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Godwin Grech is a former Australian Treasury official, best known for his role in the centre of the
Utegate Utegate (also known as the OzCar affair) refers to a 2009 controversy in Australian federal politics, revolving around allegations made by then Federal Leader of the Opposition and Liberal leader, Malcolm Turnbull, that the Prime Minister, Kevin ...
scandal in 2009. Grech grew up in Melbourne as the son of Maltese immigrants. After graduating from the University of Melbourne with a Commerce degree, Grech moved to Canberra to join the Australian Public Service. His public service career was split between the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and the Treasury. For the most part, Grech was close to the policy action of the Howard and Rudd Governments, and had a reputation as being highly diligent and reliable. However, in Prime Minister and Cabinet he handled a controversial Western Bulldogs grant in 2004, and in the Department of the Treasury, he was in the middle of the 2009 OzCar affair, in which he forged an email to imply special treatment of Labor political donors. The OzCar affair forced his retirement from the public service in 2009.


Life and career

Grech's parents were born in Malta in the 1930s and migrated to Australia. Godwin attended St. Paul's College graduating from the school in 1984. Godwin went on to study commerce at the University of Melbourne.


Early Treasury career

Directly after graduating university, Grech joined the
Australian Public Service The Australian Public Service (APS) is the federal civil service of the Commonwealth of Australia responsible for the public administration, public policy, and public services of the departments and executive and statutory agencies of the G ...
. In the late 1990s Grech had executive assignments in
Treasury A treasury is either *A government department related to finance and taxation, a finance ministry. *A place or location where treasure, such as currency or precious items are kept. These can be state or royal property, church treasure or in p ...
's markets group, dealing with financial institutions and systems and with competition and market access policy.
In 1998, he was briefly seconded to work in
Joe Hockey Joseph Benedict Hockey (born 2 August 1965) is a former Australian politician and diplomat. He was the Member of Parliament for North Sydney from 1996 until 2015. He was the Treasurer of Australia in the Abbott Government from 18 September 2 ...
's office when Hockey was financial services minister, although the secondment lasted only two weeks due to personal differences with another staffer. By 2003, Grech was general manager of Treasury's competition and consumer policy division.


Management of Western Bulldogs government grant

From June 2003 to July 2008, Grech worked in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. At Prime Minister and Cabinet, he advised on employment, business conditions, competition and consumer affairs. In 2004 at the Department, shortly before the 2004 federal election, Grech was responsible for handling a grant to the
Western Bulldogs Football Club The Western Bulldogs are a professional Australian rules football team that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier competition. Founded in 1877 as the Footscray Football Club, and based in West Footscray in the o ...
, a club he supported, for rebuilding
Whitten Oval Whitten Oval (also known as Victoria University Whitten Oval under a naming rights agreement) is a stadium in the inner-western suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, located in Barkly Street, West Footscray. It is the training and administra ...
, the training and administrative headquarters for the club. The grant was part of the Howard Government's "pitch to the working class vote", and Grech was, in his own words, "the primary officer that managed and facilitated the Federal Government’s response to the submission by the Western Bulldogs Football Club regarding the proposed re-development of the Whitten Oval. This included oversight and personally briefing the then Prime Minister, the Hon. John Howard, and his office, on the size, scope and overall merit of the project."


Head of OzCar scheme

In 2008, Grech returned to the Treasury as a principal adviser in its financial systems division. His new position saw him responsible for the $850 million OzCar scheme, including formulating and administering the scheme. While in the position, he created a fake email in which then Prime Minister
Kevin Rudd Kevin Michael Rudd (born 21 September 1957) is an Australian former politician and diplomat who served as the 26th prime minister of Australia from 2007 to 2010 and again from June 2013 to September 2013, holding office as the leader of the ...
's economics advisor,
Andrew Charlton Andrew Charlton (born 1979) is an Australian politician and economist who has been Member of Parliament for the division of Parramatta since 2022. Charlton has been described as a "centrist, evidence-based, data-driven economist with entrepre ...
, purportedly sought help in seeking special treatment for a political donor. He then took the email to then Leader of the Opposition
Malcolm Turnbull Malcolm Bligh Turnbull (born 24 October 1954) is an Australian former politician and businessman who served as the 29th prime minister of Australia from 2015 to 2018. He held office as leader of the Liberal Party of Australia. Turnbull grad ...
and to media, making allegations against the Prime Minister and then-Treasurer,
Wayne Swan Wayne Maxwell Swan (born 30 June 1954), often colloquially referred to as Swanny, is an Australian politician who is National President of the Labor Party. He was previously the Deputy Prime Minister of Australia and Deputy Leader of the Labor ...
. The OzCar affair, also known as
Utegate Utegate (also known as the OzCar affair) refers to a 2009 controversy in Australian federal politics, revolving around allegations made by then Federal Leader of the Opposition and Liberal leader, Malcolm Turnbull, that the Prime Minister, Kevin ...
, was according to political analyst
Barrie Cassidy Barrie Cassidy (born 4 March 1950) is an Australian political journalist, as well as a radio and television host and presenter and commentator for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. He was the long-running host of the Sunday morning poli ...
the beginning of the end for Malcolm Turnbull's leadership, and according to
Michelle Grattan Michelle Grattan (born 30 June 1944) is an Australian journalist who was the first woman to become editor of an Australian metropolitan daily newspaper. Specialising in political journalism, she has written for and edited many significant Austr ...
wounded Turnbull terribly. This despite his self-proclaimed motivation to place himself where he thought he could be of most value to Turnbull and the Liberal Party. The OzCar scandal propelled Grech into the public sphere, various politicians were interviewed on their impressions of Grech, with
John Howard John Winston Howard (born 26 July 1939) is an Australian former politician who served as the 25th prime minister of Australia from 1996 to 2007, holding office as leader of the Liberal Party. His eleven-year tenure as prime minister is the s ...
describing him as "competent and hard-working"; Malcolm Turnbull stating he was "a very highly regarded public servant"; and former Liberal Member for Mayo
Jamie Briggs Jamie Edward Briggs (born 9 June 1977) is a former Australian politician, who represented the House of Representatives seat of Mayo for the Liberal Party of Australia from the 2008 Mayo by-election to the 2 July 2016 federal election. Briggs ...
telling media that "Godwin got the job done: he was the officer for looking after it". On the back of the scandal Grech resigned from the Treasury department in Spring 2009, while a voluntary psychiatric patient in Canberra. The Australian Federal Police began an investigation into Grech which found that there was evidence Grech had broken the law, but that he would not face criminal charges over the affair. The 16-month-long investigation reputedly took a heavy toll on Grech, who was suffering serious kidney and bowel disease at the time.


Life after public service

Grech sold his home in Calwell, ACT in 2010. In 2012, he made what media described as a "surprise public foray", in which he wrote an opinion piece for ''The Spectator Australia'' advocating a Tony Abbott government. He argued in the piece that "Australian governance has deteriorated markedly since the election of the Rudd-Gillard government in November 2007" and commented that chronic leadership instability, spin and incompetence had produced some of the most appalling public policy and administration since Federation in 1901. In 2013, Fairfax Media reported Grech was believed to have won a payout from the federal government for his ill health. Media sought access to case details, but they were deemed confidential and the public was barred from attending court proceedings or accessing court documents.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grech, Godwin Year of birth missing (living people) University of Melbourne alumni Living people Australian public servants Australian people of Maltese descent