(Image: Private Media)

For the past month Crikey has been watching unfold a real-time experiment in parliamentary accountability which has a real public interest edge. The result tells you everything you need to know about the failure of probity mechanisms at the heart of the Morrison government. 

The question is: who has oversight of a blind trust which was set up by cabinet minister Stuart Robert to cover his extensive financial holdings? And can parliamentary processes establish the truth given that Robert steadfastly refuses to say who the trustee is, including on his parliamentary declaration of interests, a document which is designed to inform the public about a member’s potential conflicts of interest.

ALP Senator Murray Watt put the ball into play on February 17 at estimates hearings. Is Gold Coast businessman John Margerison, any of his companies or his accountant “currently Mr Robert’s blind trustee?” he asked. “Could I also ask whether any of those people or entities is now or ever has been the trustee of Mr Robert’s blind trust?” (Margerison is a close business friend of Robert’s who also has vast business interests. More on that relationship below.)

Coalition Senator Anne Ruston took the question on notice. From there it presumably went up and down layers of bureaucracy, zipping backwards and forwards across Canberra until it plopped out earlier this week on the Parliament House website — in theory the moment which would provide accountability to the public.

The answer in its 15-word glory was: “Minister Robert has provided the following response. Ministerial interests are managed through cabinet’s governance committee.”

It is of course no answer at all. But who or what exactly is cabinet’s governance committee? 

Well, the committee, apparently fundamental to the integrity of government and of protecting the public interest, is made up of four members of the government: Scott Morrison is chair; Barnaby Joyce is deputy chair; the two other members are Josh Frydenberg and Michaelia Cash.

According to its online blurb, the committee provides “advice and oversight of governance and integrity issues, which include, but are not limited to, the statement of ministerial standards and issues arising from the lobbyist code.”

So what has the truth-seeking estimates committee process established? Well, it’s revealed a startling fact: that Morrison and Joyce are the senior figures who determine whether or not their cabinet colleague, Robert, is playing by the rules when it comes to the public interest.

Morrison and “Brother Stuie”, as the PM calls him, have the closest of relationships, bonded by a shared belief in Pentecostal Christianity. The two pray together. They shared digs in Canberra. Robert was Morrison’s numbers man for his run at the prime ministership. Morrison brought Robert into the ministry when he became PM and promoted him to cabinet. 

Even if Morrison had a reputation for honesty it would represent an unacceptable conflict at the very heart of the government’s accountability mechanisms.

Why does the oversight question matter in relation to Brother Stuie’s blind trust?

There are several reasons. One is that the blind trust is a key mechanism to safeguard the public interest by making it impossible for a cabinet minister to know if cabinet decisions will benefit the minister financially. The theory is that it is impossible for a minister to act to their own benefit if they have no idea of what they own.

For that to work the key is to know who operates the blind trust. Are they truly at arm’s length from the minister? Might it be a reputable firm of accountants, for example, that is completely independent of the minister? Who is putting their name on the line? In other Australian parliaments it is minimum requirement to state the name of the trustee.

The question is especially relevant in the case of Robert who was forced to leave Malcolm Turnbull’s ministry over a conflict of interest with his ministerial role in 2016. (Turnbull had ordered an independent investigation into the conflict of interest information published in the media.)

Stuart Robert and John Margerison

Last year Crikey covered the Robert-Margerison relationship in detail. Margerison is an entrepreneur and self-described strategy expert, with experience in capital markets, finance, trade, health, retail, banking, funds management, property and IT. His Facebook page also lists him as a one-time life coach working with multimillionaire health and wealth spruiker Tony Robbins.

Margerison has carried several business and political roles with Robert. ASIC documents show that he set up a venture called JM National Property Pty Ltd, and was joined by Robert in March 2018, when Robert was on the backbench. 

Robert inserted JM National Property into the heart of his financial affairs, as a trustee company for another trust which held property and shares for him and his family.

A month later, Margerison set up the Australian Ibero-American Business Council, a networking body which gave investors and businesspeople a forum to mingle with politicians. 

Margerison had also branched out into the business of providing NDIS services. His interests were built at a time which overlapped with Robert’s tenure as minister for the NDIS in 2019 and 2020.

In August 2018 JM National Property took a 50% stake in Cryo Australia, a Brisbane franchise group specialising in cryotherapy.

In a further coincidence, Services Australia awarded a multimillion-dollar lease for a commercial building owned by a Margerison-owned company at a time when Robert was minister for government services.

And there is a further link: the Gold Coast accountancy firm of Sean Beasley Accountants, in Robert’s electorate of Fadden, has been the registered office for Margerison’s businesses as well as the ventures set up for Robert before his return to the ministry.

In the NDIS and Services Australia cases there is no proof that Robert as minister directed funding to Margerison entities. Crikey is not alleging any wrongdoing by Robert or others. The point is that if a minister of the Crown has a blind trust, the public should have a right to know the bona fides of the arrangement — including who is administering it — so there can be no suggestion of a conflict of interest.

Robert, though, has never made it clear who manages his blind trust. 

And now we know that parliamentary oversight processes can’t help either. Ultimately it all leads to a black hole of accountability at the heart of the Morrison cabinet.