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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2024-09-12 Daily Xml
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Citadel Secure

The Hon. D.G. PISONI (Unley) (15:33): The Independent Commission Against Corruption released its report into lobbying in South Australia, and it could not be more timely. The integrity of the member for Dunstan has come into question again, following disturbing reports in The Advertiser, just months after the Labor Party denied that her family business, Citadel Secure, is a lobbyist.

Citadel has recently registered on the South Australian Lobbyist Register. What has changed in such a short time to cause Citadel Secure to register itself as a lobbyist? We do not know, as Citadel has not registered its client on the Lobbyist Register, despite it being required under the Lobbyists Act. Unregistered lobbying is a serious offence in South Australia, attracting significant fines and prison time.

Hundreds of FOI documents show that Citadel Secure has been meeting with copious numbers of state and federal ministers, their officers and their departments long before it registered as a lobbyist. The member for Dunstan, while working for the Hon. Reggie Martin MLC and being paid by the taxpayer, attended events in her capacity as a senior associate of Citadel Secure while she was a Labor candidate. According to FOI documents, when it comes to Citadel, the Minister for Trade's office advises, 'Just ring Reggie.' Labor were willing partners supporting the now member for Dunstan inappropriately using her Labor staff position to enrich her family business by providing direct access to government.

The Minister for Consumer and Business Affairs, the member for Enfield, helped the member for Dunstan organise a stakeholder event in Parliament House which the member for Dunstan attended in her capacity as senior associate of Citadel. The minister signed off on this ministerial brief. The member for Dunstan, according to her LinkedIn and ministerial documents, was working for Citadel and the Labor Party simultaneously. Will she stop using her position to promote her family business? How deep do Citadel's tentacles reach within the Labor government?

When Senator Farrell was asked in the Australian Senate on 20 March this year if he or anyone from his office had meetings with Citadel or any of its clients, he angrily denied any approach regarding meetings with Citadel. Yet, a word search FOI requested from Senator Don Farrell's office resulted in 67,445 documents identified matching Citadel. That might explain why Senator Farrell, on the plane home from Canberra that day, angrily confronted Senator Kerrynne Liddle about her line of questioning regarding his involvement with Citadel. Did Senator Farrell know he misled the parliament?

Hundreds of documents raise serious questions about the nature of Citadel's access and influence over Labor ministers, including questions raised by public servants around the integrity of procurement practices of Labor government contracts awarded to Citadel. How many Labor Party fundraisers has the member for Dunstan's husband attended with his clients? What donations has the Labor Party received from Citadel, its clients and related entities?

The Premier talks about integrity in politics. Indeed, he said in the government's recent electoral reforms consultation paper that people are concerned about the perception of companies and wealthy individuals influencing decision-making in politics and that trust in democracy is at historic lows. The Premier's own department was unable to justify why Citadel FOI documents were withheld well beyond required timeframes set, released late, just days after the Dunstan by-election. The ICAC report states:

Where those seeking to influence the outcome of government decision making exploit personal connections…there is a risk that decisions will be made in the service of private, rather than public, interests.

An email between then Reggie Martin staffer Cressida O'Hanlon and her husband has revealed a web of secret activity and promotion of her private business. Now, we see Citadel registered on the Lobbyist Register just months after the member for Dunstan and the Premier said there was nothing to see here when questioned during the Dunstan by-election.

Questions remain. Who is the mystery client? Why will Citadel not comply with the law and register their client? Citadel claims to have done work for the New Zealand Defence Force, but even as of this morning Citadel has not registered that relationship on the Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme Public Register, where penalties for non-disclosure include jail time. The people of Dunstan deserve a representative in this parliament who is here for the right reasons: to pursue the interests of their community, not the interests of their family business.

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