Peta Credlin emails revealed at ICAC Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s chief of staff Peta Credlin has been revealed as the mystery Liberal Party figure involved in an email exchange that Liberal Party lawyers sought to have suppressed by the Independent Commission Against Corruption. In the emails, dated March 1, 2011, Ms Credlin proposes to use question time to showcase claims by Brickworks chief executive Lindsay Partridge, after Liberal NSW fundraiser Paul Nicolaou described Mr Partridge to her as “a very good supporter of the party”. The emails show Mr Abbott’s office working with Mr Partridge and Brickworks for Mr Abbott’s campaign against the carbon tax, at a time when senior federal Liberals including Ms Credlin’s husband, Brian Loughnane, would have been aware that Brickworks, a prohibited donor, had channelled funds to the NSW Liberals via the Free Enterprise Foundation. Counsel assisting ICAC Geoffrey Watson, SC, said on Thursday “we’ve been threatened” with a Supreme Court action to suppress the emails after concerns were raised by Robert Newlinds, SC, the counsel for former assistant treasurer Arthur Sinodinos. “I think it’s not coming from Senator Sinodinos, it was coming from the Liberal Party,” Mr Watson said. “I just don’t want this to get out,” Mr Newlinds said, in asking for a suppression order not only on the page but also the legal argument about the order. The emails had been published on the ICAC website on Thursday morning before they were withdrawn three hours later. The suppression order was lifted by commssioner Megan Latham after the lawyers for the House of Representative Speaker, Bronwyn Bishop, said they would not claim privilege over the documents. NSW Liberals’ biggest backer ICAC has already heard that Brickworks was the NSW Liberal Party’s largest backer in the March 2011 state election, despite its work as a property developer making it a prohibited donor for NSW. Liberals state finance director Simon McInnes has confirmed that donations were made to the Free Enterprise Foundation in Canberra before being forwarded to the federal party with instructions that they be forwarded to the NSW division, though he insisted they were used for the federal campaign. The suppressed emails begin shortly after 2.52pm on March 1, 2011, when Mr Partridge forwarded to Mr Nicolaou an internal Brickworks email. The email, headed “Bunya estate off to a good start” included a Daily Telegraph article about the need to free up land for housing in western Sydney. “Paul. This is what I was talking about,” Mr Partridge wrote. “I have written a price I will send you when I return. Best. Lindsay.” Mr Nicolaou testified on Friday he was not aware that Brickworks had a property development division (the division earned $29 million in fiscal 2011). Four minutes later Mr Partridge emailed Mr Nicolaou again: “Tell Tony to stick to his guns on no carbon tax ... We want certainty that there is no new tax. Thanks Lindsay.” At 9.29 that night, Mr Nicolaou forwarded Mr Partridge’s second email to the federal opposition leader’s chief of staff: “Dear Peta, please note below from Lindsay Partridge the MD of Brickworks the largest producer of bricks in Australia and a very good supporter of the party.” Four minutes later Ms Credlin replied: “Paul, Lindsay provides a great line for Question Time. Do you have a number that I might be able to contact him on ... it would be ideal for tomorrow cheers Peta. It marked the start of a series of comments about Brickworks in parliament and in press conferences by high-profile Liberals. At 9.37pm, three minutes after Ms Credlin’s email, Mr Nicolaou replied with a phone number, copying to Mr Partridge: “Lindsay would be only too happy to help ... Feel free to call him.” In fact, Mr Partridge was in Europe on a business trip and did not reply until 1.15am Sydney time: “Paul/Peta. This is amazing I am in France and talking to a manager of a large roof tile maker ... Under a carbon tax regime many products including cement production will move offshore. The others the price will just go up.” With the difficulties of the time difference, the following day in question time Mr Abbott instead raised the case of a Canberra businessman “John Fragopoulos, who runs FishCo in Belconnen and who is already paying $3,000 a month for electricity to keep his small business going”. Brickworks surfaced in Question Time on March 24, with the Liberals’ finance spokesman, Mathias Cormann giving no indication that Mr Partridge had been talking to Mr Abbott’s office. “I was drawn to an article today which was published by AAP where Mr Partridge, Australia’s largest brick and tile maker, said the federal government’s carbon price proposals will add about 10 per cent to the cost of housing across Australia – 10 per cent,” Senator Cormann said. On May 2, Mr Abbott was at a factory in Melbourne for a press conference: “It’s good to be here at Austral Bricks [the subsidiary of Brickworks] ... The company estimates that if a carbon tax comes in ... that will add about 10 per cent to the cost of manufacturing bricks here in this country.” On July 5, Nationals Senator Williams told the Senate: “Several of [Brickworks’] sites will become unsustainable and result in the loss of many jobs.” And on September 14 Mr Abbott told parliament the carbon tax would provide “$2 million a year additional cost” for Austral Bricks. The federal Liberal party would have been conscious of how Brickworks donations were channelled in 2010 through the Free Enterprise Foundation because of disputes over which branch would end up with the funds. ‘The money didn’t end up there at all’ Several emails about the Brickworks donations were copied to Senator Sinodinos and to the president of the federal party, Ms Credlin’s husband Brian Loughnane, in July 2010. “Giving money to the Liberal Party was like giving a hot chip to a bunch of seagulls, the seagull that’s got the chip in his mouth doesn’t necessarily get to eat it,” Mr Partridge told ICAC last week. Mr Partridge said he had been “quite annoyed”, because he had intended to give $50,000 to the state Liberal branches in Western Australia, Queensland and NSW, and $100,000 to the federal division. Brickworks’ property arm had rezoning applications looming in the three states. “But the money didn’t end up there at all,” Mr Partridge said. Instead $100,000 was paid directly to the federal party, with $150,000 going to the Free Enterprise Foundation, with $50,000 of this going the NSW party, with the federal party holding on to the rest. “Via the diversionary organization there is $50K going to NSW,” Mr Partridge emailed Nicolaou on July 29 2010. He told ICAC he was referring to the Free Enterprise Foundation as the “diversionary organization”. Another $130,000 from Brickworks and $50,000 from its associated company, Washington H Soul Pattinson, followed in November-December 2010. Mr McInnes and Mr Nicolaou have said they believed it was legal for money from prohibited donors to be channelled to the FEF and then back to the state party, but they had never sought legal advice on this. On July 23, Colin Gracie of the Liberals’ federal secretariat emailed Mr McInnes: “Brian Loughnane has agreed that for the time being, the Fed Sec will operate on the policy set out in the attachment. In effect, there is no benefit for a NSW donor to donate via the Fed Sec, unless they are a property developer.” Mr McInnes emailed state director Mark Neeham on August 7, 2010: “There have been $95,000 of donations made via the Free Enterprise Foundation that will be directed to the federal division with instruction from them to pay to us.” Mr McInnes confirmed at ICAC that the federal division was part of the scheme for funds to go through the Free Enterprise Foundation to the federal party then be forwarded back to the state party. But he said that the state used the money for federal campaigns. Mr Partridge appeared to have high expectations of the level of access Brickworks’ donation bought him. When invited to dinner with Mr Abbott in July 2010 (which was later cancelled), he wrote, “Will I get a photo with Tony like I got from John Howard[?] I will be wanting to talk about all my employees on AWAs [Australian Workplace Agreements] who are now stuck and don’t want to be unionised.” On March 15, 2011, two weeks after the Credlin emails, Mr Partridge wrote to Mr Nicolaou: “A couple of people have said to me we should get rid of the cartoon ad, as it is infantile and is demeaning to the Liberals. If you could pass the comment on. Ta. Lindsay.” Mr Nicolaou promptly forwarded this email to state director Mark Neeham: “Dear Mark, please note our biggest supporters’ comments below.” But there were bounds to what even the party’s biggest supporter could influence: Mr Neeham replied tersely: “The ad is on air as it works. If we didn’t we would not run it. It is not designed for Liberal Party donors but swinging voters. Mark.” afr/p/national/peta_credlin_emails_revealed_at_dKqNsVBmjWAFUjVy09SP1K
Posted on: Mon, 08 Sep 2014 01:21:52 +0000
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