Farewell PwC

The time has come. After nearly 17 years at PwC, it is time to move on. Seventeen years at one firm sounds like a combination of monotony and institutionalisation, but it has been anything but that. Working from three offices (Sydney, Melbourne, and Canberra) in a range of roles and for both private and government clients across a range of issues, I have loved the diversity and challenge provided to me.

With many of the economics team departing for Scyne and now the winding up of a private-sector economic consulting offering at PwC Australia, I cannot help but reminisce about the broader economics team during my time with the firm.

As our team evolved, I am deeply grateful to the core economics Partners and Principals who have been instrumental in my journey: Scott Lennon , Craig Fenton Mark Ingham James van Smeerdijk Martin Stokie Jeff Balchin Ray Challen Mark Thomson Marty Jovic Sarah Close GAICD Zac Hatzantonis Sharon Ponniah PhD Janice Lee Simon Teschendorf Harry Koller Mark Streeting Robert Williams Peter Hammond Roger Beale AO . The support of Bruce Carlstein Thomas Bowden Frances Maguire Rick Crethar Nick Chipman and Mike McGrath was also appreciated. Each of you has left an indelible mark on my career, I am truly grateful for your guidance and support.

Over seventeen years, many people have moved through the team. From the cameos provided by the experienced Blair Comley Roger Beale AO and Saul Eslake , to the contributions provided by the most junior trainees, every person added to the evolving DNA of the team, and I hope that when they moved on, they took a little of our team’s DNA to their next role. In this regard, it was pretty remarkable to recently see that three of the Productivity Commissioners were ex-PwC Economics & Policy team members (Michael Brennan, Martin Stokie & Natalie Siegel-Brown ).

I have often been asked, 'What do you do at PwC?'. I have usually responded somewhat flippantly, 'The weird and the wonderful'. While there are too many projects and people to acknowledge, some of the things that I look back on with particular fondness include:

• a decade of work for the Australian Government, working in partnership with state and territory governments, independent school representatives and the Catholic education sector, to better identify, support and fund students with disabilities. It has been a real journey, and while nothing is ever perfect, it has been a real privilege to see the evolving understanding and support of students with disabilities. It has been a large and rotating cast for over ten years, but special thanks to Marty Jovic , Stuart Shinfield Renee Martin Ronelle Hutchinson and Johan Haris .
• David Williams-Chen and Marty Jovic allowing me to ride on their and others' coattails on thought leadership regarding the marriage equality plebiscite. Re-watching my appearance on The Panel (see below) unfortunately reminds me how much I have aged! (The thing you don't get a sense of from this interview was that I had no prior warning that Steve Price would go hard against the work, and that it was remote so I was just looking down the camera and so didn't have any sense of body language of the interviewers).

• the hideously complex-to-organise international engagement undertaken across 30 countries with George Squibbs and David Williams-Chen. Never have I experienced such stress getting a project approved, but the quality of the output (that will never be seen) made it worthwhile.
• the various transport and infrastructure projects and Budget briefings in Papua New Guinea. Thanks to the support of Peter Burnie and Jonathan Seeto 乔纳森 司徒 in PwC PNG. Mark Vassarotti you were correct about the importance of PNG and the contribution that we can and need to make to support our nearest neighbour. I always felt we were walking in the steps of the godfather of the PwC economics team - Paul Baxter - who will readily recount one of his first jobs being sitting on the mountain overlooking the Port Moresby port to count ships to develop the PNG National Accounts.
• the multiple tax thought leadership pieces prepared with Paul Abbey and Nicola Neilsen - two amazing and incredibly smart people. In my world, Paul's claim that he was sitting in a church service when the idea of Stamp Duty optionality came to him puts him in the running with 'Joliet' Jake Blues for the greatest in-church revelation. Indeed, this is how I imaging Paul receiving his insight.

• the many regulatory impact statements and other regulatory analyses with Martin Stokie Travis Ahearn Sam Abusah . If there was ever a 'weird and wonderful' issue I think we saw them in this regulatory reform work.
• a multitude of business cases and economic appraisals for social infrastructure, from schools, to hospitals, universities, courts, jails, research centres, community health centres, and so on, with Vanessa Drew Guillaume Babille and Leonie Grover and many others.
• the annual Media and Entertainment Outlook with Megan Brownlow Justin Papps Dan Robins, which was always being reinvented as the industries changed with digitisation and then COVID-19, and is an under-appreciated (at least in PwC) bible for the industries that it addresses.
• everything dishlickers (tracks, animal welfare, funding models, industry strategy and taxation) with Dave Shurey and Jasminah Woodhouse
• all things copyright. This spanned: expert witness work in Australia, New Zealand and Portugal; assisting in the development of a global methodology for valuing copyright industries with the World Intellectual Property Organization – WIPO , and then application of that methodology in Australia and the Phillipines; advice to the Australian Government supporting a couple of free trade negotiations; and hotly contested policy advice
• presenting to a broad range of firm clients generally, but particularly in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Tag-teaming with the health projections provided by Emily Prior , it was a fascinating time when such uncertainty felt somewhat comfortable to an economist. The irony was that I was castigated by some in the global firm for being too pessimistic, and simultaneously by some in the the domestic firm for being too optimistic; I interpreted that as though I must have been right!

Runner up awards to: Jason Collins and Eshan Motwani for behavioural economics; Rob Tyson Drew Butterworth and Jonathan Cairns-Terry for GEM; and Dr Lucas Carmody for environmental stuff. There are so many amazing projects and people; so sorry if I have not mentioned you specifically, please put it down to recency bias or aging.

I also want to thank all those unsung people who helped me do what I did: the various people supporting me and my team, including Suzanne Telfer Khrista Nanayakkara Renee Marsicano Kelly McMaster Trudie Soar and Maria Pirzas; my various media whisperers/handlers ( Patrick Lane Rachel Mulholland Kristen Cusack Meghan Senior Kate Bryant Dannielle Hinwood , and right back to Lisa Jervis ); account support from Amanda McMahon, Marianne Hynes BBehavStudies and Emma Stonham ; and Niamh Scanlon and Mike Goddard for helping me navigate the ever-present various risk and conflict challenges.

Also, a special thanks to the final remainders: David Williams-Chen Mark Picton Nicholas Lewis Adam Ahearn Michael Panozzo and Ryuichi Diep . I am so glad that you all seem to have landed on your feet. Thanks for your continued support.

It is hard to leave without commenting on what, should ever turn his mind to it, Justice Lee may refer to as the omni-shambles that is the PwC 'tax matter'. I am not the best at taking a hint - for Christmas my family went and purchased the original drawing of this cartoon.

In hindsight, the governance model for the 330ish partners that were at PwC when I joined in 2017 was unlikely to be fit for purpose (if it ever was) when Partner numbers peaked at 940ish last year. Maybe this phase of PwC had to end badly, as Tom Cruise's character in Cocktail says - 'Everything ends badly, otherwise it wouldn't end'.

In any case, I have good wishes for all that remain at PwC as it rebuilds anew ...