Stuart Robert’s $1600 bill despite gold mine link

Sacked minister Stuart Robert spent more than $1600 of taxpayers’ money to fly to a mine in which he had shares.

Former Human Services minister Stuart Robert. Picture: Kym Smith

Sacked Turnbull government minister Stuart Robert spent more than $1600 of taxpayers’ money to fly to a north Queensland goldmine in which he had recently bought shares for himself and his family.

Department of Finance documents show that Mr Robert made claims on the public purse for return flights from Brisbane to Townsville on April 10, 2013, the day of the visit to the $200 million Mt Carlton mine of gold producer Evolution Mining.

His travel allowance claim of $376 is dated April 9, indicating he stayed in Brisbane for a night before flying to Townsville on a scheduled commercial service and then taking a chartered helicopter west to the mine the following morning.

Mr Robert charged the public purse a total of $1091 for the flights from Brisbane to Townsville and return to Brisbane, The Australian’s searches revealed yesterday. He chalked up Comcar limousine charges of $205 and claimed a further $376 for a travel allowance in Brisbane prior to inspecting his private ­investment.

The April 10, 2013 visit to the Mt Carlton mine, operated by Evolution Mining in which Mr Robert had bought shares the previous year, took him about 1600km north of his Gold Coast electorate. At the time of the visit he was opposition spokesman for defence, science technology and personnel, with no official role for the opening of the mine.

Mr Robert had close ties with one of Evolution Mining’s ­directors at the time, Paul Marks, who had more than six million shares in the company and funnelled large donations to the Liberal and Nationals parties.

Mr Robert was dumped in Malcolm Turnbull’s ministry ­reshuffle over a trip to China in 2014, following revelations of his financial interest in another company, Nimrod ­Resources, which he promoted for Mr Marks.

Evolution Mining issued an announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange stating that on April 10, 2013, then premier Campbell Newman officially opened the Mt Carlton gold-silver-copper mine and that “many special guests attended”. The statement did not mention Mr Robert, the federal member for Fadden, who did not promote the visit on his Facebook page.

The Australian has obtained an official Queensland government itinerary of the visit which shows Mr Robert was on the VIP guest list along with former Queensland Liberal National president Bruce McIver. The running sheet for the event shows that Mr Robert did not have any official speaking part.

A spokesman for Mr Robert did not return The Australian’s call yesterday.

The itinerary states: “Other ­attendees: (Queensland Mines) Minister Andrew Cripps MP, Mr Stuart Robert MP, shadow minister for defence, science technology and personnel, Mr Bruce McIver, LNP president.”

In another section of the itinerary which lists all the invitees, Mr Robert is featured attending with Mr McIver.

Two helicopters were chartered to fly Mr Newman, company executives, Mr Robert, Mr McIver, government advisers and others from Townsville Airport to Mt Carlton for the opening, then returned them to the airport after lunch and speeches. It is understood that Evolution Mining paid for the helicopter flights.

Searches of federal parliament’s interests register show Mr Robert declared ownership of Evolution Mining shares on February 6, 2012, for himself and members of his family — “Stuart, Caleb, Isaac and Jacob”. His current register shows he still owns the shares, which closed yesterday at $1.93, compared with $1.30 at the time of his visit to the mine.

Mr Robert has previously declared free flights in Clive Palmer’s aircraft, including a visit to Papua New Guinea, where the tycoon was trying to develop oil and gas interests. Mr McIver as LNP president was on Mr Palmer’s payroll at the same time with directorships of Singapore-registered companies, which were set up as a shipping arm for the failed nickel refinery in Townsville. There is no pecuniary interests register for LNP heads.

The federal opposition yesterday called for a police investigation into Mr Robert’s “private” visit to China in 2014, following revelations last week of his financial interest in another company, Nimrod ­Resources, which he promoted for Mr Marks. The opposition is expected to escalate its calls and include the Queensland mine visit in a police probe.

Opposition legal affairs spokesman Mark Dreyfus wrote to AFP commissioner Andrew Colvin yesterday, stating: “It is clear that Mr Robert sought to benefit Mr Marks, a significant Liberal donor, but the revelation that Mr Robert himself stood to gain financially through his shareholdings in a company related to Nimrod is even more serious.

“The Prime Minister has been careful to say only that this created an ‘impression’ that Mr Robert stood to gain personally from his trip. Whether he intended to do so now merits a proper police ­investigation.”

Mr McIver, who was appointed to the board of Australia Post by the Turnbull government three months ago, holds a stake in Nimrod Resources. His stake coincided with donations by Mr Marks of more than $2m to the Liberal and Nationals parties from his companies in 2013-14.

Mr Newman refused to answer questions, saying he would check his official diary and travel records.

Federal cabinet minister Josh Frydenberg said yesterday Mr Robert had already “paid a very high price” with his dumping as a minister over the China trip.