Labor has accused the federal government of taking "cash for questions" after it was revealed that Tony Abbott's chief of staff, Peta Credlin, planned to use Parliament to showcase the case of a prominent Liberal Party donor against the carbon tax.
Emails between Ms Credlin and the former chief fund-raiser of the NSW Liberal Party were suppressed last week by the Independent Commission Against Corruption after lawyers acting for Liberal senator Arthur Sinodinos said they could be subject to parliamentary privilege.
But the suppression order was lifted on Monday after the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Bronwyn Bishop, announced that no claim for privilege would be made after Ms Credlin indicated she had no objection to the emails being made public.
The emails reveal that, in March 2011, while the Coalition was in opposition, Ms Credlin used a major donor to the Liberal Party, Brickworks, as part of Tony Abbott's campaign against the carbon tax.
Ms Credlin is married to Brian Loughnane, the party's federal director. Brickworks was one of the largest corporate donors to the Liberal Party, giving $384,000 in a nine-month period from July 2010 to April 2011. As well as its brand Austral Bricks, Brickworks also lists property development as a core business.
The ICAC has heard that Brickworks used the Free Enterprise Foundation, a shadowy Canberra organisation, to channel $125,000 in illicit donations to the NSW Liberals for the March 2011 state election. Since 2009, property developers have been banned from donating to NSW political parties, but it is legal for such donations to go to federal parties.
Shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus has dubbed the saga "cash for questions", saying: "We have claims that one of the Liberal Party biggest donors is virtually writing Tony Abbott's question time strategy. These are some remarkable allegations that go to the highest levels of the Abbott government."
But Ms Credlin's letter approving the release of the emails makes it clear that her priority was highlighting the concerns of Brickworks managing director Lindsay Partridge about the impact of the carbon tax on his business. While senior Liberals declined to comment on the email, they stressed that all donations had been disclosed.
One of the previously suppressed emails reveals that on March 1, 2011, the former chief fund-raiser of the NSW Liberal Party, Paul Nicolaou, sent Ms Credlin an email titled "Re Carbon Tax" advising that Brickworks was "a very good supporter of the party".
Mr Nicolaou attached an earlier message from Mr Partridge, which read: "Paul, Tell Tony to stick to his guns on no carbon tax.
"I am running an internal fight with the BCA [Business Council of Australia] who seem to be driven by a few companies who will make bundles out of the tax."
Ms Credlin replied enthusiastically to Mr Nicolaou's request.
"Lindsay provided a great line for question time. Do you have a number that I might be able to contact him on and see if he was happy for us to use it", she said.
Mr Partridge, who was in France, copied Ms Credlin into an email he sent to Mr Nicolaou in reply and provided further ammunition for use in question time.
Two months later, on May 2, 2011, Mr Abbott, then opposition leader, visited the Austral Bricks factory in Melbourne, which he proclaimed was "one of the most efficient plants in the world".
He claimed a carbon tax would cause a 10 per cent rise in costs at Brickworks, which would be passed on to consumers. On September 1, 2011, Mr Abbott was photographed with Mr Partridge, this time at the Austral Bricks site at Horsley Park in western Sydney, again claiming how much the tax would affect the cost of bricks.
On September 14, Mr Abbott told Parliament that the carbon tax would add $2 million a year to Austral Bricks' costs. Between March and September, other members of the Liberal opposition referred to Brickworks in Parliament, including the then finance spokesman Mathias Cormann and Paul Fletcher, the member for the northern Sydney seat of Bradfield.
"What have people in the manufacturing sector to say about this carbon tax?" Mr Fletcher said on September 19. "Mr Lindsay Partridge, the managing director of Brickworks, had this to say: 'The end result will be an exodus of manufacturing industries and investment offshore, jobs will be lost, the cost of housing will increase and there will be no change to carbon emissions."'
The emails, which were briefly made public last week, were quickly removed after Arnold Bloch, the law firm acting for Senator Sinodinos, raised concerns about parliamentary privilege.
Ms Credlin has told the Speaker's office in a letter that she has no objection to her email correspondence being released. Coincidentally, Mrs Bishop was also referred to in the same volume of exhibits. She was a director of the Dame Pattie Menzies Foundation Trust, which received $11,000 from the Free Enterprise Foundation on December 9, 2010, which it then directed to the NSW branch of the party for use in the 2011 state election. The previous day, Mr Partridge sent a cheque for $125,000 to the Free Enterprise Foundation with a note that read: "We trust this donation will provide assistance with the 2011 NSW state election campaign."
In July 2010, Mr Nicolaou, who was getting a 6 per cent cut of all donations he collected, emailed Simon McInnes, the finance director of the NSW Liberal Party boasting: "Please note! Another $50k for us via Free Enterprise Foundation from Brickworks." Only a minute earlier, Mr Partridge had sent an email saying: "Paul, via the diversionary organisation there is $50k for NSW, $250k in total."
Mr Nicolaou shared the news of the donation with Mr Loughnane, as well as Senator Sinodinos, then treasurer of the NSW Liberal Party, who will give evidence on Friday. Another Brickworks director, Robert Webster, was on the NSW Liberals' finance committee.
Mr Mark Dreyfus said: "We have claims that one of the Liberal Party's biggest donors is virtually writing Tony Abbott's question time strategy. This is cash for questions."
Greens senator Lee Rhiannon urged the government to implement "far-reaching electoral funding reform".
