overseas precedents for Rein, says Clem Macintyre, the head of the University of Adelaide’s school of history and politics, and an expert on parliamentary democracy. He says he couldn’t really think of any obvious precedents.
“I suppose there were some questions about Cherie Blair practising as a barrister while Tony was [British] PM – but as you can see I am scratching the bottom of the barrel here.
“There were a few eyebrows going up in days gone by about an MP’s wife appearing in an advertisement and when Margaret Whitlam had a column in a magazine – but nothing much more than that.”
Last August, blogger Michael Wyres found that opposition communications spokesman Malcolm Turnbull’s wife owned shares in Vodafone, which, given her husband’s position, Wyres said was a conflict of interest. When questions were raised, Turnbull’s office said the register was out of date, and that she had since sold those shares.
It followed another kerfuffle about Turnbull’s ownership of France Telecom shares – a company involved in rolling out fibre-to-the-premises internet, which Turnbull’s party opposes as too expensive and unnecessary in Australia. The cases are far from identical of course – Turnbull is not in government, but in opposition, and it’s a lot easier to sell out of an investment than a business that’s been your life’s work.
When it comes to assets, the formal onus on Australian politicians is for transparency rather than divestment. They must register their assets, as well as those of their spouses, in a register of public interests.
Fassina thinks Rein shouldn’t have to divest. “She’s come out and said her business won’t pitch for government contracts. I think it’s entirely reasonable for her to pitch her business where else she can.”
Myriam Robin is a reporter for SmartCompany and its sister site LeadingCompany. She has degrees in economics, international studies and journalism. She likes writing about businesses taking risks and doing new things.
