Lobbyland: Pyne, Feeney open doors in defence

A weapons supplier with more than $200 million in federal deals has emerged as one of the best-connected companies in federal politics, with former Labor and Liberal ministers helping it gain a central position in a massive push to build a guided-missile industry.

Nioa Group appears set to gain more contracts to develop the missile’s capability with the help of directors including former Liberal defence minister Christopher Pyne and former Labor parliamentary secretary for defence David Feeney, giving it contacts on both sides of parliament.

David Feeney and Christopher Pyne are both working with Nioa Group.Credit: Marija Ercegovac

But the company’s success has also highlighted the gaps in the regime that is meant to monitor lobbying in federal politics, as most company directors are exempt from the scheme and most businesses do not disclose the “in-house” executives who seek to influence the government.

Federal spending on defence is expected to double to $100 billion a year in a plan to acquire new submarines, warships, drones, missiles and other equipment over the decade ahead, setting up massive contracts for companies that gain insight into government plans.

Nioa has deep connections to the department of defence as one of the country’s most important suppliers of guns, grenade launchers and artillery ammunition, while also being a key player in the $2.5 billion federal plan to make missiles in Australia in partnership with American defence giants.

Company founder Robert Nioa named Pyne and Feeney to an advisory board at the end of 2020 to help expand the family business, and followed this with a restructure in January 2023 to install Pyne as chairman of the group board and Feeney as a director, alongside former soldier Mark Donaldson, VC, and others.

The company has a long connection to federal politics because Nioa’s wife, Liza, is the daughter of independent federal MP Bob Katter, the member for Kennedy in northern Queensland, and the sister of Robbie Katter, who sits in the Queensland parliament as a representative of Katter’s Australian Party.

Liza Nioa donated about $300,000 to Katter’s Australian Party over the three years to June 2022, but the company did not disclose this to the Australian Electoral Commission until March last year, in some cases years after the payments should have been declared under the law.

She donated another $99,996 to her father’s party in the year to June 2023 and disclosed it within the deadline.

The Nioa Family Trust separately donated $63,500 to the Liberal National Party in the year to June 2022.

Company directors have a long history of engaging directly with the federal government across many industries, and this masthead is not suggesting that Nioa and its directors have engaged in any conduct that flouts the federal lobbying regime or raises questions about federal contracts.

However, the company’s structure highlights the blurred lines between those who act for companies as directors and those who work as lobbyists, amid a broader debate about whether government relations executives at big companies should have to add their names to the lobbyist register.

Defence Minister Richard Marles has set up checks on procurement so that probity officials ensure that contract decisions are fair, but the Auditor-General last month identified a project several years ago in which a federal official sought a bottle of champagne from defence giant Thales.

Pyne dismissed any concerns about being a director and a lobbyist. “I’m a registered lobbyist. So it’s a moot point,” he said. Feeney declined to comment.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and former federal minister Christopher Pyne ahead of an address by Robert Nioa, Group CEO of NIOA, (seated second from left) at the National Press Club on Friday, December 1, 2023. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

A Nioa spokesman said the advisory board was set up to provide advice to the company.

“Advisory Board members do not lobby on behalf of the company. Nioa has full-time employees who interface with government at an executive and departmental level,” he said.

“Nioa will always follow any federal government requirements on interfacing with members of parliament and government employees.”

The company said all its donations to political parties were made within the AEC guidelines and that donations by family members were not matters for the company.

Now a lobbyist, Arthur Sinodinos during his time as Australian ambassador to the US.Credit: Sarah Baker

Other political insiders have also signed up as board members for defence companies, with former Liberal senator Arthur Sinodinos chairing the board at Queensland company Hypersonix Launch Systems.

Sinodinos was chief of staff to John Howard as prime minister before entering parliament and becoming industry minister in the Coalition government and, later, the Australian ambassador to the United States.

Former Labor senator Stephen Conroy, who was communications minister for six years and later served as the party’s defence spokesman, is on the advisory board of Rheinmetall’s Australian division.

Former Liberal MP Bob Baldwin now works as director of government and corporate relations at Varley Group, a company based in the NSW Hunter Valley and a joint venture partner with Israeli company Rafael Advanced Defence Systems in supplying missile systems to the Australian Defence Force.

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