Gold Coast MP Stuart Robert ‘secretly bankrolled independent candidates in city’s council election’

SACKED Gold Coast federal cabinet minister Stuart Robert secretly bankrolled the campaigns of three independent council candidates on the Gold Coast.

Stuart Robert during Question Time in the House of Representatives Chamber, Parliament House. Photo: Kym Smith

SACKED Gold Coast federal cabinet minister Stuart Robert secretly bankrolled the campaigns of three independent council candidates on the Gold Coast, fuelling calls for his disendorsement by the Liberal National Party on the eve of the federal election, according to a report in The Australian today.

The funnelling of at least $70,000 out of Mr Robert’s LNP branch fundraising arm, the Fadden Forum, into the campaigns of the independents before March 31 local government elections has already led to the demotion of LNP state director Lincoln Folo.

Mr Robert, under investigation by the Australian Federal Police over a 2014 trip to China with a donor friend, may have breached party rules by directing the LNP funds to the independents without the approval of his branch.

It is understood Malcolm Turnbull is aware of the emerging scandal after a meeting of the LNP’s state executive decided not to take any action against Mr Robert, who holds the Gold Coast seat of Fadden, despite internal calls for his disendorsement.

Instead, Mr Folo — who made the transfers at the behest of Mr Robert — was removed last month as state director and appointed campaign director in a move the LNP has publicly claimed was part of plan to split the roles because of growing administrative duties.

LNP state president Gary Spence yesterday defended the decision to keep Mr Robert as the LNP’s endorsed candidate despite conceding the transfer of the LNP supporters’ funds to the independents was “inappropriate’’.

Mr Spence said although he did not believe any laws had been broken, he had ordered “procedures be implemented to ensure that donations of this type cannot be repeated’’.

“Whilst no party rules or procedures were broken, the donation of the LNP funds to independent local government is inappropriate,’’ he said.

Mr Robert, believed to be the LNP’s top fundraiser in Queensland, refused to comment yesterday.

Stuart Robert: I don’t make any comment about party fundraising.

“I don’t make any comment about party fundraising,’’ Mr Robert said in response to a question about the transfer of funds to the independents.

The funds were given to John Brent, the now-ousted long-serving mayor of the Scenic Rim Regional Council on the Gold Coast hinterland, and newly elected Gold Coast independent councillor Kristyn Boulton.

The 2016-2020 Gold Coast City Council being sworn in at the Evandale Council Chambers: Councillor Kristyn Boulton. Photo: Jerad Williams

Mr Brent yesterday confirmed his campaign was given $10,000, while Ms Boulton — who refused to confirm or deny if Mr Robert had supported her campaign — is understood to have received $30,000.

A third independent candidate on the Gold Coast, who was unsuccessful at the election, received $30,000 but did not return calls yesterday.

Ms Boulton, who worked for Mr Robert for eight years, yesterday said she was not a LNP member and was a “true independent’’ despite receiving the LNP funds.

“I received donations from an array of people, including my family, all of which will be declared,’’ she said.

On holiday in Thailand after his defeat, Mr Brent said he did not ask for the campaign funds.

“Stuart is a friend of mine but I didn’t ask for it or deal directly with him; it was done between our offices,’’ he said.

Former Scenic Rim Mayor John Brent. Picture: GUY CREIGHTON

“My understanding is that the money came from business people through the Fadden Forum who support candidates that are pro-business.

“I thought it was from business people that were external from the Scenic Rim.”

Mr Brent said he did not believe the $10,000 came from “anyone doing business in the Scenic Rim’’ and dismissed suggestions he had done anything wrong in standing as an independent while receiving LNP funding. “It’s just getting to the stage that it is getting hard to run a campaign against the lies and the misrepresentations by other candidates,’’ he added.

The LNP constitution stipulates that funds shall be deposited into a branch account and “may be utilised only by resolution of an ordinary meeting of the branch’’.

The transfers from the Fadden Forum were discovered only after an internal complaint.

In February Mr Robert was dumped as human services minister for breaching ministerial standards after helping friend and Liberal donor Paul Marks sign a deal in China while on personal leave in 2014.

It emerged that Mr Robert held shares in a company that owned 35 per cent of Nimrod ¬Resources, the company at the centre of the scandal.

A senior LNP source said there had been calls for Mr Robert to be dumped from the party.

“But the decision was made that it is too late, the election is right on top of us and just to weather the storm if it came out,’’ the source said.

Mr Folo, who said he could not comment, was replaced as state director by Michael O’Dwyer, who held the job for five years until 2012.