{"id":9263,"date":"2024-02-07T15:20:14","date_gmt":"2024-02-07T05:20:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=9263"},"modified":"2024-02-07T15:20:15","modified_gmt":"2024-02-07T05:20:15","slug":"luke-sayers-ejects-himself-from-the-scene","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=9263","title":{"rendered":"Luke Sayers ejects himself from the scene"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Seven-time Super Bowl winner Tom Brady<\/strong> sent a dart across the Crown Palladium ballroom a week ago, straight into the hands of Carlton coach Michael Voss<\/strong>. Those not mindlessly filming on iPhones clapped like seals. Carlton president Luke Sayers<\/strong> later handed Brady a bunch of Blues guernseys with his name on the back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Exactly why the NFL\u2019s GOAT was in Australia seems largely unimportant, aside from the fact that it allowed Sayers to delight Blues diehards by getting proximity to actual sporting greatness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Former head of PwC Australia Luke Sayers. Alex Ellinghausen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The former CEO of PwC later revealed he\u2019d be requesting an extension as Carlton\u2019s club president, beyond his 12-year director tenure which expires this year. There is a provision in the club\u2019s constitution for a one-year extension, but members should be asking, err, why?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sayers\u2019 argument, laid out in a Herald Sun<\/em> interview, revolves around his divine belief there\u2019s unfinished business, Carlton\u2019s fortunes are on the up, and besides, \u201cI\u2019m passionate to serve\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The AFL club president role is largely a figurehead, but\u00a0the sought-after job<\/a>is Melbourne\u2019s closest thing to a golden ticket. The role opens access to all kinds of special knees-ups with other relevance-hungry egos in corporate Australia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sayers jamming his foot in the closing door plays to type. Term limits? Please, that\u2019s for someone else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019d think that after the disastrous 2023 that Sayers and his PwC alumni endured, there\u2019d be a pause in brass neckery. Not even close.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the same interview, Sayers addressed the open wounds over at PwC: \u201cIt is still going through a process, but from my personal perspective, I believe that\u2019s completed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spectacular floggings<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There you have it. The ex-CEO has removed himself, personally, from the scene. Poof \u2026 and Sayers is gone!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To recap: PwC\u2019s disintegration occurred after these pages revealed the accounting giant\u2019s star partner Peter Collins<\/strong> shared confidential government plans within the firm which were used to build and market tax minimisation schemes to US blue-chip companies.<\/strong> PwC CEO Tom Seymour<\/strong>threw himself overboard, while other PwC partners were made to walk the plank. The country\u2019s professional services firms took spectacular floggings before three parliamentary inquiries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Senate\u2019s inquiry was told by the ATO that Sayers had been briefed on the \u201cconcerns related to PwC conduct\u201d by then-deputy ATO commissioner Jeremy Hirschhorn<\/strong> in August 2019. In that conversation, Hirschhorn \u201csuggested to [Sayers that he] personally review the internal emails\u201d that had been handed over as part of a probe into the firm\u2019s potential criminal non-compliance around falsely claiming privilege. A separate tranche of emails with the Tax Practitioners Board would go on to form part of the paper trail for some of the most damning revelations about PwC\u2019s conduct in the Sayers era. In a statement and subsequent hearing<\/a>, Sayers said he did not \u201cpersonally review\u201d the material, nor did he \u201crecall that being suggested by the ATO\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The blast radius continues into 2024<\/a>. PwC partners implicated, sacked and often publicly named are eyeing court. One is suing over retirement payments<\/a>, another over potential defamation<\/a>, opening the door to others streaming through. The rebadged PwC advisory firm Scyne tries to rebuild trust to do government work. Meanwhile, the Senate inquiry into consulting has spent the summer working on its final report into the big four and consultants due to drop in March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then there are the hundreds of PwC staffers whose professional reputations have been scarred. Spare a thought for the accountants trying to explain away a forever-cursed entry on their LinkedIn profile. Imagine the job interviews: \u201cIt says here you worked in tax advisory at PwC in 2015, tell us more about that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But for the No.1 at PwC during that time, personally, the episode and inquiry has been \u201ccompleted\u201d. Sayers has moved on to the next thing, showing little remorse, untethering himself from the mess at his old firm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rather than being run out of town, Sayers is leaning all the way in. But he needs others to play along. Will Melbourne\u2019s business scene look the other way? Will Carlton\u2019s members and directors? Luke Sayers bets they will.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During Brady\u2019s address, the former footballer said the \u201cfundamentals of our life and achievement\u201d are going to be the \u201csame from now until the end of time\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are people who think there is a better way of life than less work, less accountability, less work ethic, more excuses.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tom, you\u2019re right. He\u2019s in the room with you now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Source: AFR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The former PwC CEO shows no signs of reeling from the scandal at his former accounting firm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":9264,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3580],"tags":[472,998,3581],"class_list":["post-9263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pwc","tag-australian","tag-corruption","tag-pwc"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t