There are major implications of the banking royal commission for arts governance in Australia. 1/n
Exhibit A: Patty Akopiantz is a board member of Belvoir. She is also a current director of AMP. At AMP she is on the Governance Committee. Did she know about the doctored Clayton Utz report? 2/n 
AMP chair Catherine Brenner is at the eye of the AMP storm. She is also a trustee of the Art Gallery of NSW. She's just fired AMP CEO Craig Meller. But did she sign off on a doctored 'independent report' to ASIC? Should she remain an AGNSW trustee?
Former Commonwealth Bank CEO Ian Narev presided over years of financial misconduct at CommBank before stepping down -- including the fees-for-no-service scandal. He's still chair of the Sydney Theatre Company. 4/n
When I asked the STC last year whether Narev should remain as its chair, they dismissed my enquiries. Ironically, one of the qualities they admired in Narev is his encouragement of risk. crikey.com.au/2017/11/01/sho… (5/n)
Let's take the STC statement at face value for a moment. They think Ian Narev is a "challenging, agile and creative thinker". I'm sure he is all of these things. (6/n)
But what does it say about the governance of Australian culture that you can preside over a sustained period of corporate malfeasance at a major bank and still retain your seat as the chair of the country's largest funded theatre company? (7/n)
David Armstrong is the chair of the Australian Museum. He has been a director of NAB since 2014. He is Chairman of the NAB's Audit Committee. Since 2014 NAB staff have been involved in a bribery ring, forged signatures, and a major financial advice scandal.
Ilana Atlas has been a director of ANZ since 2014. She was chair of Bell Shakespeare 2010-2016 and director 2004-16. ANZ has manipulated the bank bill swap rate, bilked customers of interest, breached the banking code, and charged fees for no service
I could go on and on with these examples. Macquarie boss Nicholas Moore is the chair of Screen Australia and the Sydney Opera House, for instance. The links between the big banks and the big arts companies are intimate and intertwined. 10/n
The membership of these captains of industry on arts boards are justified by the neoliberal rhetoric that they understand business and therefore bring much-needed skills to the arts. But what if their business skills are overrated? What if their skills are not skills at all? 11/n
It's a measure of the dominance of pro-busienss ideologies in this country that we think it's fine for a disgraced banker to chair the top theatre company. But think of the reverse scnario. Would we let an actor, a musician or a painter chair a big bank? 12/n
Given the scale of the mismanagement and corruption revealed by the banking royal commission, maybe it's time we should ....
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I found another senior AMP executive who is also directing a major cultural institution. AMP's Sally Bruce is company secretary of the Melbourne International Arts Festival. Before AMP she was at NAB. Melbourne Festival also has a senior banker from ANZ on its board, Tammy Medard
