You've got to look at it from Senator Stephen Conroy's perspective. The fact Mike Kaiser had been involved in branch stacking is not a matter of shame. He was working on behalf of the Right faction. He was an ally. He was successful. He should not have attracted embarrassing publicity. And for that he has to accept a penalty.

The penalty is he cannot run the Queensland ALP machine. This means he can take a $450,000 job in the new NBN company to be established with taxpayers' money. And $450,000 is nothing when you are getting the taxpayers to stump up $43 billion.

Conroy is not what you would call a policy wonk. He has risen in politics by running numbers: in the unions, in the Victorian ALP factions, in the federal caucus. To keep all those people voting the right way you need to be able to deliver returns. Faithful servants need to know they have good employment prospects. This is where Kaiser becomes a role model. Kaiser's doing OK. Conroy recommended Kaiser for a job. And he can recommend others who show loyal service over a long period.

NBN Co will be a fantastic opportunity for job seekers. Most companies start small. This one is going to start with $43 billion. Since it has no pre-existing business it will recruit from the ground up, or as happened in the Kaiser case, from the minister down.

Here's another reason to get Kaiser involved. NBN Co needs a few numbers men. Before the election it was going to cost $4.7 billion to roll out broadband but now it is costed at $43 billion. Labor's pre-election costing was out by a factor of 10 (only a zero on the end). Barnaby Joyce is not the only one mixing up his arithmetic.