Steven Miles refers lobbyist Matt Jutsum to Integrity Commissioner
Steven Miles has been forced to refer a Labor lobbying issue to the state’s Integrity Commissioner, after a torrid week in parliament.
Queensland Premier Steven Miles has referred a meeting he had with lobbyist and former senior Labor government staffer Matt Jutsum and his client, entertainment giant Harvey Lister, to the state’s Integrity Commissioner to ensure he did not break the law.
Under Queensland’s lobbying rules, former senior government representatives who become lobbyists are banned for two years from carrying out lobbying relating to “official dealings” they had in the previous two years while working for government.
Government representatives, including Mr Miles, are also banned from knowingly allowing themselves to be lobbied by someone breaching the regulations.
The Australian revealed on Thursday that Mr Jutsum – the long-time chief of staff and friend of former Labor tourism and state development minister Kate Jones – repeatedly lobbied Mr Miles and other senior government officials on behalf of ASM Global chief executive Mr Lister to revamp the state-owned Gold Coast Convention Centre.
Lobbying records and ministerial diaries show Mr Jutsum and Mr Lister met with Mr Miles on June 16, 2021.
The lobbyist also put Mr Lister’s case to Queensland government officials, including senior ministerial staffers and the directors-general of the departments of tourism and state development, nine times in the two years after he left government.
Mr Miles told state parliament that after seeing The Australian’s reporting, he had written to Integrity Commissioner Linda Waugh “and asked her to advise whether everything appropriate had been followed in those circumstances”.
“I look forward to receiving her advice,” he said.
Mr Miles confirmed to Ms Waugh that the meeting had been about a “redevelopment opportunity” of the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre.
Mr Lister was pushing for the state government to spend $750m revamping and expanding the centre, for ASM Global to then manage.
In the final year of their government careers, Ms Jones and Mr Jutsum were closely involved in considering a formal proposal from Star Entertainment Group, which offered to spend $100m redeveloping and expanding the convention centre, which it currently manages.
The offer was made to maintain Star’s casino licence monopoly on the Gold Coast, as Ms Jones ran the “global tourism hub” tender process for a potential second casino on the coast.
Negotiations broke down in mid-2020, and Star’s redevelopment of the convention centre did not happen.
Mr Jutsum was lobbying for Mr Lister’s redevelopment of the same site about nine months later.
Mr Jutsum insists he has not broken the two-year exclusion, and that the ASM Global proposal was “never conceived during my time in government”.
Mr Jutsum referred himself to the Integrity Commissioner on Wednesday.
Mr Miles told Ms Waugh that he believed he had complied with the relevant provisions of the state’s Integrity Act.
It is the second time this week that Mr Miles has been forced to refer lobbying issues to the watchdog, after The Australian revealed Ms Jones was a “specialist consultant” for lobbying firm Akin Agency and had arranged meetings last year with government ministers for several organisations, including one which later became a client of Akin.
Ms Jones and Akin have both denied any wrongdoing, and Ms Jones has since quit the agency.
LNP integrity spokeswoman Fiona Simpson told parliament this week that Labor was still “cosy” with lobbyists, despite the 2022’sCoaldrake report, which described the growth of lobbying activity in Queensland as “a failure of government itself to be able to deal with business andcommunity interests without the involvement of a paid intermediary”.
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