Assistant health minister says her chief of staff, who quit over conflict of interest allegations, did not act improperly

Prime minister Tony Abbott has said he did not have a conversation with the assistant health minister, Fiona Nash, in which she offered her resignation after her office intervened to pull a food star rating website while her chief of staff, Alastair Furnival, was connected to the food industry.

Asked whether Nash offered her resignation, Abbott said: “The short answer is I had no such conversation with her.”

Nash refused to say in Senate estimates if she had offered her resignation to the prime minister or his office. She maintains that Furnival, who resigned amid conflict of interest allegations, did not act improperly.

Nash has also revealed that Furnival wrote her a letter outlining how he would deal with potential conflicts of interest, but she has refused to produce it.

Furnival resigned earlier this month after Nash’s office intervened to take down a food star rating website and it emerged that Furnival’s wife owned a lobbying firm, Australian Public Affairs (APA). Furnival was still the director and co-owner of one of the companies which made up the partnership.

Food companies were among APA’s clients.

Nash was asked whether, at the time she directed Furnival to take down the food star rating website, she was aware he was still a shareholder and a director.

“I was aware he was still a shareholder. I wasn’t aware that he was still listed as a director on the Australian Securities and Investments Commission website for the Sim [Strategic Issues Management] company until after that,” Nash said.

Abbott said that even with the slightest suspicion that something was wrong, Furnival had resigned.

“I know that whenever there is any suggestion someone has done something wrong … everyone hyperventilates about who said what to whom,” the prime minister said on Wednesday.

“This is a fairly minor case ... all the decisions that senator Nash has made are eminently justifiable and I support them ... [but] they have been resolved by [Furnival’s] resignation and the matter is now at an end.”

Nash said she accepted Furnival’s resignation but did not seek it and it was not asked for by the prime minister’s office or the government staffing committee.

“He resigned because given this issue that was creating a degree of media interest was causing a distraction for the government, was also having other impacts and he felt it appropriate to offer his resignation,” she said.

Nash said she understood that Furnival had given his accountants instructions to remove him from all directorships. Asked whether, after that initial advice, she subsequently inquired as to progress, Nash said: “My assumption was that that had been completed.”

As for the divestment of the shareholding, Nash said she was “certainly” aware on a number of occasions that the process was “still under way”.

“It was a complex process that was taking a period of time to complete … I don’t think there was anything untoward; it was just a process that was complex and was taking a period of time to complete.”

When asked in Senate estimates on Wednesday morning if she offered her resignation to the prime minister, Nash replied: “I’m not going to comment on discussions with the prime minister’s office.”

Nash said she and the government staffing committee were aware of potential conflicts of interest and Furnival had written Nash a letter outlining how he would deal with them, which she then passed on to the government staffing committee.

“I was completely aware of the issues relating to the employment of my former chief of staff regarding his former employment and his connection to the APA and indeed the fact that Tracey Cain was his wife. Because I was aware of those issues I had a series of undertakings put in place so there could be no real or perceived conflicts of interest,” she said.

Nash refused to provide the letter from Furnival with the undertakings on how he would deal with perceived conflicts of interests, saying it was “internal communications”.

“Mr Furnival was required to provide me an undertaking of what he was going to do. He did that by way of letter and that is that,” she said.

Nash’s evidence comes the day after the special minister of state, Michael Ronaldson, refused to say whether he sent a letter approving Furnival to start work while he was still director and co-owner of Strategic Issues Management, which makes up one of the partnerships with APA.

The statement of standards for ministerial staff says the special minister of state must provide a written agreement for a ministerial staffer to retain a directorship.