Mike Baird (recently ex KPMG) and Richard White (still WiseTech!) gave us a great lesson this week in how not to look dodgy as hell.
After reading far too much of all this, I'm reminded of three things about reputation:
1. S$x, even scandalous, is often fine
2. Lying is not, usually
3. Hiding 1 or 2 draws more attention, always.
Not all our private mistakes are public business, thank goodness. CEOs, exec teams and NEDs are allowed to screw up and fess up. But hide, delete, attempt to suppress, blatantly spin or lawyer away facts (yes, those pesky actual facts) you make what's hidden waaay more interesting.
Police and senators are particularly curious people, hence the AFP’s interest in Mr White and our Senators drilling KPMG and their lawyers.
The Streisand effect
That’s the attempt to bury information that makes people want it more.
In 2003 Barbra Streisand filed a lawsuit to remove an aerial photograph of her Malibu home from a public coastal erosion record. Beforehand the image had been downloaded six times, twice by her lawyers, afterwards, 420,000 times (ref: Wikipedia).
The internet’s operating principle remains brutally simple. Forbidden fruit gets clicks.
Even when it’s toxically far right
This week Karl Stefanovic and Tommy Robinson gave us the 2026 version thanks to a deleted interview and legal threats. The news went from “far right commentator and Karl love in” to “why can’t I see it?”. Pauline Hanson reposted the full interview because of course. What should have been suppression became distribution, gifted by critics.
KPMG: the boardroom version.
Mike Baird comes out of that fubar looking unusually good. The AFR reports Baird stayed on the board until he made sure an actual independent investigation into whistleblower claims was happening, then resigned. He told the Senate inquiry he wanted an external investigation, clients contacted, and consequences if claims were substantiated. If you know Mike (and I know him only in passing) that’s pretty believable.
That’s the reputational point to me. In a crappy corporate character crisis, there are few defensible positions: call out the problem, fully investigate it and push for consequence or exit the people responsible.
Everything else starts to look like upholstery.
Which brings us to WiseTech
Two AFR headlines this week were about sex, partly because sex sells. The real story for us is conduct, governance and capital. WiseTech shares fell another 18% after reports of an AFP investigation into allegations re White and visa/work/s$x arrangements. White denies the allegations, and WiseTech said it wasn’t aware of an investigation into the company itself. That’s careful and BS all at once.
The Venn diagram is: known conduct risk, a possible threat from AI, and board inaction. Of course, a while back four directors already resigned over White’s ongoing role.
So what?
Don’t confuse silence with control.
If people think you are hiding something, they work harder to find it. When they find you are hiding something, the original issue becomes the least interesting part of your story.
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