John Margerison appeared to have severed all ties with Australia in the weeks before he was to appear before a parliamentary inquiry set to examine the Gold Coast entrepreneur’s relationship with one-time Morrison government cabinet minister Stuart Robert.
But Crikey‘s inquiries have established that Margerison disposed of his multimillion-dollar Gold Coast home to a longstanding business partner and friend, Mike Ribot, and Ribot’s wife, Kathleen. Queensland land title records show the sale was finalised on June 30. The sale price was $5 million, according to realestate.com.au.
Ribot also recently took over Margerison’s interests in a disability services business which is registered as an NDIS provider. ASIC records show Margerison stepped aside as a director of Social Solutions WA Pty Ltd, owner of West Australian disability provider Discovery Holidays in February. This left Ribot as the sole director.
In response to Crikey’s questions, Ribot said the sale was a “private transaction and will remain so”. He declined to comment on the sale price. (The Margerisons bought the luxury waterside property set across from a Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course in 2017.)
Ribot took issue with Crikey’s characterisation of Margerison’s decision to leave Australia as “controversial” and the suggestion the sale might give the appearance that Margerison had severed ties with Australia when in fact he had not.
“Having reviewed the manner in which John has been treated, we don’t consider his genuine departure from Australia ‘controversial’,” Ribot said in a short written statement.
He described his takeover of Margerison’s interests in Social Solutions WA as “strictly commercial and, to the best of my knowledge, unrelated to Stuart Robert” — a reference to a series of revelations on Margerison’s dealings with Robert, some of which are the subject of an inquiry by the federal Parliament’s Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit.
Ribot became a co-director of Social Services WA at the end of 2018 along with Margerison who owned the company through his other corporate entities. The timing coincides with the period when Margerison was building his investments in the disability services sector. (Robert would later become minister responsible for the NDIS in the Morrison government.)
Ribot describes himself as a “business performance coach and trainer who assists his clients to grow and manage their businesses”. His full name is Michael Ribot de Bressac, usually shortened to Mike Ribot. He served for 15 years in the Army reserves and has been actively involved in the Australian War Memorial.
In 2015 he and Kathleen attended a governor-general’s lunch at Government House — along with a host of dignitaries including former PM John Howard — to commemorate the official reopening of the “Australia in The Great War” gallery. The couple also funded the production of a 2019 documentary on the Australian War Memorial’s Hall of Memory and its 15-piece stained glass display, said to depict the quintessential qualities of Australians in war.
Chair of the parliamentary committee Labor MP Julian Hill said last week that Margerison’s non-appearance was a “somewhat surprising turn of events”. NDIS Minister Bill Shorten called it “truly remarkable”. Hill told Crikey that the question of how Margerison had disposed of his family home played into whether or not he really has severed all ties with Australia: “That’s something we will consider further when we next meet.”
Crikey does not suggest any wrongdoing, only that the matter appears worthy of further investigation.
What can be done?
Parliamentary committees can find that a witness has been in contempt by failing to provide documents requested by a committee or failing to present themselves to a committee (Margerison is guilty of both.)
However, they have no power to order the return of a witness who has left the country. Nor do they have the power to seek an arrest warrant.
A Parliament has the theoretical power to jail anyone found guilty of contempt, but the last time that happened was in 1955 when the House of Representatives found a local newspaper proprietor, Ray Fitzpatrick, and his editor, Frank Browne guilty of contempt of Parliament. They were ordered to be imprisoned for three months without being allowed representation by counsel, and without right of appeal to the Parliament. They served their time in the Canberra police lock-up and Goulburn jail.
The case caused an uproar. It has never happened again. The prime punishment now is public opprobrium.
Plenty of embarrassment to go around
Robert has strenuously denied allegations made under parliamentary privilege that he was to be paid money for providing assistance to clients of a lobbying firm called Synergy 360, which at one point was 20% owned by a Margerison company. Margerison has also denied all allegations.
The case of the disappearing financial whiz has the potential to embarrass some of the brighter lights of the old Coalition government. Margerison, a fan of motivational business spruiker (and multimillionaire) Tony Robbins, had ingratiated himself with the likes of former foreign affairs minister Julie Bishop and also former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, who attended gatherings of the Australian Ibero-American Business Council, a networking body established by Margerison to give investors and business people a forum to mingle with politicians. The association was the brainchild of Robert.
Former prime minister Scott Morrison also made an appearance at the Brother Stuie-inspired association. No surprise there.
David Hardaker can be contacted via secure email dhardaker@protonmail.com.
