Is it a blessing or a curse that the nation’s financial services professionals appear to be overseen by such non-talents?
The thinking goes that one reason Labor minister Stephen Jones has skated through his fumbling of the Financial Services portfolio is that Opposition Leader Peter Dutton took so long to name someone to keep him on his toes.’
That changed in March when Luke Howarth, the federal member for the Queensland seat of Petrie, became shadow assistant treasurer opposite Jones.
His CV runs through being a sales rep for Toombul Music before joining his family’s Sandgate Pest Control. He’s also a qualified scuba diver and judo black belt. And while that doesn’t scream familiarity with the knotty, often arcane world of financial services regulation, maybe he’ll have the zeal of a convert?
That doesn’t mean he can’t benefit from his new prominence.
Last week, Howarth updated his register of interests to declare he had received a $7000 trip to Singapore. The value was for “sporting tickets and accommodation” (though, not flights?) paid for by DP World, the global logistics company owned and based in the United Arab Emirates.
Politicians are supposed to update the register within 28 days of receiving gifts. So, possibly, Howarth was hosted at the Singapore Formula One grand prix last month, as DP World is a sponsor of Australian driver Oscar Piastri’s McLaren team.
Among the other possibilities is he was put up for the Porsche Singapore Classic golf event, where DP World is the naming sponsor. But that was in March. Howarth’s office wasn’t returning calls on Sunday.
Still, what’s an Emirati company doing dropping such lavish hospitality on someone who until very recently was an obscure member of the opposition? Because $7000 is a lot of chilli crab.
1 Comment
Is it a blessing or a curse that the nation’s financial services professionals appear to be overseen by such non-talents?
The thinking goes that one reason Labor minister Stephen Jones has skated through his fumbling of the Financial Services portfolio is that Opposition Leader Peter Dutton took so long to name someone to keep him on his toes.’
That changed in March when Luke Howarth, the federal member for the Queensland seat of Petrie, became shadow assistant treasurer opposite Jones.
His CV runs through being a sales rep for Toombul Music before joining his family’s Sandgate Pest Control. He’s also a qualified scuba diver and judo black belt. And while that doesn’t scream familiarity with the knotty, often arcane world of financial services regulation, maybe he’ll have the zeal of a convert?
That doesn’t mean he can’t benefit from his new prominence.
Last week, Howarth updated his register of interests to declare he had received a $7000 trip to Singapore. The value was for “sporting tickets and accommodation” (though, not flights?) paid for by DP World, the global logistics company owned and based in the United Arab Emirates.
Politicians are supposed to update the register within 28 days of receiving gifts. So, possibly, Howarth was hosted at the Singapore Formula One grand prix last month, as DP World is a sponsor of Australian driver Oscar Piastri’s McLaren team.
Among the other possibilities is he was put up for the Porsche Singapore Classic golf event, where DP World is the naming sponsor. But that was in March. Howarth’s office wasn’t returning calls on Sunday.
Still, what’s an Emirati company doing dropping such lavish hospitality on someone who until very recently was an obscure member of the opposition? Because $7000 is a lot of chilli crab.