The Australian federal police have dropped their investigation into the Liberal National party MP Stuart Robert.
Robert resigned from the Coalition frontbench in February after a scandal over a trip he made to Beijing in 2014 to oversee a mining deal involving a major Liberal donor and to meet a Chinese vice-minister.
Robert travelled to China with the Liberal donor Paul Marks, who signed a deal between his company, Nimrod, and the Chinese government-owned Minmetals at a ceremony attended by Robert.
The head of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Martin Parkinson, later investigated the trip. During the course of the investigation, Robert disclosed a shareholding in Metallum Holdings at the time, which had an interest in Nimrod Resources.
Parkinson concluded Robert had “acted inconsistently” with the statement of ministerial standards by going on the trip. Robert resigned.
“Mr Robert recognised that this connection would create the impression that at the time he went to Beijing he had something personally to gain from the Nimrod Resources project,” the prime minister said at the time.
Mark Dreyfus, Labor’s shadow attorney general, referred the matter to the federal police for investigation.
But on Friday police confirmed the investigation had been dropped. “The AFP has concluded there is insufficient evidence to support a breach of commonwealth law, and will not be taking any further action or making further comment in respect of the matter,” the force said.
Robert has released a statement thanking his supporters for sticking by him. “In February I said in the House of Representatives that I did not act inappropriately during my trip to China a number of years ago,” he said.
“Today, after a thorough investigation, the Australian federal police have ceased their investigation after finding insufficient evidence that any wrongdoing had occurred.
“I’d like to thank all of my supporters for standing by me during this time. I’m proud to have been recently re-elected as the local member here on the northern Gold Coast and I look forward to continuing to serve with all of this behind me.”
Robert retained his seat of Fadden at the election on a margin of 17,773 votes after a 3.03% swing against him.
