MP ‘corruption’ review ordered

Bill Shorten has ordered a review into major contracts awarded to lobbying and consulting firm Synergy 360 after reports it was given secret advice from Coalition MP Stuart Robert.

Coalition MP Stuart Robert. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

Government Services Minister Bill Shorten has ordered a review into major contracts awarded to lobbying and consulting firm Synergy 360 after reports it was given secret advice from Coalition MP Stuart Robert.

Mr Shorten on Thursday told question time he had directed Services Australia and the National Disability Insurance Agency to investigate contacts and all individuals named in the reports as he warned against “corruption” in public life.

“I’ve asked the CEO of Services Australia and the CEO of the National Disability Insurance Agency to immediately and thoroughly investigate any of the ­contracts awarded to these companies and individuals named in these reports, to assure me and the Australian people that the process was entirely above board and appropriate,” Mr Shorten told the lower house.

Nine Newspapers on Thursday reported a cache of leaked emails had revealed how Mr Robert allegedly used his status as a federal MP in 2017 and 2018 to help Synergy 360 win major government contracts and obtain access to senior Coalition members.

Mr Robert told the lower house the reports were “rubbish” and that he had “no part” in any of the allegations.

Mr Shorten said politicians must not use their position to “enrich private friends and mates” and that Labor believed the job of an MP was to work for constituents not for their former business partners.

“Whether you are a backbencher or a frontbencher is not a defence. If and when public office has been used to enrich private mates, it is corruption,” he said.