Former Fortescue boss Nev Power avoids jail over Covid breaches

High-profile businessman Nev Power has narrowly escaped imprisonment over his breaches of Western Australia’s Covid border restrictions.

Nev Power was told he had made ‘a disrespectful and foolish choice’. Picture: Colin Murty

Businessman Nev Power has narrowly escaped imprisonment over his breaches of Western Australia’s Covid border restrictions.

Mr Power, a former chief executive of Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue Metals Group and the one-time head of the federal government’s now-defunct National Covid-19 Co-ordination Commission, and his son Nick each ­received suspended sentences in the Perth Magistrates Court on Wednesday afternoon.

Magistrate Elizabeth Woods said their offences were at the upper end of seriousness, with each man receiving a five-month sentence for failing to secure a G2G pass and a three-month ­sentence for failing to quarantine upon their arrival.

But she noted that their co-operation, early guilty pleas and the significant damage to their reputations meant a fully suspended prison sentence was appropriate.

The suspended sentences mean neither man will serve any jail time over the offences if they do not commit any other offences over the rest of this year.

Both Mr Power and his son pleaded guilty in February over charges stemming from their decision to fly one of Mr Power’s helicopters from Queensland back to WA in October last year. Neither Mr Power nor his son had completed the G2G pass required for all travellers entering WA at that time, and neither man quarantined upon their arrival in Perth. Ms Wood said the pair had shown a lack of judgment and noted their offences had the potential for serious consequences.

“This was not a momentary aberration,” she said. “It was a deliberate choice … it was a dis­respectful and foolish choice.”

The imposition of a prison sentence, albeit suspended, will mean both men will have a criminal ­record, although that does not in itself immediately disqualify Mr Power from serving on corporate boards. Ahead of the sentencing, Mr Power quit his chairmanship of Perth Airport and took a leave of absence from his directorships of ASX-listed Strike Energy, APM Human Services International and Genesis Minerals.

Mr Power had already quit his role as chairman of the Royal Flying Doctor Service Federation.

At the helm of Fortescue Metals and then the Covid commission, Mr Power was a towering figure who dominated board rooms and corridors of power across the country.

But in Court 41, which on a typical day is full of people facing drug or assault charges or violence restraining order breaches, the normally imposing Power cut a far more timid figure.

In her sentencing remarks, Ms Wood described how both men had spent the days leading up to their ill-fated flight working on a muster at the family’s cattle station in North Queensland.

The pair had little interaction with the broader community during that time, save for each man making brief visits to Mt Isa.

In the lead-up to Mr Power’s guilty plea, his legal team filed 13 character references, including one from Mr Forrest, as well as a psychologist report describing “cognitive distortions” that affect the businessman at times of stress.

The breakdown of Mr Power’s marriage around that time had contributed to his stress at the time of the incident.

Most of those convicted of failing to adhere to WA’s Covid border rules have received fines, rather than custodial sentences, although there have been some notable exceptions.

The most prominent of those were Victorian men Hayden Burbank and Mark Babbage, who both served three months in prison in WA after they were sentenced for travelling to WA to attend the 2021 AFL Grand Final.

Melbourne man Daniel Jovanovski spent more than three weeks in jail over his attempt to travel into WA for the grand final.