Crikey

The Rudd family business interests are back in the news after Therese Rein’s British business won a lucrative $200 million contract to help up to 1 million people with disabilities find work.

The British unions are upset that WorkDirections UK isn’t guaranteeing all the conditions of civil servants transferring across to work for the Rudds, but the bigger issue here once again goes to potential conflicts of interest.

Therese Rein has previously promised to sell her Australian division– which gets most of its revenue from the federal government – but, frankly, there are a few problems with these UK deals as well.

The UK is one of our closest allies and here we have the British Labour Government paying vast sums to a company which will directly benefit an incoming Australian Labor Prime Minister.

And when it comes to conflicts, the Rudd family share portfolio is also a shocker, even if they have retrospectively been transferred into a blind trust. Such a move only works if you cash in all the stocks and then the trustee buys afresh, but there’s no suggestion that has happened.

Applied to the disclosure from last December, this is how much of the most inappropriate holdings are now worth after a few more months of sharemarket boom:

CSL, $300,000: enjoys plasma monopoly and big spending Federal health initiatives such as national immunisation program for cervical cancer.

BHP-Billiton, $275,000: want Labor to approve its huge uranium expansion and would love Mandarin speaking Rudd to smooth the way in China.

National Australia Bank, $140,000: federally licensed member of the lucrative banking cartel.

ANZ, $110,000: federally licensed member of the lucrative banking cartel.

PBL, $110,000: federally licensed for TV and state licences for casinos.

Transurban, $110,000: Australia’s biggest tollroad company with key government concessions in Melbourne and Sydney.

Westfield, $125,000: Australia’s biggest shopping centre company with masterful ability to get support from all levels of government for big developments.

Ramsay Healthcare, $85,000: Australia’s biggest private hospital company has enjoyed 15-fold share price rise over the Howard years as health spending ballooned.

Macquarie Bank, $35,000: federally licensed and loves buying monopoly assets from governments.

It would be hard to pick a more government-dependent portfolio. When my wife was elected to the RACV board, I had to sell my $500 worth of shares in Insurance Australia Group because the two companies are in a joint venture.

If the Rudds move into the Lodge, surely all these shares should simply be sold, along with the job placement business. There’s no bigger commitment that being Australia’s first couple – and in financial terms you’ve just got to be cleaner than clean.

Besides, how many tens of millions does a Prime Minister’s family need to make.