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
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
.jpg)
.jpg)
