Cabinet Minister Bill Shorten has ordered an urgent investigation into government contracts secured by a lobbying firm that allegedly has close links to former Coalition minister Stuart Robert, while using parliamentary privilege to warn against corruption.
Key points:
- Stuart Robert served on the former Coalition government's backbench between 2016 and 2018
- Nine newspapers allege emails show he connected lobbyists with overseas officials and businesspeople
- A spokesman for Mr Robert has rejected the allegations
Nine newspapers have published leaked emails suggesting Mr Robert, a Queensland Liberal MP, secretly gave advice to Synergy 360 in 2017 and 2018 and helped the company meet senior political figures.
At the time, Mr Robert sat on the backbench, having lost his frontbench position in 2016.
The allegations do not constitute any illegal conduct and there is no suggestion Mr Robert received any payment.
Mr Robert, through a spokesman, completely denied the allegations. He later told parliament he had been “most egregiously misrepresented”.
During Question Time, Mr Shorten told parliament he had asked senior bureaucrats to investigate the contracts Synergy 360 helped to secure "to assure me and the Australian people that the process was entirely above board and appropriate."
"The leaked emails reveal that Synergy 360 was lobbying for corporations in relation to lucrative government contracts, including in the portfolios I'm now responsible for," he told parliament.
"I have asked the CEO of services Australia, and the CEO of the National Disability Insurance Agency to immediately and thoroughly investigate any of the contracts awarded to these companies and individuals named in these reports."
Using parliamentary privilege, Mr Shorten warned against corruption.
"Using public office as a politician to enrich your private friends and mates, including political donors, is not a shade of grey," he told parliament.
"Whether you're a backbencher or a frontbencher is not a defence.
"If and when public office has been used to enrich private mates, it is corruption."
Mr Robert responded a short time later, telling parliament he rejected the accusations.
"With respect to the article in The Age and Sydney Morning Herald, I reject outright the accusations and innuendo, as I do those of the Member for Maribyrnong (Mr Shorten) raised today," he told parliament.
"With respect to when I was a minister years later, all ministers know the process for procurement, all understand how procurement for the public service."
Mr Robert is a close political ally of Scott Morrison.
He was promoted to the frontbench when Mr Morrison became prime minister in 2018, later serving in his cabinet after the 2019 federal election.
The Nine papers claim to have obtained a cache of emails in which it is alleged Mr Robert introduced Synergy 360 to overseas officials and businessmen who he met as a MP.
Nine does not suggest Mr Robert was an employee of Synergy 360 or paid by the organisation.
Mr Shorten also told parliament, that given the "clear lobbying" revealed in the emails published in the Nine Papers, Synergy 360 should be on the lobbyist register
"This is not an option," he said.