"Private matter" all above board?

From The Sunday Mail/Adelaide Now

Former Liberal Premier Dean Brown has been paid more than $800,000 for advice to the State Government on how to tackle the state's crippling drought.

The figure is more than double the amount that Deputy Premier and Treasurer Kevin Foley publicly stated last year.

The Sunday Mail has learned Mr Brown has received more than $800,000 over the past three years, working as chief strategist co-ordinating statewide responses to the drought and lobbying on behalf of communities along the River Murray.

Acting Premier Paul Holloway did not deny the $800,000 figure this week, but Mr Brown said he didn't think it was accurate.

A spokesman for Mr Foley said Mr Brown - who was appointed Special Adviser on Drought to Premier Mike Rann in October 2007 - had been paid by three government departments, but he refused to name them. In December, in his role as Acting Premier, Mr Foley approved a new $130 million copper-gold mine at Kanmantoo, in the Adelaide Hills, to be operated by Hillgrove Resources Ltd - a company chaired by Mr Brown.

The mining project was opposed by the operators of fertiliser company Neutrog, who feared their Kanmantoo plant would have to close because of the mine's impact.

Mr Holloway defended employing Mr Brown, saying this week that the Government's remuneration package with the former premier was a "private matter" and would not be released without Mr Brown's consent.

On tonight's Channel Nine TV news I heard Mr Brown describe himself as a "public servant". If that is correct shouldn't his remuneration package, like those of other public servants, be disclosed?

Mr Holloway (apart from having a name redolent of a minor Dickens character) looks and sounds out of his depth on TV, though in this matter he's more the messenger/monkey than the organ grinder. Definitely not Premier material though.

Sir Les Patterson redux as Foley off to Hollywood for blow job?

SA Deputy Premier and Treasurer Foley, one of the most philistine South Australian government ministers, has elbowed his notional boss Mr Rann, and other ministers with some knowledge of the arts (eg Dr Lomax-Smith) , aside by somehow getting the numbers to lead a delegation to the USA to, as The Advertiser/ Adelaide Now reports, " blow SA film trumpet" :

Deputy Premier Kevin Foley will knock on Hollywood's door and drum up business for our ailing film industry this month when he leads a South Australian invasion of the U.S.

The Treasurer, who leaves tomorrow, will join hundreds of high-profile Australians, including Kylie Minogue, Terri and Bindi Irwin and Olivia Newton John, for G'Day USA - Australia Week 2008.

He has meetings scheduled with Warner Bros and Walt Disney film executives to promote interest in film production in SA, which has slumped. "In particular on this trip, we have a large contingent of business people and people from the South Australian Film Corporation," Mr Foley said.

"Our niche as a film state is clearly in areas such as post-production and some of the more specialised services to the film sector."

.....

South Australian film, music, food and wine will be promoted to millions of Americans.

The trip is expected to expose SA services and products to more than 100 million people.

Mr Foley will have meetings with economists to be briefed about the state of the U.S. economy. He also will discuss South Australian innovations in energy.

Australian culture will be on show at events in Los Angeles and New York. Representatives from South Australian companies and artists including Rising Sun Pictures, Etype Jazz, Beerenberg, Burra Creek Wines, Orgo Products, Nardone Wines and Pendleton Estate Olive Oil will accompany Mr Foley. Maggie Beer and Coopers products will be on display.

If Mr Rann can't swing a trip like this for himself, does this mean he's on the way out?

Mr Foley's public persona suggests that he is no cinephile or gastronome, yet his reputation suggests that he can at least make some claim to possessing a first hand knowledge of beer, which should give some credibility to his promotion of Coopers products, provided that they weren't what he had in mind when he spoke on the record of "poofter beer".

Perhaps while he's in Hollywood Mr Foley will be auditioning for the Sir Les Patterson part in a movie designed to revive the moribund SA film industry. His hair's not quite grey enough and his teeth insufficiently snaggled, but in most other respects he fits the part admirably.