Revelations that Stuart Robert met consultants who facilitated access for a company bidding for lucrative contracts in his portfolio of government services are “concerning”, Bill Shorten has told federal parliament.
Shorten, the government services minister, revealed after question time on Thursday that Services Australia and the National Disability Insurance Agency had agreed to establish a “joint review” into the “Synergy 360 lobbying scandal”.
Robert, the former government services minister, rejected the “implied imputation” that he had influenced procurement, declaring he had “zero involvement” and it was conducted with the “highest levels of probity”.
On Thursday, the Nine newspapers revealed several meetings between Robert and Synergy 360, a firm whose shareholders are his close friends, the consultant David Milo and political fundraiser John Margerison.
Leaked documents reportedly show that Milo repeatedly provided access to Robert in 2019 for one of Synergy’s key long-term clients, Indian multinational Infosys.
In November, the Albanese government ordered an investigation into contracts awarded in the government services portfolio, with Shorten declaring in parliament that MPs using public office to “enrich private mates” was corruption.
Asked on Thursday about that previous answer and the latest media reports, Shorten told the lower house the “new revelations in today’s media are concerning”.
“Since last week, I have ascertained the following: four contracts were issued to Infosys to a total value of $274m to upgrade payments software in human services, called the ECE project. It’s still going.”
Shorten said the timeline for the ECE project was as follows:
2 October 2018: the ECE tender opened – three companies including Infosys were shortlisted.
29 May 2019: the member for Fadden was appointed minister for human services and the NDIS.
26 June 2019: leaked emails reveal the minister met Infosys and his good friend Milo, a paid consultant to Infosys, in Sydney.
2 July 2019: final valuation was submitted – negotiations on value and period of contract continued for another four months.
8 November 2019: Infosys was awarded the first of four contracts valued at $18m.
19 November 2019: the minister met Infosys.
30 December 2019: the minister met his friend Milo on the Gold Coast, which triggered an email from Milo saying “minister gave insights on progress of Infosys and future opportunities”.
1 February 2020: the minister was guest speaker at an Infosys conference at Melbourne Park on the afternoon of the Australian Open tennis finals.
1 July 2020: Infosys was awarded a further $142m contract.
Shorten told parliament on Thursday: “At the same time, wheels start to come off the project. It has to be overhauled and one of the unsuccessful tenderers is called in to resuscitate the project.”
The minister said he had asked agencies whether Robert had ever alerted the department or unsuccessful bidders that he was meeting Synergy 360 and Infosys.
“What, if any, meetings occurred in his personal office and Services Australia and the department about the progress of the ECE contract pre- and post-Infosys being awarded the contract?” Shorten said.
“What, if any, contracts were awarded to Synergy 360 clients with areas of responsibility to minister Robert, including, but not limited to Delv, Adobe, Infosys and Salesforce?”
Shorten concluded by noting an “unfortunate development this morning” and reminding Robert to “please come through my office if you have any request of the relevant agencies”.
“Do not do what you did this morning and inappropriately task and pressure public servants who are no longer your ministerial responsibility,” he said in parliament.
After question time, Shorten updated the house that Services Australia and the NDIA had “taken the initiative of agreeing to a joint review” with an eminent Australian to investigate the matter.
“This arrangement will ensure no real or perceived conflict of interest that might exist were agencies to investigate themselves … [and] provide important independence as we seek to get to the bottom of whether there was any misconduct.
“Taxpayers and voters have a right to know if there was any impropriety and equally be assured government contract processes are independent, merit-based and not swayed by special interests or lobbyists.”
Robert then gave a personal explanation, claiming to have been “most egregiously” misrepresented.
“I reiterate what I told the house last week, that I reject the implied imputations in the strongest possible language,” the Liberal MP said.
“I reiterate that all departmental procurements were run with the highest levels of probity and to that end I formally wrote to the CEO of Services Australia first thing this morning to request that she provide probity confirmation to me so I can provide it to the house as is appropriate.”
Robert said the ECE project tender was released 12 months before he became minister, and contract negotiation was under way when he was sworn in.
“I had zero involvement in this procurement or any other procurement and reject completely these accusations.
“I look forward to the report of whatever process the minister seeks to put in to ensure transparency and accountability.”
• This story was amended on 2 December 2022 to remove a reference to Dell in a quote by Bill Shorten. The company referenced was actually Delv.
