Coalition targets Mark Dreyfus over shares ‘conflict of interest’

The Coalition is accusing Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus of a conflict of interest after he declared shares in a firm that funds litigation and legal class actions.

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus during question time in Parliament House in Canberra on Thursday. Picture: Gary Ramage

The Coalition is accusing Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus of a conflict of interest after he declared shares in a firm that funds litigation and legal class actions, amid a saga over Anthony Albanese’s ministerial code of conduct.

The revelations come after the Albanese government last week announced it would reverse the Coalition’s crackdown on litigation funders when it capped the profits of class-action funders and lawyers at 30 per cent of the settlement.

During question time on Thursday, Deputy Opposition Leader Sussan Ley seized on Mr Dreyfus’s declaration of shares in Australian equities fund Greencape Broadcap, through his self-managed super fund.

The Greencape Broadcap fund invests in several companies listed on the Australian sharemarket. Its parent company, Greencape Capital Pty Ltd, was the largest shareholder in Omni Bridgeway with more than 9 per cent of shares as of July 31 this year.

Omni Bridgeway bills itself as the largest litigation funder in Australia and campaigned heavily against the former government’s proposed legal reform to crack down on litigation funders.

Omni Bridgeway was part of a coalition of funders that lobbied against the attempt to rein in commissions collected by litigation funders and fees charged by lawyers, arguing that the legislation would make investment in class actions unviable.

The litigation funding industry has faced intense scrutiny following the collapse of financial group Banksia Securities, after its lawyers and funders were found to have engaged in “egregious conduct in connection with a fraudulent scheme” by ­trying to claim more than $19m in purported legal costs and ­commissions.

Following Mr Dreyfus’s announcement to wind back the Coalition's reforms, Omni Bridge­way issued a statement that it “welcomes the Australian federal government’s announcement that it intends to reverse the regulatory changes introduced by the prior government”.

In question time, Ms Ley asked whether Mr Dreyfus was “satisfied” that his shareholding did not “give rise to a perception of a conflict of interest?”

“Does this fund hold shares in Omni Bridgeway, a listed litigation funding business, which recently issued an ASX statement welcoming a decision from the Attorney-General? If so, is he satisfied that this shareholding does not give rise to a perception of a conflict of interest?” she asked.

Mr Dreyfus said he would look into the matter but gave assurances that all his investments had been disclosed.

“That is why I will look at the matter that has been raised by the honourable member but I can assure the house that every single one of the publicly listed managed funds that my private superannuation fund invests in have been fully disclosed to this house,” he said.

The revelations came after Peter Dutton tried to suspend standing orders in a bid to pursue the government over several ministers caught up in a potential breach of the Prime Minister’s code of conduct despite promising to improve politics.

The Opposition Leader called on Mr Albanese to “live up to his rhetoric” and take steps to “actively enforce” his code; if not, he should “admit that this Prime Minister is in fact failing to enforce his ministerial code”.

Mr Dutton alleged Mr Dreyfus’s shareholdings in Greencape Wholesale Broadcap had “doubled in value since Labor came to power” and Labor ministers had been liquidating their financial shares at a “rate of knots”.

A fourth MP, Ged Kearney, was on Wednesday forced to issue a statement to explain that her shareholdings in several companies were in line with Mr Albanese’s code of conduct.

“Public disclosure and transparency to shareholdings is extremely important to avoid conflicts of interest – either perceived or actual,” a spokeswoman for Ms Kearney said.

“The member for Cooper’s investments do not give rise to any conflict of interest with her ministerial duties.

“All holdings have been fully and transparently disclosed.”

The Coalition has been pursuing the government over revelations Labor front­benchers NDIS Minister Bill Shorten, Local Government Minister Kristy McBain and Assistant Minister for Trade Tim Ayres had breached the code.

The Prime Minister in July ­announced all ministers would be forced to divest from all direct shareholdings they had, and would be prevented from using blind trust arrangements in order to increase transparency under an overhaul of the ­government’s code of conduct.