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Coalition MP accused of receiving inappropriate donations

Stuart Robert is embroiled in more controversy, this time for the Gold Coast City Council elections.

Stuart Robert is embroiled in more controversy, this time for the Gold Coast City Council elections. Photo: AAP

Less than a month after Labor senator Sam Dastyari resigned for accepting expenses payments from Chinese-linked donors, Coalition MP Stuart Robert is under investigation over an alleged political donation scandal.

Mr Robert is being investigated by the Crime and Corruption Commission Queensland (CCCQ) for ties to property developer Sunland and for backing the company’s $600m high-rise tower plan on the Gold Coast, Fairfax Media has reported.

According to the report, Mr Robert has admitted that the Fadden Forum – an LNP fundraising body he operates – was used to “secretly” fund two independent candidates in the March 2016 Gold Coast City Council election.

But there are question marks over where that money originated, with suspicions that the funds came from property developers.

The two candidates were Kristyn Boulton and Felicity Stevenson, both staff members for Mr Robert who were reportedly given $30,000 each for their campaigns.

They did not disclose their LNP ties until after the election, with Ms Boulton getting elected and Ms Stevenson failing, then returning to work for Mr Robert.

Fairfax Media reported that rivals believed this was an attempt to stack the council with pro-development councillors and it has prompted the CCCQ investigation.

Earlier in September, Mr Dastyari resigned from the opposition frontbench after it was revealed he made pro-China statements which went against Labor Party policy around the same time as he received donations from Chinese-linked donors.

Mr Robert denies any wrongdoing. One Forum donor is Gold Coast property developer lobbyist Simone Holzapfel who, Fairfax reported, gave more than $100,000 to the Fadden Forum. 

Senator Dastyari allowed a Chinese-linked company to pay off a travel debt. Photo: AAP

Senator Dastyari allowed a Chinese-linked company to pay off a travel debt. Photo: AAP

She denies the money came from her property developer clients and insisted it was her own. Sunland is one of her clients.

Sunland is lobbying the Gold Coast Council to approve its 44-storey development in an area with a three-storey restriction, Mariner’s Cove.

Mr Robert, who reportedly has ties to Sunland, has been lobbying the council even though the proposed development site is in his Fadden electorate.

The Gold Coast Bulletin reported in June that Mr Robert had written to the council endorsing Sunland and its proposed project.

That is despite fellow LNP MP for Moncrieff (where the project is), Steve Ciobo, not supporting a loosening of the three-storey height limit.

Local residents also strongly oppose the plan.

An image of the proposed towers. Photo: Sandland

An image of the proposed towers. Photo: Sunland

Sunland has been embroiled in a Gold Coast City Council funding scandal before. In 2004 it was among companies that funded independent councillors through sitting party-aligned councillors.

The previous CCCQ report found Sunland paid $10,000 into a trust that would be channelled to “candidates whom Sunland would be happy to support”.

Mr Robert also once used parliamentary privilege to support Sunland in its dispute with Australian man Marcus Lee, who was charged with fraud in Dubai.

The charges emanated from a deal between Mr Lee’s company and Sunland turning bad.

There is no suggestion Mr Robert or anyone else involved has broken the law.

In February 2016, Mr Robert resigned from the Turnbull ministry over a trip to China in 2014, where he appeared at a signing ceremony for a mining deal between Australian company Nimrod Resources and a Chinese business.

The Labor Party had argued the trip was inappropriate because Nimrod’s executive chairman Paul Marks was a generous Liberal Party donor.

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