But with the government under attack over the issue in every Question Time this week, it was decided by the meeting of the sub-committee of cabinet that he had to go.

He is the third minister to lose his job since Mr Turnbull supplanted Tony Abbott in September. In December, Jamie Briggs was made to resign following a complaint from a public servant over a bar incident in Hong Kong, and Mal Brough was stood aside pending a police investigation into the James Ashby-Peter Slipper affair.

Mr Robert has been accused of breaching the ministerial code of conduct over a trip he took to China in August 2014 with friend and Liberal Party donor Paul Marks. His breach was to use his ministerial prestige to help a private business interest. Mr Robert had a separate financial interest in one of Mr Mark's other companies.

During the trip, which was taken as personal leave, Mr Robert attended a signing ceremony between Mr Mark's company, Nimrod Resources and China Minmetals Corporation.

The next day he met China's vice-minister of land and resources, Wang Min, along with representatives of Nimrod Resources. The trip occurred while he was Assistant Minister for Defence in August 2014.

Upon his return, Mr Robert informed the Defence Department of his meeting with Vice-Minister Wang Min.

Mr Turnbull's statement says:

"Mr Robert advised Dr Parkinson that at the time he travelled to Beijing in August 2014 he did not believe that he had any interest in or connection to Mr Paul Marks' company, Nimrod Resources."


"In the course of assisting the investigation, Mr Roberts advised Dr Parkinson that on checking his records he had become aware that shares in Metallum Holdings Pty Ltd, a company in which Mr Marks was also a shareholder, had been allocated to his trustee some time before the visit to Beijing. He told Dr Parkinson that this had been done without his knowledge. He further advised Dr Parkinson that he believed Metallum Holdings Pty Ltd had an interest in Nimrod Resources.

"Mr Robert recognised that this connection would create the impression that at the time he went to Beijing he had something personally to gain from the Nimrod Resources project.

"As a result, Mr Robert has asked me not to consider him in the pending reshuffle of the ministry. I thank him for his service as a minister and for his candid co-operation with Dr Parkinson in his inquiry."

Mr Joyce defended Mr Robert on Friday morning.

"Can someone please tell me what the crime is here?" he said.

"Because what we have is accusations he met people. If meeting people in China is a crime, then every politician in this building is gone."