Liberal Party insiders line up pay day from Morrison government policy

Controversial former Coalition minister Stuart Robert has been leveraging his work as Australia’s inaugural digital minister as part of a $500 million venture to build a giant data centre to store defence secrets and other sensitive government information.

Leaked documents reveal that Robert has spruiked his stewardship of Australia’s data onshoring policy to help him negotiate a private business proposal for a data centre on private land owned by an ex-Defence official next door to the HMAS Harman military base in Canberra.

Former cabinet minister Stuart Robert during question time in March 2023.Credit: Rhett Wyman

In the confidential documents, Robert argued the need for a data centre in Canberra was “being driven” by the policy he introduced as minister that “all Australian government data is housed on-shore”.

The deal, if realised, could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars and deliver a windfall to Robert and his backers.

According to one of Robert’s confidants, the venture also involves figures in ex-prime minister Scott Morrison’s inner circle, including lobbyists David Gazard and Scott Briggs.

Robert’s new business venture is a case study of what integrity advocates describe as the “revolving door” phenomenon involving former politicians joining the corporate sector in areas over which they previously wielded significant policy and political influence.

But it also comes with Robert still embroiled in a major scandal – first exposed by this masthead in late 2022 – over allegations he used his political influence to help his friends win consulting work with government contractors who specialise in IT, data and national security, and whom Robert was dealing with as a minister or MP.

The scandal prompted a parliamentary referral to the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) and dragged in several large federal government contractors, including Salesforce and Oracle, over allegations they enjoyed privileged access to Robert after hiring one of his friends as their consultant.

This masthead can confirm that Robert has claimed that both contractors engaged with his firm this year as part of the data centre proposal.

According to briefings prepared by Robert in July and August and circulated among financiers, the ex-minister described discussions with “Oracle and Salesforce, for the provision of additional data centre capacity for their government operations”.

Robert was Australia’s first digital transformation minister, a post he held from 2018 to May 2022, and was previously assistant defence minister.

Robert has also sought to raise $500 million in private capital to develop the data centre, according to briefings prepared by the ex-minister.

In the documents, Robert explicitly links his previous work as a Morrison government minister to the commercial data centre proposition offered by his company, Coram Deo Capital Pty Ltd. Robert registered the company in 2022 after losing his ministerial posting and moving to the opposition backbench.

In an August 2024 letter, Robert states that Coram Deo Capital is the “lead partner for a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV)” with “a deep understanding of the Australian digital technology sector and a specific expertise in the operation of data centres in Australia”.

HMAS Harman is a large Defence base in Canberra.

The letter details how Robert served as Australia’s first digital transformation minister and “had responsibility for the Commonwealth government’s Hosting Certification Framework for data centres, the onshoring of all Australian government data in certified strategic data centres, the development and execution of the first whole-of-government digital strategy and the Digital Transformation Agency”.

“Coram Deo Capital is currently in confidential discussions with Blackstone Inc in relation to a direct investment in the development and operation of a Data Centre complex of circa $500M in CAPEX,” the letter states.

“We are also in discussions with [another company] on a potential lease with Defence of the site under a build, own, operate arrangement. Finally, we are in discussions with global SaaS providers, Oracle and Salesforce.

“All of this is being driven by the exponential requirements for secure data storage in the prevailing digital and AI age and the Australian government requirement that all Australian government data is housed onshore.”

REVOLVING DOOR

The leaked documents give the most detailed insight yet into Robert’s activities after he quit parliament in May 2023, four months before a parliament committee referred him to the NACC over allegations he had misused his political office to promote his friends’ businesses.

According to Robert’s confidential August 2024 business pitch, the land next to HMAS Harman is “uniquely placed for a significant provision of data services to Defence and other government clients” due to “its proximity to major defence and aerospace installations”.

An Australian military website states that HMAS Harman “enables Defence-wide communications, cyber, intelligence, and information warfare capabilities”.

As digital transformation minister, Robert announced in 2021 how he was reforming the “protection and security for government-held data”, including ensuring certain information could be held only in federal government-certified data centres in Australia.

“The Morrison government is committed to having effective controls in place for the critical systems and data holdings that underpin the operation of government,” Robert’s press statement at the time said.

When contacted this week, Robert refused to discuss his data centre venture or his commercial dealings with any government contractors or donors, citing commercial-in-confidence.

But he stressed he had never used government information for personal gain and had abided by the 18-month cooling-off period that prevents former ministers from engaging in certain dealings with government and Defence officials.

“If I was doing something in that regard [dealing with government or defence contractors], it is well after the time I am required to not be involved in anything portfolio-related,” he said.

Businessman and finance broker Damien Simonfi has floated in and out of Robert’s inner circle for years.Credit: Facebook

“I’m a private citizen, so I am not a public figure any more in any way, shape or form, so anything I do is commercial-in-confidence,” said Robert, before hanging up abruptly.

It is not suggested Robert developed the policy as minister with an eye to his future, only that he is now seeking to profit from his own policy.

Transparency International’s Australia director Clancy Moore said Robert’s post-parliamentary business dealings showed why Australia urgently needed to extend the cooling-off period to a minimum of three years “in keeping with international best practice”.

“Ministers should be allowed to find jobs, but they shouldn’t profit from their work in parliament for at least three years to ensure their parliamentary work is focused on the public interest, not private gain,” Moore said.

Robert’s new business interests not only involve major government contractors he previously and controversially dealt with as minister – such as Salesforce – but overlap with the interests of lobbyists and businesspeople with close ties to the Liberal party.

In June, businessman and finance broker Damien Simonfi, who for years has floated in and out of Robert’s inner circle, lent more than $5 million to a private Canberra development firm that, weeks later, became one of Robert’s proposed partners in the data centre project.

In late August, ACT government records show Simonfi had further dealings with the owner of the land next to the military base, former Defence official Amresh Sharma.

“Whenever I don’t know something, I will just call on anyone who might have a specific set of skills in an area – could be a friend or a developer, or, in this case, Stuart, who’s got knowledge of Canberra,” Simonfi told this masthead when quizzed about his recent involvement with Robert.

“And so all I said was, ‘Do you know where this Harman military base is?’ … And he [Robert] went, ‘Yep, know all about it.’ And that was the end of the conversation.”

Simonfi is a long-time political backer of Robert, with his firm donating $15,000 to the Queensland Liberal branch in 2013 and attending multiple functions in support of Robert in the following years.

In 2022, Simonfi interviewed the then minister in his office for a podcast that promoted both Robert’s political acumen and Simonfi’s lending business, Capital Bridging Finance.

On the podcast, Robert said: “For those unaware, Damien’s company Capital Bridging Finance has provided advice to me and to Treasury over many years in terms of the impact of government policy on that bridging finance space.”

David Gazard’s DPG Advisory has close Liberal links.Credit: Louie Douvis

Simonfi also told this masthead that lobbying firm DPG Advisory, which is run by former Morrison advisers David Gazard and Scott Briggs, was also involved in the data centre venture.

“There were some lobbyists that have been working on it, and that’s it. Those lobbyists know Stuart, end of story,” Simonfi said.

A financier with connections to the site confirmed that Gazard and two other Liberal party-aligned lobbyists, including Briggs, had partnered with Robert in his data centre venture.

“This development in Canberra has had a lot of [interest], I’ve had more than 700 phone calls, I think, in last few weeks, and everyone’s been trying to get their hands on this site. And everyone’s been, you know, all over it,” Simonfi said.

DATA CENTRE BACKGROUND

Robert’s dealings with the business world became controversial in late 2022, after this masthead first revealed his relationship with Canberra consulting firm Synergy 360 and its part owners David Milo and John Margerison, who are close friends of Robert.

Margerison is also a former business partner of Simonfi, but the pair fell out around 2015, with Simonfi telling this masthead he had cut all ties to Margerison.

The Synergy 360 scandal involved a series of emails written by Milo that revealed that between 2017 and 2021, Robert – while both a minister and MP – was secretly assisting Milo’s firm to win work from large IT and data security government contractors.

The contractors were seeking to profit from the Robert-backed efforts to modernise and security-proof federal government data and IT systems.

Leaked emails written by Milo reveal that Robert encouraged multiple government contractors to hire Synergy 360, while Milo also regularly called on Robert to meet with his actual or potential consulting clients.

Last year, a parliamentary inquiry found that Milo had approached IT giant Salesforce in May 2019 to help it seek federal business and subsequently arranged three meetings with Robert.

The National Disability Insurance Agency, which Robert oversaw as minister, selected Salesforce as its preferred bidder for the management of a new IT system.

Leaked emails also reveal that Milo arranged meetings between IT firm Oracle and Robert to help Oracle win contracts from the federal government.

The revelations about Robert’s secret backing of Milo climaxed with allegations, aired in parliament last year, that Synergy 360 intended to pay Robert for secretly assisting it to win work from government contractors.

That allegation was denied by Robert, Milo and Margerison, but referred by the joint committee of public accounts and audit to the NACC a year ago for further “forensic” investigation. The anti-corruption agency has declined to say whether it has launched an inquiry.

Robert is not the only former public official hoping to profit from the tract of land next to HMAS Harman.

Around 2018, a serving Defence Department IT infrastructure project manager, Amresh Sharma, bought the land next to HMAS Harman. Sharma, who quit Defence in early 2023, said he purchased the property for about $4 million and hoped to build a house on it.

In an interview with this masthead, Sharma said that in mid-2022, while still working for Defence, he struck a conditional deal in which he would sell the land to a Canberra development firm for more than $30 million.

He said that he had no idea its value lay in its potential to be turned into a Defence data centre.

Sharma also said that subsequent investigations by the Defence Department had found he had acted appropriately in his dealings with the land.

There is no suggestion by this masthead that Sharma ever acted improperly, misused Defence Department information in connection to the land deal, or that Sharma has had any dealings with Robert.

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