Max Moore-Wilton

Maxwell William Moore-Wilton (born 27 January 1943) is an Australian corporate executive and former public servant, colloquially known as "Max the Axe".

Early career Moore-Wilton served as a senior executive in the Trade and Primary Industries portfolios, General Manager of the Australian Wheat Board, Director-General of the NSW Department of Transport, and the Chief Executive of the Maritime Services Board and the Roads & Traffic Authority, manager of Australian National Line and at the Australian Securities Exchange.

Secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet Moore-Wilton was appointed Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet with effect from 13 May 1996, He also oversaw the passing of the , which gave the Prime Minister the power to hire and fire heads of departments. As a result, he was accused of turning the public service into an "ideological office family". After the Minister sought to dismiss him, Barratt commenced legal action, claiming unfair dismissal and that Moore-Wilton had failed to follow due process. Barratt had a temporary stay, prior to his dismissal, and subsequently losing, on appeal.

Moore-Wilton's approach as departmental secretary may be encapsulated in an address he gave in 1999 to the Institute of Public Administration Australia:

In announcing Moore-Wilton's resignation from the Australian Public Service, with effect from 20 December 2002, Prime Minister Howard reflected on Moore-Wilton's contributions:

Business career In December 2002 Moore-Wilton became the chief executive officer of Sydney Airport Corporation, which was owned by Macquarie Group, Hochtief and the Commonwealth Bank, after the federal government sold it a 99-year lease to operate the airport. During his time there he implemented his familiar cost increases to users and staff cutbacks. In addition, the company announced plans to add a high-rise office block, a multi-level car park and retail space.

Moore-Wilton is a board member of the Committee for Sydney and of Infrastructure NSW.

He is also Chairman of Southern Cross Austereo, the owners of radio station 2Day FM. In 2013 Moore-Wilton caused controversy at an annual general meeting of the company by answering a question from a shareholder that sought to understand whether the company had a cultural problem, when referring to the death of the UK nurse Jacintha Saldanha, who committed suicide after being the subject of a prank telephone call by breakfast radio hosts employed by 2Day FM. Moore-Wilton stated: "These incidents were unfortunate, no doubt about that. In each particular case we thoroughly investigated them and it comes generally within the context of some of these incidents where a whole series of events come together and in the immortal words of someone whose identity I cannot recall "S-H-I-T happens." Moore-Wilton's comments drew widespread criticism, with a British politician calling them "an insult to the memory of a loving mother and wife".