Stir Over Directorship Of Australian Companies

Press, Volume C, Issue 29508, 9 May 1961, Page 3

Stir Over Directorship Of Australian Companies

(N.Z Press Association—Copyright)

CANBERRA, May 8.

A political stir has been caused by the - announcement that the chairman of the Commonwealth Banking Corporation (Mr W. D. McDonald) has been appointed a director of Imperial Chemical Industries of Australia and New Zealand, according to the Melbourne “Herald's” chief Canberra correspondent.

The Government will be asked this week whether it considers that the acceptance by Mr McDonald of a place on the board may involve a conflict of interests between that company and the Commonwealth Banking Corporation. the correspondent said. Mr F. M. Daly, a Labour member of the House of Representatives, has tabled a series of questions to the Treasurer. Mr Holt.

The correspondent said that Mr Daly asks whether Mr McDonald receives a salary of £A6500 a year as chairman of the Banking

Corporation to obviate the necessity for participation in private business activities: whether the terms of Mr McDonald's appointment as chairman of the bank impose any conditions on his engagement in outside activities. or whether he is free to accept directorships or appointments with other organisations as he chooses; and whether, if the chairman of the Banking Corporation can engage freely in outside activities, heads of other Commonwealth instrumentalities and senior public servants will be allowed to accept similar outside appointments. The situation is unusual though not without precedent; but it is causing considerable interest, the correspondent says. Mr McDonald was a member of the board of the Engineering Construction Company of McDonald Industries, which he had founded, at the time of his appointment as chairman of the Banking Corporation. In principle, Mr McDonald’s link with McDonald Industries is not dissimilar from his hew one with Imperial Chemical Industries and the Government had full knowledge of it at the time of his appointment as chairman of the bank, the correspondent said.