The boyfriend of a former ABC-TV newsreader will soon be in charge of a $300billion n government wealth fund.
Greg Combet, who served as a cabinet minister under Labor prime minister Julia Gillard from 2010 to 2013, has been named as the new Future Fund chairman.
Mr Combet, the partner of former longtime Sydney ABC-TV newsreader Juanita Phillips, will replace former Liberal treasurer Peter Costello, who established the fund in 2006 to finance public service superannuation liabilities.
The Future Fund now manages $272billion worth of assets, including Labor’s $10billion Housing Future Fund, charged with building 10,000 social and affordable dwellings over five years.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers on Monday announced Mr Combet would take over as chair of the Future Fund board of guardians in the middle of 2024.
‘Mr Combet has a distinguished career and extensive experience in investment and superannuation, government and the climate and energy transformation,’ he said.
Power couple: The boyfriend of a former ABC-TV newsreader will soon be in charge of a $300billion n government wealth fund (Greg Combet is pictured right with Juanita Phillips in 2014)
‘His appointment will bring deep, diverse experience and fresh leadership to the Future Fund.’
Mr Combet and Phillips began dating in 2012 when he was a cabinet minister and she was the ABC’s 7pm television newsreader in Sydney.
He separated from his wife Petra Hilsen while she left her husband Mario Milostic.
Phillips delivered her last bulletin in September, signing off for the final time after 21 years, surpassing her predecessor Richard Morecroft’s 19-year run.
She had previously been a Ten newsreader in Brisbane and Sydney during the 1990s, and joined the ABC, initially as a co-host with Tony Eastley in 2002 after several years abroad working for CNN International and BBC World News.
Mr Combet was secretary of the n Council of Trade Unions, before being parachuted into a safe Labor seat in Newcastle in 2007.
This was after he led the campaign against the then Coalition government’s hated WorkChoices laws which forced new workers on to individual contracts without a no-disadvantage test.
He became a parliamentary secretary under incoming prime minister Kevin Rudd.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers announced Mr Combet would take over as chairman in the middle of 2024
He was promoted to Cabinet with the climate change portfolio in September 2010 after Ms Gillard formed a minority government with the Greens.
Since leaving politics in 2013, he has sat on several boards, including the National COVID-19 Coordination Commission under the previous Coalition government.
He is now chair of the Net Zero Economy Agency, and has been the chairman of IFM Investors and a trustee of nSuper and Superannuation Trust of .