Peter Dutton was downbeat on Tuesday about his prospects in an upcoming safe seat byelection that seems set to be complicated by difficult questions about integrity and party politics.
Votes will be cast in Fadden on July 15 to choose an MP to replace Stuart Robert, who leaves in the face of an inquiry into public sector contracting, his personal connections and hundreds of millions in government contracts.
About $375 million in contracts have been subject to scrutiny, all won by clients of a company part-owned by his friend and former fundraiser, Synergy 360, which lobbied on behalf of multinationals looking to win Australian government tenders.
Mr Robert opened doors for their clients and gave advice to them while serving as an MP, an arrangement that first drew calls for Mr Dutton to relieve him of his frontbench duties months ago.
Questions about whether Mr Robert is too close to potential successors in Fadden, national media attention and an upcoming coincidence seem sure to make a focus on candidates sharper than it might be otherwise in a campaign to hold a seat on a 10-point margin.
Fadden’s electors will decide on July 15, or the week after the robodebt royal commission hands down its findings. One newspaper reported the commission could now potentially make referrals to the new national corruption commission.
Continuity or change?
The two frontrunners to replace Mr Robert are linked directly to a still-unfolding affair involving his friend and former business partner, John Margerison.
Mr Margerison part-owned Synergy 360 business, which was lobbying for big tech clients that collectively won $375 million in contracts in exchange for a success fee, money he says he kicked into a trust with the MP.
Mr Robert’s preferred candidate, Fran Ward Emmerson, is married to a heavyweight in the Gold Coast LNP and who ran a company until recently owned by the same John Margerison.
Roger Emmerson is a director of United Disability Care, until recently owned by Mr Margerison and, parliament heard, paid over $25 million a year for NDIS work while Mr Robert was a minister in charge of the disability scheme, the Senate has been told.
The other challenger in Fadden, Cameron Caldwell, is in charge of planning at Gold Coast City Council, a job Mr Robert helped him get elected to as one of a bloc of “independent” candidates including those the retiring MP secretly bankrolled.
But a cache of Mr Robert’s private emails released by an upper house inquiry last week raises new questions about Synergy 360’s lobbying of the council.
Mr Robert facilitated an introduction between a Taiwanese company and the council, Nine newspapers have reported.
“Gold Coast City Council… and they are particularly excited about potentially working with you on the nation’s first citywide lighting replacement program,” Mr Robert wrote to the overseas business.
The correspondence mentions no serving councillors.
Mr Robert has previously been close to Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate, the council’s most powerful figure and a Glitter Strip celeb who, one local shock jock once fancifully claimed, kept his mink coats in a specially fitted fridge.
Two of Mr Robert’s staff members received $60,000 in money from the former MP as they ran for council in 2016 alongside Mr Caldwell as ostensible independents.
All candidates employed the same lobbyist to coordinate material, a former Tony Abbott staffer who once donated $100,000 to Mr Robert, and who once wrote a speech he read into Hansard mostly without alteration.
(A third candidate, a quadriplegic medical researcher and former Queenslander of the Year, Dinesh Palipana, is the outside shot, one local source said).
Integrity election?
Speaking to his party room on Tuesday, Mr Dutton acknowledged the once-in-a-century loss at the Aston byelection earlier this year and urged his troops to unite and avoid another setback.
In Canberra, Mr Dutton rejected criticism that he had not presented a positive vision as a leader and seemed to be living instead in the moment.
The Coalition “needn’t rush to failure” by rushing out policies, Mr Dutton said, as policies would come “in due course”.
Later in the day, Mr Dutton spoke to a News Corp conference for weapons manufacturers about relations with Beijing.
He cautioned against wishful thinking, according to a Financial Review summary of his remarks.
Mr Robert’s spokesman declined to comment.
