Very pubic displayhangs over Sayers’ PwC pension
Hannah Wootton Reporter
Jan 28, 2025
If you learn who your real friends are in times of true crisis, then Luke Sayers must be
feeling popular. A d*** pic scandal forced
him to quit the Carlton presidency and step back from his consultancy
Sayers Group last week, but his pals at PwC are helping stymie the financial
sting.
Their former CEO clocked his 55th birthday last year. This means he can tap into a pension scheme that promises past PwC partners around 15 per cent of its profits annually, provided he’s not working for a rival.
Happier times: Cate and Luke Sayers (middle) attend the 2024 Australian Open
with ANZ’s Shayne Elliott and Paul O’Sullivan, Ruffy and Fiona Geminder, Tim
Gurner, Lindsay Fox and Jack Cowin. Jesse
Marlow
And, since he took an
indefinite leave of absence from Sayers Group last week, he technically
isn’t.
Average payments under the scheme are around $140,000 annually, scaled
depending on tenure and seniority. You can’t get much higher than a former CEO
who started as a grad.
The firm has gone silent on whether he will get the cash. But given it
resisted pressure to cut Sayers off during the tax leaks scandal despite the
entire sorry saga occurring on his watch (and the pension scheme providing that
former partners cannot have brought PwC into disrepute), it seems unlikely a
stray penis is going to cost him access.
Small change, perhaps, to someone waiting out the scandal in Tuscany and who
banked $16.5 million from the sale of his family home in December. But anything
helps – the Cinque Terre doesn’t do cheap bolt holes.
Back home, Sayers’ friends (as transactional as shares in his consulting
shop) have also been covertly working to limit the photo’s damage. Rule number
one of boys club is we protect our own.
Sayers has collected contacts – from former Victorian premier Daniel Andrews to
ousted Liberal MP Josh
Frydenberg to billionaire Lindsay Fox – for years. Seek co-founder Andrew Bassat invests
in Sayers Group, along with caravan king Gerry Ryan, Liberal travel honcho Andrew Burness and
Lindsay with son David
Fox. Whether they are saying it aloud or not, these tentacles
in the corridors of power are fantastic cover.
Corporate fix-it man Leon
Zwier is on
legal advice, former Labor staffer Sharon
McCrohan is on media management. Soft-gaze features about the
expected rehabilitation
of Melbourne’s main man are appearing in major publications – Shane Warne would be
impressed by that level of spin.
The AFL and Carlton also closed ranks around him, the former clearing Sayers
by accepting his “it wasn’t me” defence and the latter announcing his
resignation in lock step. Isn’t it handy that the AFL can only thoroughly
investigate club officials?
Then, his confidantes are suggesting Sayers’ X account was “compromised” by
someone close to him. The Collins Street set knows no one with good manners
will probe a family matter too hard.
But helpers didn’t get where they were through blind loyalty, and there’s
already jostling to take over at Carlton.
Frydenberg’s name has – as usual – been canvassed. So has ANZ banker Mark Whelan’s, radio
presenter Tom Elliott,
premiership player and failed mayoral candidate Anthony Koutoufides, acting co-president and
JPMorgan chairman Rob
Priestley and, bizarrely, former state Labor minister Martin Pakula. With
friends like these...
The country’s most expert opinion and analysis. Sign
up to our weekly Opinion newsletter.
Hannah Wootton is a reporter for the Financial Review. Connect with Hannah on Twitter.
Email Hannah at hannah.wootton@afr.com
