Stuart Robert saw connection looked bad: Malcolm Turnbull

Malcolm Turnbull has dumped Stuart Robert from the ministry after an inquiry revealed he had a financial interest in Nimrod ­Resources.

Human Services minister Stuart Robert has been dumped by Malcolm Turnbull.

Malcolm Turnbull has dumped Stuart Robert from the ministry after an inquiry revealed he had a financial interest in Nimrod ­Resources, the company he spruiked for a friend and major Liberal Party donor while travelling with him on a “private” trip to China.

However, the party’s links to the exploration company, owned by millionaire businessman Paul Marks, run deeper. It has emerged that former Liberal National Party president Bruce McIver also holds a stake in the company.

Mr McIver, a party power­broker who led the merger of the Liberal and National parties in Queensland and was LNP president for seven years, was appointed to the board of Australia Post by the Turnbull government three months ago.

It can also be revealed that at the time of Mr Robert’s trip to China in August 2014, when he helped Mr Marks sign a deal with a state-owned mining company, Mr McIver was LNP president and director and shareholder of Metallum Holdings, which in turn has a stake in Nimrod Resources.

During this time, Mr Marks donate­d more than $2 million to the Liberal and National parties from his companies, including $500,000 from Nimrod in 2013-14.

Following the August trip to China, Mr Marks signed a mining deal with Minmetals Exploration at an event attended by then prime minister Tony Abbott and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Australian Securities & Investments Commission documents show Mr McIver’s company Interimco still holds a 22 per cent share of Metallum, which is majority­-owned by Mr Marks, but he ceased to be a shareholder in April last year.

In a statement released yesterday, the Prime Minister said Mr Robert’s financial interest in Mr Marks’s business had not initially been disclosed to the inquiry undertake­n by the head of the Departm­ent of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Martin Parkinson.

After checking his records, Mr Robert found an “allocation” of shares in Metallum had been made to his trustee “some time before­ the visit to Beijing” without his knowledge.

“(He) advised Dr Parkinson that at the time he travelled to Beijing in August 2014 he did not believe he had any interest in or connection to Mr Paul Marks’s company, Nimrod Re­sources­,” Mr Turnbull said.

“In the course of assisting the investigation, Mr Robert advised Dr Parkinson that on checking his records, he had become aware that shares in Metallum Holdings Pty Ltd, a company in which Mr Marks was also a shareholder, had been allocated to his trustee some time before the visit to Beijing.

“Mr Robert recognised that this connection would create the impression that at the time he went to Beijing, he had something personally to gain from the Nimrod­ Resources project.”

Dr Parkinson’s findings were considered by a sub-committee of cabinet on Thursday. The conclusion Mr Robert had acted inconsistently with the Statement of Ministerial Standards, even if unintentionally, was conveyed to him that night, prompting him to resign as Minister for Veterans’ Affairs and Human Services.

“As a result, Mr Robert has asked me not to consider him in the pending reshuffle of the ministry,’’ Mr Turnbull said.

“I thank him for his service as a minister and for his candid co-operatio­n with Dr Parkinson in his inquiry,” he said, adding Mr Robert ­“appears not to have received any financial benefit’’.