Ex-minister Stuart Robert to be referred to anti-corruption watchdog

A federal inquiry will refer former cabinet minister Stuart Robert to the national anti-corruption watchdog after hearing evidence about his contact with companies seeking major contracts with government agencies he oversaw.

In an interim report handed down on Tuesday, the parliamentary inquiry said the National Anti-Corruption Commission should investigate the claims because it would have the “forensic accounting expertise” to uncover the truth.

The committee split along party lines after months of hearings into the contact between Stuart Robert and consulting firm Synergy 360.Credit: Rhett Wyman

But Liberal members of the inquiry opposed the referral on the grounds that the commission did not need to be asked to look into the matter and should be left to decide if it should launch an investigation.

The outcome splits the joint committee of public accounts and audit along party lines after months of hearings into the regular contact between Robert and a consulting firm, Synergy 360, set up by his friends David Milo and John Margerison.

The committee chair, Labor MP Julian Hill, said the evidence before the inquiry had been “directly conflicting and mutually incompatible”, and the only way to resolve key questions was to refer the matter to the federal watchdog.

“In these circumstances, this committee is not able, given the resources available to it including a lack of forensic accounting expertise, to make clear findings in relation to the truth or otherwise of the allegations raised,” he wrote in the interim report.

“A referral to the National Anti-Corruption Commission by a parliamentary committee should never be made lightly ... There appears no other appropriate course of action.”

Committee chair, Labor MP Julian Hill

“The committee therefore considers that, in light of the serious and systemic nature of the allegations, an agency with compulsory questioning and document-gathering and investigatory powers should take up the matter so that these questions may be properly assessed.

“A referral to the National Anti-Corruption Commission by a parliamentary committee should never be made lightly and certainly is not done so here.

“In these circumstances, however, there appears no other appropriate course of action.”

Robert said there was no surprise the committee had made the recommendation given it was dominated by Labor members.

“A Labor-dominated committee using parliamentary privilege and process to even up political scores and using the NACC as a political weapon. Who would have thought?” he said.

“What an obviously transparent political payback. What a farce.”

The interim report recommends the commission examine “all of the evidence” gathered by the committee so far, a phrase that includes crucial testimony from Anthony Daly, a former worker at Synergy 360 and former husband of one of the firm’s top managers.

Daly said in a sworn statement to the committee in June that he helped arrange for Margerison’s company, United Marketing, to receive a 20 per cent stake in Synergy 360 in September 2017.

“Ultimately, this arrangement was designed to facilitate the flow of funds through United Marketing and onward to Stuart Robert,” he said.

Robert was government services minister and minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme from May 2019 to March 2021, a period when agencies such as Services Australia and the National Disability Insurance Agency decided big contracts with companies that paid Synergy 360.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton conceded in June the matter could go to the National Anti-Corruption Commission when he was asked whether Robert had questions to answer.

“They’re questions for the integrity commission,” Dutton said at the time.

But the deputy chair of the audit committee, Liberal senator Linda Reynolds, said it was up to the anti-corruption commission to decide if it wanted to investigate.

“As a matter of principle, Coalition committee members support the referral to the National Anti-Corruption Commission of any serious allegations of corruption that are drawn to the committee’s attention,” she concluded.

“However, it is not the role of the committee to request that the NACC conduct an investigation into any matter. The NACC is an independent agency and consideration of an investigation is the responsibility of the NACC commissioner.”

This was backed by Nationals senator Matt Canavan and Liberal MPs Ian Goodenough, Henry Pike and Aaron Violi.

Robert said in June he did not believe he had ever met Daly and thought it was an “extraordinary abuse of privilege” for the parliamentary committee to release Daly’s sworn statement.

“At no time have I ever been paid for any advice or guidance in any form,” he said after the committee heard from Daly.

“At no time did I lobby to assist any firm in such a manner. I also reiterate that Mr Margerison and Mr Milo have both said publicly that no payments were ever made, nor sought.

“Mr Daly’s submission with zero evidence and wild accusations is rejected in its entirety. [It is] simply not believable and is outrageous.”

This masthead revealed last November and December that Synergy 360 claimed in leaked internal documents that Robert attended meetings to discuss potentially lucrative government projects while he was a minister.

Those reports led to a damning review by former top public servant Dr Ian Watt, who in March called for further investigation into 19 government contracts won by Synergy 360’s clients with a total value of $374 million.

A senior manager from global tech giant Infosys told the joint committee that Synergy 360 had arranged several meetings with Robert and that Infosys paid Synergy 360 fees of $16 million for assisting it in connection to some of the country’s biggest government computer projects.

Milo and Margerison have denied doing anything improper and have also rejected the claim that Robert was secretly helping Synergy 360 and its clients win contracts, or ever stood to benefit for doing so.

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