MP Ian Goodenough promoted cafe, failed to mention link

MP Ian Goodenough promoted on Facebook and Twitter a cafe that leases space from a shopping centre he part-owns.

Liberal MP Ian Goodenough. Picture: AAP

Liberal MP Ian Goodenough promoted on his official Facebook and Twitter accounts a cafe that leases space from a shopping ­centre he part-owns.

The West Australian MP used his social media accounts to share photos of himself and “respected members of the northern suburbs Indian community” at the Dome cafe at the Currambine District Centre. He also shared four ­photos of a Liberal Party function that he hosted at the cafe.

“It was a pleasure to host afternoon tea at Dome Currambine in appreciation of Liberal state councillors and supporters today,” Mr Goodenough posted on Twitter and Facebook in September last year.

Currambine District Centre was developed by Westcapital, which Mr Goodenough has a 50 per cent stake in through Seventeenth Avenue Nominees Pty Ltd. The stake in Westcapital is not declared through his parliamentary register of interests.

The retail centre has since been transferred into two companies of which Mr Goodenough is a director and has a half shareholding in: Currambine District Centre One Pty Ltd and Currambine District Centre Two Pty Ltd.

Mr Goodenough declined to comment.

Sources close to Mr Good­enough said he did not have a ­financial interest in Dome cafe and he paid for the Liberal Party function.

Mr Goodenough has conceded he acted inappropriately by using his official LinkedIn ­account to spruik the sales campaign of Westcapital and has since deleted the post. “I acknowledge the posts on LinkedIn referenced in The Australian (last week) were inappropriate and I am in the process of deleting them,” he said on Monday. He has defended taking a delegation of Asian investors around two lobster businesses — outside his electorate of Moore — that give his company a commission for securing export deals. The Lobster Shack and Indian Ocean Rock Lobster processing factory, two hours’ drive north of Perth in Cervantes, is owned by David Thompson, who owns a house on the same street as Mr Goodenough in Perth’s north.

Mr Goodenough co-owns a business with Mr Thompson’s son, Brent, that collects commissions for securing exports deals for other businesses in the Thompson family. His ownership stake in that business, through Seventeenth Avenue Nominees, is also not declared.

He said last week he was not required to declare an interest in a business if it was held through a subsidiary, but the parliamentary deputy clerk said business interests held by subsidiary companies should be named.