Iemma mired in Nuttall inquiry

QUEENSLAND anti-corruption officers, whose investigation now embroils NSW Premier Morris Iemma, want to know about a meeting in his Sydney electorate office with a Beattie government minister under investigation over alleged bribery and kickbacks.

QUEENSLAND anti-corruption officers, whose investigation now embroils NSW Premier Morris Iemma, want to know about a meeting in his Sydney electorate office with a Beattie government minister under investigation over alleged bribery and kickbacks.

Mr Iemma, named in a search warrant that led to raids on the homes and offices of friends and associates of former Queensland health minister Gordon Nuttall, pledged yesterday to provide the Crime and Misconduct Commission with any information it needed. The Premier said he had no concerns about the probe.

Sources told The Weekend Australian yesterday that investigators wanted to know what was discussed in the meeting on July 22 last year - when Mr Nuttall and Mr Iemma were health ministers - and whether the talks led to public funds being spent on a Queensland company.

The meeting, which included Leo McLeay, Labor's former federal speaker and member ofthe NSW Right, and John Gowdie, a Brisbane project manager, was set up to explain to Mr Iemma the work of the Gowdie Management Group in overseeing a study of the toxic wastewater dumped by public hospitals throughout Queensland.

Sources said Mr Iemma was told a similar study of the wastewater produced by NSW hospitals would be in the public interest. "Mr Iemma was interested in the merits of the proposal, but no contracts were sealed," a source said.

Mr Gowdie's company was paid about $2 million by Queensland Health in 2004-05 after winning a public tender to perform the study, which found that due to the volume of antibiotic-resistant organisms, hospital wastewater was "placing in jeopardy the effective operation of local-authority sewage treatment plants".

A former top Queensland Health public servant, Geoff Stevenson, and Mr Gowdie said yesterday that they, Mr Iemma, and Mr Nuttall had nothing to fear from the CMC.

The offices of both men were raided on Thursday as officers produced warrants describing allegations of corruption and secret commissions flowing back to Mr Nuttall.

Mr Stevenson accused the CMC of waging a vendetta against Mr Nuttall and unfairly targeting his associates. Mr Nuttall lost his job as health minister over the Jayant Patel scandal last year, but has denied claims of bribery and graft.

"We embarked on this study of wastewater in good faith - we had a potential public health disaster. The pilot study showed there probably was a problem and that's when we went to the bigger study," Mr Stevenson said. "The CMC is obsessed with killing Gordon and they don't care who they trample on."

Mr Gowdie said the CMC would find no evidence of kickbacks to Mr Nuttall.

"We won the job through an open public tender that went through a probity audit," he said. "I totally deny the allegations. I have never paid secret commissions. I have met the guy, but he's not a good mate."

In a search warrant, the CMC says it is seeking to "seize all documents" related to talks between Mr Iemma and others on July 22 last year. The CMC has demanded all documents related to the provision of any services by Ivanmont Pty Ltd to the NSW Government, "including but not limited to waste water problems in NSW, a waste water study; and all project management consultancies".

The CMC has been examining bank statements and contracts relating to a secret $300,000 loan to Mr Nuttall from Macarthur Coal mining magnate Ken Talbot. Mr Nuttall and Mr Talbot have defended the transaction as honest and above-board.