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ASIC to inquire into Qld MP Stuart Robert

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission will examine Queensland MP Stuart Robert's business structure.

Stuart Robert
Coalition backbencher Stuart Robert is under scrutiny over his business dealings. (AAP)

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Source: AAP


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Australia's corporate watchdog plans to make some inquiries into the business affairs of Queensland Liberal National Party MP Stuart Robert.

Fairfax Media has reported the federal MP's father Alan Robert was not aware he was a director of a private investment company that held shares in his son's computer service firm which had millions of dollars in government contracts.

Mr Robert said the private investment company Robert International had been run by his son during the six-year period he and his wife Dorothy were the company's only directors.

John Price, from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, told a parliamentary economics committee hearing in Canberra on Thursday the watchdog would make inquiries, after Labor questions on whether he had seen the media report.

"Will ASIC be investigating that?" Labor MP Matt Keogh asked.

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"I think we'll make some inquiries into that, yes," Mr Price said.

ASIC confirmed in the hearing no identity check was needed for someone to become a company director, but rather it was a matter of filling in a form.

Without directly commenting on Mr Robert's case, Mr Price said knowingly lodging a false or misleading document was an office under corporations law with a maximum term of five years in jail.

Mr Robert told parliament his parents, as directors of the company, had signed the annual trust resolutions over many years.

"My father is a sophisticated investor and even today runs a very successful business," he said.

The MP became emotional when he spoke of his father caring for his mother who had just been discharged from hospital after a second heart attack.


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