I have talked to the CEO, Peter Fosberg, once or twice in the...

I have talked to the CEO, Peter Fosberg, once or twice in the past three years, and I gleaned that he was horrified to find on joining TGA, that provisioning in respect of the then-ongoing ASIC investigation was so low, and he did what he could to mitigate that, I think from memory, by using provisions for bonuses that he knew were not required to mitigate the exposure of under provisioning. We discussed expenses generally, and I came away with the opinion that he was a competent financial accountant, and he would either provide accurately, or err on the side of caution. On balance, if the provision for that bunch of lease exposures is not accurate, it is more likely, I think, to be too high than too low.

As an aside, it would be crassly stupid to signal to the enemy that the class action had any merit by publishing the provision for it. A bit of fat in other provisioning may be set aside to be conservative - not that I think that the class action has any merit. I gained the impression that Peter Fosberg shares that view, which is in line with the standard statement that TGA has issued on the matter. Whether Maurice Blackburn's Labor Party sympathy plays a role in this matter, I cannot say. Maurice Blackburn donated $58,896 to the ALP last year, and larger amounts in earlier years. In the 2014-15 financial year Maurice Blackburn was the biggest contributor to any one party, which was a total $80,237 to the Labor Party.