See text below.
EXCERPTS
Failed childcare chain ABC Learning paid one of its directors, former childcare minister Larry Anthony, more than $235,000 to lobby governments on its behalf.
Mr Anthony, who still sits on the board of the collapsed childcare corporation, also pocketed up to $65,000 a year in director's fees.
His private company, Larry Anthony & Associates Pty Ltd, earned $125,000 in 2007 and $110,000 in 2006, according to ABC Learning's annual reports.
Mr Anthony, the architect of the Howard government's free-market approach to childcare, said yesterday his consultancy work for ABC continued for "a couple of months" last year.
"It was terminated in 2008," Mr Anthony told The Australian.
Asked why a company would need to pay a director consultancy fees for advice, he replied: "I was doing a lot of government relations work with them."
As the federal community services minister from 1999 to 2001 and minister for children and youth affairs from 2001 to 2004, Mr Anthony engineered the Howard government's revolution in childcare.
By axing operational subsidies for community-based centres and subsidising fees to parents, the Coalition government gave carte blanche to the private sector to expand the childcare market.
…
Mr Anthony joined ABC Learning's board of directors in 2005, just six months after voters kicked him out of his Byron Bay-based seat of Richmond.
He said yesterday he decided to terminate his consultancy contract with ABC before the Howard government lost the 2007 election.
Mr Anthony was a member of ABC's audit committee in 2007, earning $60,000 in fees and $5000 in superannuation. The registered office for Larry Anthony & Associates is the Brisbane-based Harris Black chartered accountants.
…
Mr Anthony registered his consulting company with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission on March 9, 2005 -- exactly a week before he joined the ABC board.
He is not the only director to have benefited from ABC's success. Company founders Eddy Groves and his ex-wife Le Neve, along with former director Martin Kemp -- who all left ABC last year -- were shareholders in Ezi Debit, which ABC paid $108,000 in 2007 and $156,000 in 2006 for "parent payment solutions".
Bill Bessemer, a fellow former ABC director, was a shareholder and director of the Austock Group at the time it was paid $30million by ABC in 2007 in fees and property rentals. Mr Bessemer is now chairman of Austock, which is the landlord of hundreds of childcare centres run by ABC.
- reprinted from The Australian