On August 30, almost two years after the hearing into prohibited political donations concluded, ICAC released its report on Operation Spicer and it was damning – which probably explains the Coalition’s disproportionate hysteria over Sam Dastyari’s indiscretions. They seem desperate to avoid scrutiny of their own wrongdoing.
Despite Dastyari’s resignation, Turnbull is going hard on Shorten’s supposed weakness, implying he was too gutless to sack him.
Well let’s just take a step back here…..
Arthur Sinodinis was paid $200,000 a year by Australian Water Holdings for a couple of weeks work because, as a senior Liberal Party office holder, he could “open doors”.
He had a “gentleman’s agreement” with AWH’s chief executive and Liberal party fundraiser, Nick Di Girolamo, in which he was also given a 5% stake in the company. This shareholding was recorded on his parliamentary pecuniary interest declaration but it was not publicly registered with the corporate regulator.
Despite standing to make up to $20 million if his lobbying efforts were successful, Senator Sinodinos never mentioned to Premier Barry O’Farrell or other ministers that he had “skin in the game”.
AWH donated $74,000 (and possibly more) to the Liberal Party while Sinodinis was on the board of AWH and at the same time party treasurer but he claims to have no knowledge of that.
In early 2013, after Senator Sinodinos relinquished his 5 per cent stake in Australian Water Holdings before it became the focus of an ICAC inquiry, key Liberal fundraisers sounded out major donors to the party about chipping in to buy him a house. Sinodinis said he had “no knowledge of the plans” which were later shelved.
Senator Sinodinis was one of several former directors of AWH being sued by shareholders for persuading them “to invest substantial sums of money only to squander their investments.”
The day before the case was to be heard in August last year, Sinodinis, who had separate legal representation, made a confidential settlement with the plaintiffs, much to the fury of his co-defendants who were denying the charges.
A fortnight before Senator Sinodinos settled the court case, he amended his declaration of pecuniary interests. The declaration, dated August 8, 2015, noted a personal loan with the National Australia Bank. It is not known whether the loan was related to the court settlement.
Three weeks after the settlement, Senator Sindodinis was instrumental in ousting Tony Abbott. Turnbull promptly promoted Sinodinis to Cabinet Secretary.
ICAC heard allegations of AWH’s overcharging and fraudulent billings to Sydney Water, including for political donations. Nick Di Girolamo has been found to have evaded election funding laws relating to disclosure but, after the review of the ICAC act after its ill-fated attempt to pursue Margaret Cunneen, the High Court essentially concluded that breaching political donation laws could not be found as corrupt conduct under the Commission’s existing powers.
The ICAC found that during November and December 2010 the Free Enterprise Foundation was used to channel donations from prohibited donors to the NSW Liberal Party for the 2011 state election campaign so that the identity of the true donors was disguised.
The Liberal Party received $693,000 in donations in three days from a single donor – the Free Enterprise Foundation – “but no one on the finance committee admitted to knowing anything about it in their evidence”.
In 2009, the year before the ban on donations from property developers came into force, the Free Enterprise Foundation donated only $50,000 to the NSW Liberals.
The report found that there was “insufficient evidence” to conclude that other senior Liberal party officials including now Senator Arthur Sinodinos – then chair of the Liberal Party finance committee – knew of the practice.
Far from being punished for his dubious dealings, which surely fail the “sniff” test, Arthur “I don’t recall” Sinodinis has been well rewarded by a grateful Malcolm Turnbull for his efforts in securing him the top job.
It’s obvious who is beholden here, and it isn’t Bill Shorten.
