And the news just keeps getting worse for the NSW Perrottet Government five weeks out from the 25 March 2023 state election

 

The Sydney Morning Herald, 17 February 2023:

The NSW government is in disarray just five weeks from the state election as one of Premier Dominic Perrottet’s most senior ministers and closest confidants was forced to quit cabinet after it emerged he owned shares in the tolling company that controls most of Sydney’s motorways.

The premier was also forced to reveal on Friday that one of his parliamentary secretaries had stood down amid a scandal involving intimate photos he shared.

Finance minister and leader of the government in the Legislative Council Damien Tudehope quit just hours after he confirmed he held shares in Transurban, which owns the majority of tolling concessions across Sydney, including WestConnex, NorthConnex and the M2.

Perrottet sought legal advice on Friday afternoon over whether Tudehope “knowingly breached” any disclosure rules under the ministerial code of conduct.

In a statement late on Friday, Perrottet confirmed the advice from the Department of Premier and Cabinet had “cleared Damien” however Tudehope had decided to resign from cabinet…..

Upper House MLC Peter Poulos resigned on Friday from his secretary role amid internal anger after an admission he shared explicit images of Hawkesbury MP Robyn Preston in the lead-up to a bitter preselection battle. Poulos has apologised to Preston, who modelled as a Penthouse “pet” in the 1980s.

In a major embarrassment for Perrottet, Tudehope on Friday confirmed he held shares in tolling giant Transurban, which owns the majority of tolling concessions across Sydney, including the WestConnex motorway, NorthConnex and the M2.

Tudehope said he had unknowingly held the shares in a family superannuation fund, but insisted he gave a “printout of the assets” contained within that fund to both Perrottet and former premier Gladys Berejiklian.

He said the Transurban shares were sold overnight, and conceded they had risen in value considerably since he was appointed minister in 2019. Tudehope said he would donate to charity any profit he made, which he expected to be about $6000.

Tudehope said he did not recuse himself from cabinet over discussions involving Transurban because he did not know he owned the shares as the superannuation fund was managed by a fund manager…..

[my yellow highlighting]

Financial Review, 17 February 2023:

Transurban recently reported record half-year earnings of $1.66 billion, boosted by some $835 million in tolls collected from Sydney drivers over the course of the past six months.

Mr Tudehope was a cabinet minister during the Berejiklian government’s decision to sell the WestConnex toll road to Transurban for $11 billion in 2021. More recently, he took part in a number of cabinet decisions to provide toll relief to NSW drivers.

Earlier, he denied being “involved in any discussions relating to WestConnex” and claimed he “was not on the relevant committee or relevant cabinet meetings”.

“The first thing is whether there was a significant impact, and whether I knowingly breached the code of conduct, and I have to say, I didn’t know that I held those shares at the time that I participated in policy decisions relating to Transurban,” he said.

It should be noted that Liberal MLC Damian Francis Tudehope has been a Member of the Legislative Council since 23 March 2019 having previously been a Member of the Legislative Assembly from 28 March 2015 to 1 March 2019.

He had been NSW Minister for Finance as well as Minister for Employee Relations since 21 December 2021, having been appointed to both ministries by Premier Perrottet. 

On 21 December he also became Leader of the Government in the Legislative Council and Vice-President of the Executive Council.

Damian Tudehope is reported as resigning as NSW Minister for Finance, Minister for Employee Relations and Leader of the Government in the Legislative Council on Friday 17 February 2023. Presumably he also resigned from the Executive Council.

Tudehope had previously been finance & small business minister during the Berejiklian Government years from 2 April 2019 to 21 December 2021.

Before entering parliament he practiced as a solicitor.

Interestingly, Damian Tudehope had been Chair of the Committee on the Independent Commission Against Corruption from 3 June 2015 to 22 February 2019 and, a Member of the Standing Committee on Parliamentary Privilege and Ethics from 29 March 2017 to 22 February 2019. Committee terms which should have seen him well acquainted with the ins and outs of of issues such as pecuniary interests and conflicts of interest.

According to ABC News on 17 February 2023; ...like Mr Perrottet, [Damien Tudehope] has links to the the Catholic Church's conservative Opus Dei organisation. 

It appears the families may know each other well. The Linkedin entry of the premier’s younger brother Jean-Claude Perrottet shows that he was an Electoral Officer for Damian Tudehope MP from March 2018 to March and 2019 and Policy Advisor for Damian Tudehope MLC Minister for Finance and Small Business.

The “family superannuation fund” to which Mr. Tudehope was referring is possibly a self-managed superannuation fund titled Claiyear Pty Limited ATF The Tudehope Superannuation Fund (est.1998) or perhaps even Imtaga Pty Limited ATF Tudehope Family Trust (est.1985), as set out in his Disclosures By Members Of The Legislative Council form dated 31 March 2021. Although the latter registered company was missing from his disclosure of pecuniary interest form signed on 20 September 2022.

ASX Graph of Transurban Group (TCL) Share Price & Dividends issued 14 March 1996 to 17 February 2023

https://www2.asx.com.au/markets/company/tcl

This graph shows 20 dividend issues to shareholders over a 10 year period. Not a shareholding one would normally expect to be overlooked in the investment portfolio of any politician.

As a member of the NSW Upper House Damian Tudehope  does not stand for re-election until his term of service expires at the end of the 58th Parliament (05 Mar 2027).

It is not outside the bounds of possibility that if the Perrottet Government is re-elected on 25 March 2023, Damian Tudehope will be restored by Premier Perrottet to a Cabinet-level ministry or ministries and a place on the Executive Council. 

In fact as recently as last Saturday, Premier Perrottet left the door open to reinstating Tudehope after 25 May; "Mr Perrottet, who described Mr Tudehope as a man of "the highest integrity and honesty", was quizzed on Saturday about whether he would consider making him a minister again post March 25. "I'll make those decisions in due course," the Premier told reporters."

The last time Damian Tudehope did Dominic Perrottet a favour — by vacating his Lower House seat in order for Perrottet to contest the 2019 election in a preferred safe seat — he was amply rewarded. I have a strong suspicion that both men understand that he will be similarly favoured this time around.

UPDATE

In an effort to walk back just one of the Premier's errors of judgement the NSW Liberal Party has acted.....

The Sydney Morning Herald, 19 February 2023:

"This afternoon, the State Director, in consultation with the State President, exercised campaign powers to suspend Peter Poulos from the NSW Division for a period of 6 months," a spokesperson for the Liberal Party said in a statement.

This in no way stops Poulos standing as a nominal Independent at the 25 March state election. Nor does preclude him changing from Independent MLC back to Liberal MLC in 2024 should he be re-elected in 33 days time.

BACKGROUND

North Coast Voices

Friday, 17 February 2023

And the rolling political disasters continue to arrive on NSW Premier Perrottet's doorstep

Former banker and now Australian Treasurer promises market sensitive Banking & Finance Royal Commission final report would not leak - then it did

On 1 February 2019 the Commissioner, Kenneth Haynes, submitted his final report on the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry to the Governor-General of Australia.

Then this happened...... 

The New Daily, 5 February 2019:

Last week Josh Frydenberg “guaranteed” the royal commission’s final report would not leak while the government sat on it for three days.

About $22 million says that guarantee wasn’t worth anything.

The welter of news in Kenneth Hayne’s report has tended to overshadow what appears to be some rather obvious insider trading.

Someone, somewhere, somehow received a nod and wink on Monday morning that the banks would actually come out of the royal commission better than expected.

“Front running” is the market euphemism for what happened next.

“Any alternate explanation is fanciful,” a fund manager wrote to me.

“With the banks down a quarter per cent, some trader looked out the window at 11am and noticed it was all sunny and cheerful and decided to buy a half billion dollars worth of the major banks ahead of the report into their own malfeasance. I don’t think so.”

That half-billion plunge at 11am was worth a quick $22 million profit on Tuesday morning.....

The first question I have is "How many Morrison Government Cabinet Ministers contacted their own stockbrokers between 1 and 3 February 2019 asking them to buy bank or insurance company shares on their behalf or on behalf of family members?"

March 2014 complaint lodged with the Australian Stock Exchange concerning Metgasco Limited

Coal seam and tight gas exploration & mining company Metgasco Limited is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX).

An individual has lodged a 3-page complaint with ASX alleging that the company failed to meet its disclosure obligations and engaged in allegedly misleading and deceptive conduct (click on page images to enlarge):

The Australian Stock Exchange sent a 2-page reply in which it stated it was investigating the complaint in relation to the mining company's listing obligations:

Click on page images to enlarge

Note: 
The complainants address has been redacted from both letters for privacy reasons.
These digital copies of the complaint and response were received by North Coast Voices as a direct result of Metgasco Limited's release on 9 April 2014 of email addresses on its subscriber list.

14.9 million Metgasco shares traded on Australian Stock Exchange on 19 February 2013 as stock free fall continues

 

Given Metgasco Limited’s poor track record with regard to coal seam gas mining waste water and well leaks, its cynical media spin and contempt for democratic processes there is little sympathy on the NSW North Coast for this coal seam gas exploration and production company as its share price continues in free fall.

 

19 February trading volume was unusually high for this company and at least one local resident is speculating that Metgasco connections began to buy back shares yesterday once the price reached the minuscule 0.099 cents per share, in order to stop share value from plunging even lower.

 

Metgasco share trades on the Australian Stock Exchange 19 February 2013:

 

 

Metgasco's desperation out there for all to see

 

In the middle of an Australian Stock Exchange bull-run Megasco Limited shares appear to have hit what looked like an all-time low on 12-13 February 2013 when trading closed at 0.135.

 

Rather predictably the coal seam gas exploration and want-to-be production company sent forth a spinmeister which resulted in this headline in The Northern Star; Future bright for Metgasco.

 

As one has come to expect of Metgasco, there was apparently no declaration by the resources analyst whose opinion was canvassed as to whether he may have had a potential conflict of interest which might affect the weight readers would give to his pronouncements.

 

Being employed by the stockbroking firm paid by Metgasco to produce its Broker Reports does appear to be such a conflict and, only the mining company’s desperation for a ‘good news’ headline must have led it to suppose that no-one would notice this lack of transparency.

 

A lack of transparency which is obviously a deliberate, as the ABC News online article Metgasco share price weakens but outlook positive also failed to mention the mining company’s business relationship with Mr. Prendergast’s employer.

Mr. Prendergast also does not seem to have mentioned that the attractive value Metgasco shares he is busy promoting in the media are classified in ‘his’ 31 October 2012 broker’s report as high risk.

By close of trade yesterday Metgasco shares had only risen to 0.140 - a long way from the $1+ per share in those brief heady days when the market was inclined to believe this mining company's unconventional gas fairy tale.


ASX chart of monthly prices over 10 years for security MEL

Coal seam gas mining company Metgasco finally admits that sustained community opposition is an investment risk

The Northern Star 25 January 2013:

METGASCO has admitted to investors for the first time that community opposition to coal seam gas was disrupting its operations.
In a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange yesterday, Metgasco said protest action caused delays in drilling at Glenugie and also resulted in the company deferring one of its planned core wells.

"Our program started a little later than expected as a result of a range of factors which included rig availability, approvals and some protest action," CEO Peter Henderson said in the statement to the ASX.........

The Daily Examiner 25 January 2013:

Click on image to enlarge



Not everyone loves a mining millionaire.....

SMH online polling A.M. (above) and P.M. (below) on 10 June 2010

According to ABC News on Thursday, the Australian Securities and Investment Commission has given a timely reminder to mining companies that their rhetoric needs to be in line with their advice to the stockmarket, institutional investors, shareholders and creditors:

The corporate regulator says mining companies need to ensure they comply with continuous disclosure rules, when making statements during the debate about the proposed resources super profits tax.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission says the directors of resources firms need to work out whether they have enough information to form a view on the impact of the tax, when making statements to financial markets.
ASIC's deputy chairman Belinda Gibson says responsibility for compliance with the stock exchange's continuous disclosure rules ultimately lies with directors.
"The rules require that: a) that the market is fully informed; and, b) that the market is not misled," she said.
"Now it's up to directors when they make statements about their companies, whether it's in relation to the resources tax, that their statements are accurate and that all material information is given to the market."

Elsewhere it has been suggested that the Australian Electoral Commission also had some stern words about one of the anti-RSPT advertisements that the mining industry was running.

Predator Tweed needs rubbing out

The Australian Government would do well to take a big stick to predatory share trader David Tweed and others whose actions suggest they possess morals akin to those of ally cats.

Tweed, who changed his name by deed poll from David Tschernitz, preys on shareholders who have little awareness of the value of shares they own.

Tweed's companies, which include Direct Share Purchasing Corporation (DSPC), obtain copies of companies' share registers that show the names and addresses of shareholders and then use a mass-mailing strategy and post unsolicited offers buy shareholders' stocks for less than market value.

The Australian reports Tweed has had a victory in the Federal Court with a ruling that he can buy copies of share registers for a fraction of the cost of producing them.

Tweed's DSPC took legal action against financial group Axa Asia Pacific Holdings, alleging Axa had overcharged for a copy of its share register.

Axa argued that it was merely passing on the $17,195.39 charge levied by registrar Computershare, but judge Ray Finkelstein ruled on Thursday that this was not a reasonable amount and that Axa could charge only $250.

Axa has been ordered to refund $16,945.39 to Mr Tweed and pay his legal costs.

The decision removes one of the few barriers between Mr Tweed and the small shareholders he regularly targets with unsolicited offers to buy their stock for less than market value.