Liberal MP Stuart Robert's resignation as Australian Minister for Human Services raises more questions than it answers

The following is a rough timeline covering the the not-so-illustrious political career of Stuart Rowland Robert, Liberal MP for Fadden (QLD) since 2007.

On 10 September 2010 Stuart Robert changed his Statement of Registrable Interests to reflect that he and his wife were no longer trustees for the Robert Family Trust and Robert Investments Family Trust, as well as ceasing to be directors and shareholders in Robert International Pty Ltd.

It is understood that new trustees are close family members of Robert.

For most of his parliamentary career to date Stuart Robert has not ventured overseas that often.

His first official overseas trip did not occur until 5 August 2009 as part of a parliamentary delegation to Timor Leste. His second was also as part of a parliamentary delegation – this time to the United Arab Emirates between 13-20 May 2011.

Robert’s third and fourth overseas trips covered six days in June and five days in October 2011. First as a representative of Australia during commemorative events in France and then on a study tour of South Africa. The two and a quarter page study report cost taxpayers $16,161.58.

Between 13 Feb to 17 Feb 2012 Stuart Robert was again overseas representing Australia in Singapore on behalf of Senator Michael Ronaldson. From 17 Oct to 21 Oct 2012 Robert was in Egypt for the 70th anniversary of the Battle of El Alamein, before travelling on to Uganda for seven days on another study tour. This second three-page study report cost $3,811.92.

In June 2013  then Shadow Minister for Defence, Science, Technology and Personnel  Stuart Robert hosted a small private dinner at Parliament House for a representative of a Chinese mining company, reportedly at the request of another guest, millionaire businessman Paul Marks. 

Besides Marks, guests at this dinner included Chinese billionaire Li Ruipeng, then Shadow Minister for Energy and Resources Ian Macfarlane and then Liberal National Party president Bruce McIver. Opposition Leader Tony Abbott and then Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship & Shadow Minister for Productivity and Population Scott Morrison attended the dinner towards the end.

The 2013 dinner

All the Australian politicians at this dinner reportedly received gifts of designer watches worth est. $250,000 in total.

Marks is frequently described as a close personal friend of Robert.

On 31 January 2014 mining exploration company Nimrod Resources Limited donated $500,000 to the federal Liberal Party of Australia.

In mid-August 2014 Stuart Robert accompanied Paul Marks to China allegedly to lobby the Chinese Government on his behalf in relation to the business interests of Nimrod Resources.

Robert did not bill the taxpayer for his flight to China. However, his return journey was via Singapore for the Singapore-Australia Joint Ministerial meeting and the Defence Ministers' Dialogue on 21 to 23 August. Therefore taxpayers funded the last leg of his journey home.

Nimrod Resources currently has three directors, Paul Marks (Executive Chairman), James Macaulay (Managing Director) and Robert Kingdon (Non-executive Director). Bruce McIver reportedly holds a 22 per cent shareholding in this company.

In early April 2014 Stuart Robert as Assistant Minister for Defence led a 7-day trade mission to Israel organized by the Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce, of which Marks' brother Sam Miszkowski is understood to be a Queensland office bearer/member.

There were two other ministerial visits overseas in 2014 - one to Afghanistan and another to New Zealand & the United States.

On 30 June 2014 P. Marks Investment Pty Ltd  donated $431,631 to the federal Liberal Party.

Between April and June 2015 Paul Marks personally donated $340,000 to the federal Liberal Party.

To date the Marks family appear to have donated at least $1.47 million directly to the Liberal Party.

In late April to early May 2015 as Assistant Minister for Defence, Stuart Robert made ministerial visits to the United Arab Emirates, Iraq and the USA as part of a trade delegation.

By 2016 Chinese businessman Li Ruipeng is no longer a high-flying billionaire but is wanted by police in China for illegal fundraising and unpaid debts of est. $30 million and Robert may yet have to appear as a witness in a court case concerning the outcome of a Dubai land deal which went wrong.

On 12 February 2016 Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull released a press statement regarding Robert’s resignation as Minister for Human Services which said in part that: Mr Robert advised Dr Parkinson that at the time he travelled to Beijing in August 2014 he did not believe that he had any interest in or connection to Mr Paul Marks’ company, Nimrod Resources. In the course of assisting the investigation, Mr Robert advised Dr Parkinson that on checking his records he had become aware that shares in Metallum Holdings Pty Ltd, a company in which Mr Marks was also a shareholder, had been allocated to his trustee some time before the visit to Beijing. He told Dr Parkinson that this had been done without his knowledge. He further advised Dr Parkinson that he believed Metallum Holdings Pty Ltd had an interest in Nimrod Resources.

Metallum Holdings has an interesting history:

METALLUM HOLDINGS PTY LTD  ACN 160 273 763

Formerly Resource House Holdings Pty Ltd

Registered: 10 September 2012

Address: Office F1 Level 1, 47-59 Ashmore Road, Bundall QLD 4217

Sole Director: Paul Marks

Company Secretary: Robert Arthur Kingdon of Kingdon Lawyers

Number of Ordinary Shares: 10,000

Shareholders:

MIST CONSULTING PTY. LTD. – a Marks family company, trading as Friends of Israel (QLD), which donated $200,000 to the Liberal Party of Australia on 13 March 2014

[See: http://periodicdisclosures.aec.gov.au/Returns/55/SWIK4.pdf]

ROMELL PTY. LTD.

P. MARKS INVESTMENT PTY LTD

Louise Edwards

Previous Shareholders:

INTERIMCO PTY LIMITED – company believed to be owned or part-owned by former Liberal National Party president Bruce McIver

JJ HOLDINGS (VIC) PTY. LTD.

OZEAN INVESTMENTS PTY. LIMITED

Tom Kotsimbos.

All this leaves two questions hanging after Stuart Robert’s resignation – exactly how often did Robert assist Marks family business interests in the last nine years and, how many other Turnbull Government ministers have helped Paul Marks in a similar fashion?

UPDATE

Herald Sun, 10 April 2016:

DUMPED minister Stuart Robert took his official Defence-issued mobile phone on his controversial private trip to China, potentially exposing the device to a breach of national security.

Phone records obtained using Freedom of Information laws reveal the then-assistant defence minister had the device in Beijing while there to witness mate and Liberal donor Paul Marks sign a deal with the ­Chinese government.

The phone records show Mr Robert’s phone was switched on and connected to Chinese and Hong Kong networks eight times on August 15, 2014, and a further four times on August 16.

Australian Politics in 2017: Financial Fog Unlimited #2

The Byzantine financial arrangements of yet another member of the Liberal Party of Australia…..

The Age, 14 September 2017:

The father of Turnbull government MP Stuart Robert says he was unaware he was a director of a private investment company that held shares in his son's IT service business which has won tens of millions of dollars worth of government contracts.

Alan Robert, 80, has also told Fairfax Media that the private investment company, Robert International, was run by his son during the six-year period he and his wife, Dorothy, were the company's only directors. It is a revelation that would link the Queensland MP with the IT services business, GMT Group, at a time when Stuart Robert claims to have "ceased involvement" in GMT.

The Sydney Morning Herald, 13 September 2017:

Mr Robert only resigned his directorships and offloaded his shares in his GMT Group in 2010 – three years after he was first elected to Parliament. The Queensland MP told Fairfax Media he structured his affairs in a way that did not breach the rules, but has refused to provide any evidence to support this claim.

But Fairfax Media has uncovered fresh details about Mr Robert's connection to the GMT Group, an IT service company he co-founded prior to his political career.

Mr Robert had said he "ceased involvement" with GMT prior to the 2010 election. But new documents show that Mr Robert later transferred key aspects of another private company, Robert International, to the home address of his parents, Alan and Dorothy Robert, who were aged 74 and 71.

At this time, documents show Robert International held shares in GMT……

Robert International continued to hold shares in GMT until the end of 2011 - well after the 2010 election, and more than year after Mr Robert claimed he had "ceased involvement" with GMT.

Between 2007 and December, 2011, GMT picked up 356 government contracts worth more than $37 million. The average contract was worth just over $105,000.

More than 45 government agencies have used GMT, including the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Department of Veteran's Affairs, and CrimTrac. Mr Robert was a member of Parliament's Foreign Affairs, Trade and Defence committee while many of those contracts were awarded. 

Mr Robert did not respond to a request to explain why he had listed his parents as directors and shareholders.

Robert International held shares in GMT until at least December 22, 2011. On that date, Mr Robert's business partner, Andrew Chantler, notified ASIC he was moving GMT's eight remaining shares in Robert International over to Chantler & Associates. The eight shares were valued at a combined $10,000. ​

ASIC documents show Robert International was re-registered to Mr Robert's home address in September last year, and the MP's most recent register of interests shows he is a director of the company - a position he resumed when his parents ceased to be directors in February 2016. Mr Robert paid $2 for the share previously owned by each of his parents.

Gold Coast Bulletin, 14 September 2017:

John Price, from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, told a parliamentary economics committee hearing in Canberra on Thursday the watchdog would make inquiries, after Labor questions on whether he had seen the media report.

"Will ASIC be investigating that?" Labor MP Matt Keogh asked.

"I think we'll make some inquiries into that, yes," Mr Price said.

ASIC confirmed in the hearing no identity check was needed for someone to become a company director, but rather it was a matter of filling in a form.

Without directly commenting on Mr Robert's case, Mr Price said knowingly lodging a false or misleading document was an office under corporations law with a maximum term of five years in jail.

The Member for Braddon in 2016:

* Liberal MP Stuart Robert's resignation as Australian Minister for Human Services raises more questions than it answers

* In which then Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott gives the nod for then Assistant Defence Minister Stuart Robert to help smooth the way for a big Liberal Party donor and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull inherits a problem

* Stuart Robert MP - the archetypal Liberal Party politician

* Federal MP Stuart Robert channelled $70,000 from his Liberal Nationals Party campaign fund to three local government candidates

* The Liberal Member for Fadden - drowning not waving

* Minister for Human Services & Minister for Veterans' Affairs showing his contempt for the Australian electorate

In which then Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott gives the nod for then Assistant Defence Minister Stuart Robert to help smooth the way for a big Liberal Party donor and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull inherits a problem

These are the antics of then Australian prime minister Tony Abbott and his not-so-faithful side kick LNP MP for Fadden & then Assistant Defence Minister Stuart Robert, as reported in the Herald Sun on 7 February 2016:

A FEDERAL minister is under pressure after admitting he made a secret trip to Beijing where a Liberal donor and mate finalised a mining deal.

Human Services Minister Stuart Robert told the Herald Sun he was acting in a “private capacity” when he attended a signing ceremony with Nimrod Resources’s Paul Marks and high-ranking Communist Party ­officials who run Chinese Government-owned company Minmetals.

Mr Robert has previously said Mr Marks was a “close personal friend” and he’d bought shares in two of the Melbourne millionaire’s companies.

Mr Marks has also donated $2 million to the Liberals in the past two ­financial years. Last year, then prime minister Tony Abbott flew on a taxpayer-funded jet to Mr Marks’s birthday party at Huntingdale Golf Club.

Minmetals’s website says that at the August 18, 2014, event in Beijing, Mr Robert, then assistant defence minister, spoke “on behalf of the Australian Department of Defence”.

It says he presented to a senior Communist Party official “a medal” bestowed by the prime minister.

In 1999 Stuart Robert registered Robert International Pty Ltd and in 2007, the same year he entered Parliament, he created his own private investment company Robert Investment House Pty Ltd, with himself and his wife as directors.

His time in politics apparently always hast its "slip-ups" as this intriguing entry in Griffith University Vice-Chancellor's 2012 report hints:

One political misstep in 2012 was speeches he made under parliamentary privilege which saw The Australian reporting this on 19 February 2015:

In a comparatively rare development, parliament’s privileges committee — chaired by Victorian Liberal MP Russell Broadbent — granted Mr Lee leave to make a statement to the House of Representatives detailing his acquittal.

Mr Lee thanked the committee and Speaker Bronwyn Bishop and accused Mr Robert of denying him the presumption of innocence while his case was before the courts.

“It was very distressing for us and our families, seeing the member for Fadden, Stuart Robert, on not one but two occasions in 2012, rise in the house and accuse me of a crime, on behalf of his wealthy constituents Sunland,’’ he told The Australian. “In doing so, and under the safety of parliamentary privilege, Stuart Robert never considered the ordeal we had been through or continued to endure, that of being imprisoned and detained in the Middle East, nor did he try to contact us to get a balanced view of the situation before he spoke.”

Mr Robert said he would not apologise for defending the interests of his constituents, including the Sunland Group.

“I will always stand up for Gold Coast companies,’’ he said. “It was a difficult time for all those involved and my job is to stand up for my … community.”

On 19 and 21 August 2014 this is how China Minmetals Corporation and the Chinese Ministry of Land Website described Robert's allegedly private stay in Beijing:

#On August 18, a ceremony was held in Beijing to sign the agreement between 

Minmetals Exploration & Development Co., Ltd. and Australia Nimrod Resources 

Limited (hereinafter “Nimrod”) for the joint establishment of an exploration 
technical committee. 

Chairman Zhou Zhongshu and Stuart Robert, Assistant Minister of Australian Department of Defence, attended the ceremony and delivered speeches. 

Vice President Li Fuli attended the signing ceremony. 

Wang Jionghui, Assistant President of Minmetals and General Manager of Minmetals Exploration & Development Co., Ltd., and Paul Marks, Executive Chairman of 

Nimrod and Director Robert Kingdon signed the agreement on behalf of the two 

sides.

The ceremony was hosted by Huang Dongmei, Deputy General Manager of MinmetalsExploration & Development Co., Ltd.

#August 19 morning, Vice Minister of Land and Resources Wang Min meets Australia Assistant Secretary of Defense Robert Stuart and his party. The two sides will jointly create a favorable external investment environment and promote mining agency cooperation and further strengthen Sino-Australian mining industry cooperation talks and exchanges.

According to the Herald Sun on 28 March 2015:

Mr Marks was a director of Conquest Mining Pty Ltd from December 2009 to April 2012. On May 13, 2011, Mr Robert declared Conquest shares.

Mr Marks was a director of Evolution Mining Ltd from October 2011 to November 2013. In August 2013, Mr Robert declared owning shares in his and one of his sons’ names.

Mr Marks said: “Conquest merged with Catalpa and subsumed a number of Newcrest Assets to create Evolution Mining. Consequently I went on the board of Evolution Mining. I resigned from the Evolution board because I took the chairman role of Nimrod.’’

On 8 February 2016 the Australian House of Representatives Hansard records this exchange:

Mr Burke: Mr Speaker, on one final point of order: the clause that I am referring to, which leads to why the parliament must be able to pursue this, says: A Minister shall not act as a consultant or adviser to any company, business, or other interests, whether paid or unpaid, or provide assistance to any such body, except as may be appropriate in their official capacity as Minister … 

Ms Henderson interjecting—

The SPEAKER: The member for Corangamite will cease interjecting. 

Mr Dreyfus interjecting—

The SPEAKER: The member for Isaacs will cease interjecting. I have obviously given this careful consideration and I have examined the practice carefully. For anyone who examines the practice carefully, on page 555—and I just happen to have it with me—they will see that it says, 'A minister may not be asked a question about his or her actions in a former ministerial role.' However, in a case when a minister has issued a statement referring to earlier responsibilities a question relating to the statement was permitted. There has been one case of that, in 2006. Beyond that, questions have not been allowed. That is certainly the practice and the history, I can assure the House, from the best of my research. Whilst I want to see questions asked and answered, if this question had been asked some time ago, when the minister had different responsibilities, it would, clearly, be in order. But the minister responsible for the code of conduct is the Prime Minister, and it is the Prime Minister that makes the determination on whether ministers have complied with it. Having heard that patiently, and I apologise for detaining the House for so long, I am not going to allow that question and will move to the next question. 

While on 9 February 2016 The Australian stated of the now Minister for Veterans Affairs & Human Services Minister:

His register of interests shows his investments are held in a company called Robert Investment House. This in turn is owned by Robert International, which lists his parents — 78-year-old Alan and 75-year-old Dorothy — as directors and shareholders.

The investment company was previously held by Mr Robert, but was transferred to his parents three weeks after the 2010 election.

At this time Robert and his wife also ceased to be trustees of the Robert Family Trust and the Robert Investments Family Trust according to his statement of registrable interests in 2010, although they both still appear to derive income from one or both of these discretionary trusts.

The first year in government must have been a busy housekeeping year for the Member for Fanning as he decided to return two Cartier watches given to him by a Chinese investment company known as the Liguancheng Group.

Rather coyly on 15 July 2013 he had listed these very expensive items simply as "watches":

His last lodged statement of registrable interests shows Robert's self-managed super fund (which sometimes buys/sells shares) is still active and he still carries a "portfolio investment loan" with the National Australia Bank as well as a home loan.

Stuart Robert is being characterized by the Murdoch press as being somewhat naive in his dealings with the Chinese.

Somehow I think the Gold Coast Bulletin's 28 December 2015 assessment of this LNP politician is probably closer to the mark:

Minister Robert appears to see himself as a businessman and investor as well as an elected parliamentarian. It will be interesting to see what else surfaces concerning his past and current business interests.

Assistant Treasurer Stuart Robert follows unofficial Liberal Party guideline: Don't get caught but if you do pay it back

Image: The Sydney Morning Herald 2017

Assistant Treasurer and Liberal MP for Fadden Stuart Rowland Robert (right) is in the news once more.

This time over the excessive costs associated with his taxpayer-funded 4G home Internet connection.

He has been charging taxpayers more than a $1,000 a month for Internet access since 2016 and by 2018 the cost had risen to over $2,000 a month.

In May, taxpayers forked out $2,831 for the Assistant Treasurer's internet bill. The bill came to $2,704 in April, $1,686 in March, $1,813 at the end of February, $186 in January and $1,859 at the end of December 2017.

The reasons being given by Robert for why he didn’t avail himself of cheaper alternatives don’t really stand close scrutiny.

Given this Liberal MP’s history (see below) one immediately wonders if a third party individual/ corporation signed his contact with the Internet Service Provider (ISP) and this increased the cost to taxpayers or whether Robert has a pecuniary interest in that particular ISP.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has requested that these expense claims be investigated by Special Minister for State Alex Hawke who himself is under a cloud when it comes to parliamentary expense claims.

Once his parliamentary expenses drew media attention Robert was quick to commit to paying back Internet charges reimbursed by the Dept. of Finance. At a quick estimate that would be somewhere in the vicinity of $25,000, although reportedly he puts the estimate as a little over $20,000.

Parliamentary expense claims are not the only issue for the Member for Fadden.

On 6 October 2018 The West Australian reported that:

A company run by a Federal minister who charged taxpayers $2000 a month for internet access lodged documents removing him as its director only after the matter was queried by The Weekend West.

Until late yesterday ASIC records showed Assistant Treasurer Stuart Robert was a director of an alternative health franchise business, despite Mr Robert telling Parliament a month ago he quit the board of Cryo Australia when he returned to the ministry.

In February 2016 Stuart Robert was sent to the backbench in disgrace after just three years as a federal government minister. 

It is barely six weeks since he returned to the ministry on the back of Scott Morrison’s politically bloody ascendancy and it appears that there has been no lesson learned.

A Brief History

10 FEBRUARY 2016 In which then Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott gives the nod for then Assistant Defence Minister Stuart Robert to help smooth the way for a big Liberal Party donor and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull inherits a problem

12 FEBRUARY 2016 Minister for Human Services & Minister for Veterans' Affairs showing his contempt for the Australian electorate

14 FEBRUARY 2016 Liberal MP Stuart Robert's resignation as Australian Minister for Human Services raises more questions than it answers

21 FEBRUARY 2016 The Liberal Member for Fadden - drowning not waving

20 MAY 2016 Federal MP Stuart Robert channelled $70,000 from his Liberal Nationals Party campaign fund to three local government candidates

3 OCTOBER 2016 Stuart Robert MP - the archetypal Liberal Party politician

27 SEPTEMBER 2017 Australian Politics in 2017: Financial Fog Unlimited #2

Stuart Robert MP - the archetypal Liberal Party politician

Stuart Rowland Robert, Liberal MP for Fadden (QLD) since 2007, is truly the archetypal Liberal Party politician - in parliament for his own personal financial advancement, less than transparent about his investments and business connections or gifts he receives, as well as being quite comfortable with those dodgy political donations schemes operating at state and federal level.

Now it seems that the LNP Fadden Forum, which reportedly has a $12,000 annual membership fee, is in the news again.

The Australian, 30 September 2016:

A well-connected lobbyist gave more than $110,000 of her “own money’’ to the fundraising entity of federal Liberal MP Stuart Robert as her company was being wound up with unpaid debts.

Simone Holzapfel, a former longtime adviser to Tony ­Abbott, owed more than $430,000, including $355,000 to the Australian Taxation Office, when she donated $114,000 in 12 separate payments to Mr ­Robert’s “Fadden Forum’’ in mid-2013, ahead of the federal election.

Ms Holzapfel was then a lobby­ist for Gold Coast developer Sunland Group, now at the centre of the latest controversy to embroil Mr Robert, the Gold Coast MP sacked last year from the Turnbull ministry.

Months before the donations were made, Mr Robert had ­defended Sunland in parliament over its involvement in the ­detention of two Australians in Dubai, with a speech largely lifted from briefing notes supplied by Ms Holzapfel.

The notes had been sent to both Mr Robert and Mr Abbott’s chief of staff, Peta Credlin, on the morning of the November 26, 2012, speech to parliament.

It can also be revealed that Ms Holzapfel sent the notes to Mr Robert and Ms Credlin while working as Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate’s media officer.

She left the council in February 2013 to pursue “commercial ventures’’ and reboot lobbying and PR company Shac, which had been set up in 2005.

The $114,000 donation in 2013 and Mr Robert’s bankrolling of “independent’’ candidates ahead of the Gold Coast council elections in March this year — as revealed by The Australian — are now part of an investigation by Queensland’s Crime and Corruption Commission.

Ms Holzapfel has previously told The Australian the donations were her “own money’’ and rejected suggestions she had given the money to Mr Robert’s Fadden Forum on behalf of clients.

“I ­donated because I wanted my ­former boss (Mr Abbott) to ­become prime minister, and that is my right to do,’’ she said then.

It has now been confirmed that at the time of making the donations — between July and September 2013 — Ms Holzapfel’s company was in external administration, with $437,000 in debt.

Ms Holzapfel was the sole directo­r of the company, Coolabird, which had changed its name from Shac months earlier and was eventually wound up.

Administrators confirmed yesterday that the company had debts of $437,000 when it was put into ­liquidation, including a debt of $355,000 to the ATO……

The Sydney Morning Herald, 27 September 2016:

A speech Turnbull government MP Stuart Robert gave to Parliament defending the Gold Coast property developer Sunland was substantially written by the lead lobbyist for the company.

Fairfax Media can reveal that former Tony Abbott staffer-turned-developer-lobbyist Simone Holzapfel was the true author of whole sections of the speech that Mr Robert delivered in November 2012.

Ms Holzapfel wrote a four-page defence of Sunland after a November 17 newspaper article scrutinised the company's dispute with an Australian man who spent five years trapped in a legal nightmare in Dubai.

Seven sections of that response - provided to various government officials and obtained by Fairfax Media - subsequently found their way into Mr Robert's adjournment debate speech on November 26.

Ms Holzapfel's words make up more than half of the speech.

Mr Robert has refused to comment on the revelation, which once again puts the spotlight on his connections with Sunland. Mr Robert's links to the company have come under scrutiny as part of a Queensland corruption inquiry into political donations to Gold Coast City Council candidates, which involves his fundraising body, the Fadden Forum......

UPDATE

The Sydney Morning Herald, 2 October 2016:

Turnbull government MP Stuart Robert has close ties to an African church that supports harsh anti-gay laws and is run by a preacher described as "one of the most homophobic people in the world".

Mr Robert was a founding director of Watoto Australia, an offshoot of the Ugandan-based pentecostal Watoto Church, and has called church leader Gary Skinner one of the "great influences" on his life…..

Gay and lesbian activists say Watoto and Mr Skinner are virulently anti-gay and have contributed to violent homophobia in Uganda. Mr Robert – who was also a member of Watoto's International Board – has travelled to the Ugandan capital Kampala many times to meet Mr Skinner, who says homosexuality is "degrading" and an "inhuman sin" that brings disease and destroys families.

The Liberal Member for Fadden - drowning not waving

Once the pecuniary interest dam burst the water just keep rising……..

via Fighting Tories

Almost three years after the event, voters now learn that disgraced former Minister for Human Services, Liberal MP Stuart Robert, as the then Shadow Minister for Defence, Science, Technology and Personnel had decided to have a look at one of his investments - an Evolution Mining gold mine in North Queensland.

Like many MPs before him, he decided that the taxpayer should foot his expenses. 

Robert managed this by tagging himself onto an official state visit to the mine and then billing for his overnight stay in Brisbane and travel:

Travel Allowance

9 Apr 13 Brisbane Shadow Minister - Official Business 1 night $376.00

Airfares

10 Apr 13 - Brisbane to Townsville $368.82

10 Apr 13 - Townsville to Brisbane $722.67

Comcar

10 Apr 13 - Brisbane $44.80

10 Apr 13 - Brisbane $40.00

10 Apr 13 - Brisbane $119.75
TOTAL
$1,672.04

Then he was finally caught out:

A former senior staffer in Mr Newman’s office said yesterday that the revelations in The Australian of travel claims by Mr Robert for the trip to north Queensland on April 10, 2013, were “very surprising and concerning”. “I recall that it was reinforced to us at the time that he was travelling in a private capacity, that he was attending unofficially,’’ the staffer said.

On 17 February 2016, a day after the letter to the Dept. of Finance, the Gold Coast Bulletin reported that the beleaguered Stuart Robert had regained formal control of his own company, Robert International, on Monday 15 February.

Robert had re-organised his business interests in 2010 according to The Australian:

His register of interests shows his investments are held in a company called Robert Investment House. This in turn is owned by Robert International, which lists his parents — 78-year-old Alan and 75-year-old Dorothy — as directors and shareholders.

The investment company was previously held by Mr Robert, but was transferred to his parents three weeks after the 2010 election.

At this time Robert and his wife also ceased to be trustees of the Robert Family Trust and the Robert Investments Family Trust according to his statement of registrable interests in 2010, so it is probably safe to assume that he is looking to replace his parents as trustees of these entities as well.

In the same Gold Coast Bulletin article of 17 February it was reported:

He would not reveal whether he knew at the time he held shares in the mining company.

“In Evolution? I wouldn’t have even thought of it,” he said.

“If I had, it would have been declared.”

Now Robert’s attempt to deflect the question may not have been the wisest choice.

On 13 May 2011 in his Statement of Registrable Interests Robert declared the acquisition of Conquest Mining shares and, as there was a merger of Catalpa Resources with Conquest Mining in November 2011 forming Evolution Mining it beggars belief that Robert would not have been aware that he now owned Evolution shares.

By 6 February 2012 he had declared shares under the merged company's new name.

Again, it is hardly likely that someone who appears to consider themselves a professional investor would forget that he owned shares in a mining company in their own home state.

In October 2012 Stuart Robert would have opened Evolution Mining’s annual report and on the first page of the Executive Chairman’s Report would have read:

In the 2012 Financial Year we produced 280,401 ounces of gold (attributable), in-line with our guidance, at an average cash operating cost of A$771 per ounce, significantly below our guidance. This is an extremely satisfying outcome in only eight months as a new company.

Something I suspect he remembered six months later when he organised that trip to Townsville.