Senator denies MH370 conflict of interest

A Nationals senator says he didn’t know a company he part-owned was seeking clients in connection with the doomed flight.

Coalition Senator Barry O'Sullivan. Picture: AAP

Nationals senator Barry O’Sullivan has admitted he failed to ­declare he was part-owner of a company which for three years after Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 went down sought business from plaintiff law firms ­including those representing MH370 victims’ families.

But the Queensland senator insists he never knew the company was created in 2014, had no involvement with it, and records show it never traded and obtained no clients.

While there is no suggestion of a conflict of interest, Senator O’Sullivan chairs the Senate’s rural and regional affairs and transport legislation committee, some of whose members last week grilled the Australian Transport Safety Bureau over its failed underwater search for MH370.

Labor senator Murray Watt said, “Senator O’Sullivan must say why he failed to declare this interest to the Senate”, and Centre Alliance senator Rex Patrick, who is a member of the committee, said Senator O’Sullivan should also make a statement to its members.

MH370 disappeared in the southern Indian Ocean on March 8, 2014, with 239 people on board, having deviated 40 minutes into its scheduled flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with its radar transponder off and radio contact broken.

Senator O’Sullivan yesterday said that after inquiries from The Australian, he had determined one of his family companies had had a 50 per cent shareholding in Asia Pacific Claims Management, which was registered on the Australian Business Register from September 2014 to November 2017.

APCM’s website, which was still operating last week but ­appeared to be down yesterday, said “we have assisted in all types of aviation accidents”.

Under a heading “current cases” it lists MH370 and Air PNG 1600, and has a photograph of a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 with the caption “Flight 370”.

The website says: “We specialise in providing independent ­advice and assistance to individuals, estates and corporations affected by aviation accidents around the world where civil litigation and claims for compensation are ­involved.”

Senator O’Sullivan said his shareholding in APCM was a legacy of a claims-adjustment investigation business dealing with aviation accidents that he had run up until about 2008.

When he was running for preselection in 2013, he said, his ­accountants started separating his financial interests in 30 companies.