Why has Richard Marles failed to declare multiple sports gifts?

Readers may not be surprised to hear that Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles keeps a golf club in his ministerial office at Parliament House and that he occasionally has a swing with it. After all, Marles is a golf tragic with a well-known taste for playing the world’s top courses.

But this is no ordinary golf club leaning against his office wall. Open Politics and Crikey understand it is a gift from a top-ranked Australian male professional golfer from around 2023 that has been valued at several thousand dollars. A plaque denotes its significance, as does the fact Marles sometimes brings the club up in conversations with visitors.

Marles also displays in his office a cricket bat autographed by Indian superstar batsman Virat Kohli that India’s External Affairs Minister Dr S. Jaishankar gave Marles in October 2022. The bat has been valued at around a couple of thousand dollars.

The deputy prime minister hasn’t declared the club or bat to the Register of Members’ Interests as he is required to for gifts valued at more than $300 from private sources and $750 from government sources. An MP who “knowingly fails” to declare an interest is guilty under the register rules of serious contempt of the House of Representatives and “shall be dealt with accordingly”.

We’ve been told Marles “surrendered” the club and bat to the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet (PM&C), making use of a feature of the Australian government’s gift guidelines that allow the department to then loan gifts back to the minister.

The gift guidelines prohibit ministers, their families and staff from retaining official gifts valued above $300 from private sources and $750 from government sources unless they pay the amount above the limits to the PM&C. If a minister decides not to pay the difference, the gift must be surrendered to the department. Given the club and bat are both well north of these limits, Marles would’ve had to pay a sizeable sum to retain them.

Scott Morrison’s disclosure statements show he surrendered and was loaned back a wooden oak cross in 2019 given to him by former US vice president Mike Pence. However, Morrison declared his gift to the interests register as Parliament and the code of conduct required him to. Marles’ cabinet colleagues have followed the same process, with the prime minister and other ministers routinely declaring to the registers that they have surrendered gifts to PM&C, though it’s not clear from their statements whether the gifts have been loaned back.

Regardless of whether Marles deliberately didn’t declare the club and bat or forgot he’d been given valuable and distinctive gifts, he may have breached the ministerial code of conduct, which states that ministers must comply with Parliament’s obligations on the declaration of gifts (in addition to declaring gifts to the prime minister). As Marles is a member of the House of Representatives, if he receives a gift valued more than $750, he is required to declare within 28 days its value, source and when it was received.

In 2019, Marles, then deputy opposition leader, failed to declare a junket to China, citing an “administrative mistake”. In January 2023 he again breached his disclosure obligations — and this time the ministerial code of conduct — by not declaring who hosted his game of golf in December 2022 at the famous Baltusrol course in New Jersey, and for failing to declare it to the register within 28 days. (The host’s name was eventually extracted from the government in Senate estimates.)

Marles could potentially be investigated by the privileges committee for not disclosing the gifts. But the committee rarely investigates undeclared interests and never punishes errant MPs. It’s the same for Anthony Albanese’s enforcement of the ministerial code of conduct. The prime minister hasn’t taken action against previous code breakers, so it isn’t likely he will punish or even reprimand Marles for his breaches.

Marles’ office did not respond to repeated requests for comment. A spokesperson for the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet said that Marles has made appropriate declarations under the gift guidelines.

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