The Liberal Party Old Boys Club has found gainful employment for another early retiree. Richard Alston is set to become chairman of Broadcasting Services Australia Ltd.

BSA (good acronym that) announced Alston's appointment in an announcement to the Australian Stock Exchange this morning.

Alston (and this is the real he), perhaps the worst Federal Minister for Communications since the job was called Postmaster-General, takes up the appointment after being out of politics for almost precisely twelve months. He in fact resigned as minister on 7 October 2003, and they wisely sat on this announcement for a few days till after the federal election.

Alston was minister for communications for all of his seven and a half years on the government benches. He picks up a $70,000 per annum salary for the chairmanship plus one million options in BSA shares, which were trading at $0.40 a pop at close of trade Wednesday.

BSA must see it as a coup that they have snavelled the former minister responsible for regulating their industry. Whether it matters that he seemed obsessed about anti-US bias at the ABC, or clueless about operating the on-off button of a computer, is another question.