"Temporary use of storage space – Marlene Newcombe."
It's one of the briefest of entries buried among the free football tickets, airline lounge memberships and other gifts that Queensland Health Minister Yvette D'Ath declared receiving on her register of interests last year.
But it highlights the relationship the minister has developed with the Newcombe family who operate car dealerships under the name Village Motors and other businesses around Ms D'Ath's Redcliffe electorate, north of Brisbane.
The minister has confirmed Ms Newcombe is a friend and told the ABC the storage was for furniture.
But she has declined to say where this storage occurred and over what time frame.
State parliament rules require gifts or benefits worth more than $969.95 be declared on the register of interests within a month of their receipt.
Ms Newcombe, a successful local businesswoman who owns commercial sites around the Redcliffe region, did not respond to questions about the storage.
In June last year, Ms D'Ath gave an interview mentioning one of these properties – a partially vacant car dealership lot and office complex at 433 Elizabeth Street, Kippa-Ring.
The property is owned by Ms Newcombe through her private company Colbury Pty Ltd.
In the interview for local news website the Moreton Daily, which is published by Ms Newcombe's son Shane Newcombe, Ms D'Ath revealed the site would be used as a vaccination clinic by her department.
"I'm incredibly excited to see that we will have a community-based vaccination hub right here in our local community," she said in an online article on the Moreton Daily, which lists its contact address as being at the same Elizabeth Avenue location.
'Best available site on short notice'
Ms D'Ath did not answer questions about whether any of her furniture was ever stored at this location.
She told the ABC that she "had no involvement in any discussions, approvals or decisions in the selection of this site" for a vaccine clinic by the health department.
"This is not a ministerial decision and I have not made or received any representations from the department about this matter," she said.
"I was not aware that it was to be a vaccination site until it was established."
Ms D'Ath did not provide an answer to questions about whether the gift of storage at the same time gave rise to a perceived conflict of interest.
Her department repeatedly refused to release details of what it paid to Colbury Pty Ltd for use of the property for a vaccine clinic, citing commercial-in-confidence.
It also declined to reveal who negotiated the deal within the department's Metro North division.
But the ABC has found expenditure records on the Queensland government's open data portal that reveal tens of thousands of dollars of "lease" payments were made by the health department's Metro North division to Colbury and the dates they occurred in the last financial year.
According to the open data records, Ms D'Ath's department paid Colbury a total of about $419,000 in the past financial year.
The first outlay in the last financial year for the lease was listed as having been paid to Colbury on August 9 last year in the form of three payments in the amounts of $12,342, $56,342 and $34,100.
The open data portal shows the department then made regular payments to Colbury of about $30,000 every month from September last year to April this year.
The department did not respond to questions as to why the three payments occurred on the same day.
A department spokesperson said the decision to lease the property was made based on "a number of factors that made it the best available site on short notice", noting the suburb was identified as a key area based on population needs and demographic.
The spokesperson said the site rent included electricity, water, air conditioning, waste disposal and car parking as well as COVID-19 cleaning daily.
The ABC does not suggest any wrongdoing by Ms Newcombe in relation to the vaccine clinic or providing storage to the minister.
On Wednesday after the matter was raised in parliament, Queensland Health director-general Shaun Drummond issued a statement saying he "could categorically confirm that all appropriate processes were followed" with the selection of the site.
"These are operational decisions made by officers of the Department of Health and Hospital and Health Services."
Mr Drummond said the minister had "no involvement" in the process.
"Community-based vaccination clinics were a key component in the vaccination program’s success, making the COVID-19 vaccine available to Queenslanders closer to home," he said.
In parliament today, after being asked if the furniture was stored in the same complex as the vaccine clinic, Ms D'Ath said: "I have made it very clear that I have appropriately declared that I was offered storage by a friend who owns the site where the vaccination centre ended up being."
"I am calling on the ABC management to immediately retract this article which is based solely on smear and innuendo," Ms D'Ath said.
Ms D'Ath said the ABC article "alleged a conflict of interest where no conflict exists".
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk told parliament she had been advised by the director-general that, "the minister has complied with the requirement to register it on her register of interests".
Ms Newcombe is listed as being the sole director of Colbury, according to Australian Security and Investment Commission records.
The sole shareholder of Colbury is another company, Newcombe Holdings Pty Ltd, which has Ms Newcombe's son Shane as one of its directors.
Shane Newcombe has previously told the ABC he was not involved in the deal with the health department.
The sole shareholder of Newcombe Holdings is Ms Newcombe.
Shane Newcombe and D'Ath thank each other
The open data portal records also reveal a residential address in the Redcliffe region as being the place listed for the health department to make payments to Colbury.
Property searches show this address is owned by Ms Newcombe. Another property next door is listed as being owned by her son Shane.
It is a street not unknown to the health minister.
Around April last year, real estate records show Ms D'Ath purchased a property in that street, about 400 metres down the road from Ms Newcombe's house.
Real estate records also show Ms D'Ath selling another residential property that she had owned for years, in about September last year.
That same month Ms D'Ath spoke in parliament about the old Village Motors site at Kippa-Ring which hosted the vaccine hub and praised Ms Newcombe's son Shane in the same speech.
On September 16, about seven days after declaring on her register receipt of free storage, Ms D'Ath rose in parliament to thank Shane Newcombe and a not-for-profit entity the Moreton Bay Region Industry and Tourism (MBRIT) that he runs.
"I put on my record my thanks to the Moreton Bay Region Industry and Tourism chief executive Shane Newcombe and the MBRIT team did an incredible job putting on festivals across the Moreton Bay region," she said.
In the same speech she also mentioned the vaccine hub at the old Village Motors site as being open as part of a blitz on vaccinations.
It is not unusual for Ms D'Ath to mention Mr Newcombe in parliament.
She has regularly thanked him for his work at MBRIT and in 2018, during a speech for the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Amendment Bill, she described him as a "dear friend" and noted she had attended his wedding.
MBRIT's offices are listed as being in the same complex at Kippa-Ring where the vaccine clinic was located.
Ms D'Ath has also praised Ms Newcombe in parliament in relation to business acumen and contribution to the Redcliffe community.
On March 10 last year, in a speech referencing "amazing female leaders in the Redcliffe community", Ms D'Ath told parliament Ms Newcombe was a successful local businesswoman and the managing director of Village Motors which "is extremely supportive of our local groups and the major sponsor of the Redcliffe Dolphins of course".
A day later, Shane Newcombe published his own shout-out to Ms D'Ath on his Facebook page referencing his mother's attendance, along with other women from the Redcliffe community, at the speech and an international women's event at parliament house, which included a tour from Ms D'Ath.
Posting a picture of his mother sitting in the speaker's chair in state parliament, he wrote the caption: "My mum being speaker of the house (love heart emoji) thanks Yvette D'Ath MP."
The ABC on Friday attempted to contact Ms Newcombe and Shane Newcombe about potential conflict of interest concerns in relation to the department's lease of the Kippa-Ring site.
At the time of publication they had not responded.
Editor's Note: On 1 December 2022, Minister D’Ath provided further comment about the matters in this story in parliament, which have since been reported on by the ABC in an article published on 2 December 2022.
