A mite of a man
Guns, smugglers, freedom fighters, children’s hospitals, accusations, denials, media scrums — hasn’t Senator Ross Lightfoot’s Murky Mesopotamian Mystery provided us with an entertaining couple of days?
I don’t particularly care whether Lightfoot carried a gun without doing the paperwork, or whether he left it in the car. And I’m not bothered about whether he physically carried the money out of the country, either. To my mind, the real story here is a senator who has consistently used his parliamentary office to push his own financial barrow.
He’s been at it for a long time. Almost twenty years ago, when he was a State MP, Lightfoot went on an official parliamentary study trip to China — but when he got there, he and fellow Liberal MP George Cash decided they would use the opportunity to lobby on behalf of A-Cap Developments Ltd, a gold mining company. They were directors of the company and stood to make significant financial gains from contracts with China.
The similarity between that and the instant case is clear. Lightfoot has been working closely with Woodside’s Kurdish connection, Professor Robert Amin. They want to make sure Woodside gets an oil contract with the Kurds, and Lightfoot makes a substantial return on his investment in Woodside shares (though he dumped them when he got caught).
Woodside briefs Lightfoot on its projects. A Woodside consultant (Amin) paid for Lightfoot to travel to Iraq, a fact that Lightfoot preferred not to declare despite Senate rules. Woodside put $20 000 into the university centre’s bank account, and instructed Amin to withdraw it as cash and deliver it to Iraq. Amin gave the money to Simco Halmet, and Halmet and Lightfoot went to Iraq to deliver the money.
Whether Lightfoot touched the money or not (his mere presence must have lent an air of official sanction, which Woodside would appreciate), it is impossible to believe he didn’t at least know about it.
When he visited Iraq in July 2004, he was struck by the plight of “the little mites” in a run-down children’s hospital, and “I thought I must do something about this.” Six months later, he’s present when the very same hospital accepts a $20 000 donation from his travelling partner, courtesy of a company he owns shares in, and organised by the man who accompanied him on that July trip, but he didn’t know a thing about it?
Pardon my cynicism, but bullshit. Lightfoot initially told the press he negotiated the donation, but later changed his story.
And then there’s this little excerpt from Lightfoot’s official report on his trip:
Professor Robert Amin from Curtin University telephoned. Told him the Woodside donation had been presented to Prime Minster Fatah, who in turn gave the donation to his principal secretary.
Why would Amin ring Lightfoot to make sure the cash reached its destination if the good senator knew nothing about it?
There are lots of other inconsistencies. For example, Halmet says he brought $5600 from Australia and scrounged up $16 000-odd from his family when he got there. There are apparently no banks in Kurdistan (that’s why they needed to bring cash), yet Lightfoot reports that they handed over “new American bills” — and he even remembers they were “crisp.” No banks, but they still found $20 000 in crisp new bills? Pull the other one.
And now questions have been raised about some of Lightfoot’s other investments:
Some of Senator Lightfoot’s share trades have shown remarkable prescience. In February he notified the Senate he had bought shares in WMC Resources.
Speculation had been rife that BHP Billiton would make a counterbid for WMC but was waiting for the decision of the Treasurer, Peter Costello - which eventually came three days after Senator Lightfoot notified the Senate he had bought WMC shares - to approve the Swiss company Xstrata’s takeover. He has made more than 50 per cent on that investment.
Since he bought shares in the oil minnow Hardman Resources in September 2003 its shares have more than doubled. Eight days after he notified the Senate of his Hardman interest it reported positive results from a well it was drilling in a joint venture with Woodside Petroleum.
His Woodside shares gained about 17 per cent before he sold them this week. Based on his holding of 875 shares, he made more than $3000, less brokerage.
There is nothing wrong with senators trading in shares, but there is a problem when they habitually fail to make the appropriate declarations — especially when they abuse their parliamentary position to push those financial interests.
To borrow his disgusting turn of phrase, Ross Lightfoot is the bottom colour on the spectrum of propriety.
It’s always the ‘cover up’ that causes the problems, and this is another classic case.
Actually, I’ve thought of it as the anti-war person’s dream—one of the politicians going off, for a change, and risking being shot, instead of just voting to send 20-year olds overseas.
Keep him there, I say.
You’ve outlined a lot of the aspects to do with this very well and there’s not much more I could add - beyond saying it shows very clearly why there should be an inquiry. Even if the inquiry shows that Lightfoot was big-noting himself by exaggerating to a few journalists, there’s still questions about funding, declaration of interests to the Senate, etc.
However, in amongst it all, it is worth highlighting that the Kurds themselves have a good case for greater autonomy, if not independence. I support their cause, as has Lightfoot in the past. I do worry that the air of dodginess - or at the very least ridiculousness - about this saga will harm their cause, which needs more positive attention than it has been getting.
Andrew, I agree that the Kurds have a strong case for autonomy or independence, but I don’t think you have too much to worry about the “dodginess” of this rubbing off on them. They had nothing to do with how the donation was procured or whether Lightfoot owned shares in Woodside. All they did was accept a donation for a children’s hospital and provide a visiting senator with a security detail — which is nothing less than you would expect from a legitimate government.
This doesn’t have anything to do with Kurdistan—which I agree, should exist—but everything to do with Lightfoot using taxpayer funded trips to shuttle money for Woodside Petroleum.
The guns and bravado just add humour to the whole thing.