Review 22.9
27 June - 24 July 1997

Here's Senator Ross Lightfoot on ABC Radio Background Briefing in 1995. "You can come here [Western Australia] with nothing, literally with nothing, and you can walk away in 10 years time as a multi-millionaire. Now there are very few States or very few countries in the world you can do that." And guess what. That's just about exactly what Senator Ross Lightfoot did. He made it big. Really Big. "I'm reasonably well off and I enjoy life" he told the Review during a wide ranging interview last week. Now he's graduated from being a State member of the West Australian Parliament to a Federal Senator in Canberra; indeed, "a senior politician like myself".

The Senator has become a national figure, and to match his stature there's a charm offensive. It's the Lightfoot brand of charm; smooth, urbane, thoughtful and considered - it's Arthur Daley meets Julio Iglesias. Now, an investigation by the Review has revealed that in the prelude to that ascent to Canberra, Mr Lightfoot has had an extraordinary life.

So extraordinary in fact that last year he was under investigation by the Australian Federal Police. When Philip Ross Lightfoot, a new member of the Senate, stood in the chamber last month to explain that all he had really said in 1993 was "I, in effect, said that Aboriginal people in their native state were the lowest colour on the civilisation spectrum," he created a national political storm and earned a swift rebuke from Prime Minister John Howard.

Later that same day, Lightfoot returned to the Senate and offered this humiliating about face: "I wish to unreservedly apologise to any Australians who may have been given offence by the remarks I made. I regard all Australians, irrespective of their race or ethnic background, as being completely equal and entitled to equality of treatment without discrimination of any kind. Any views to the contrary which I may have expressed in the past I no longer hold...."

But what had he said in the past? Was that his only comment about Aboriginals, a statement in 1993, a letter to two newspapers, that he was now trying to explain? The reality is that for more than 10 years Lightfoot has been espousing derogatory and pseudo-scientific theories about Aborigines.

Last month's controversy was only the tip of the iceberg. Ross Lightfoot's anti-Aboriginal campaign runs deep through his public life. Pseudo-anthropological theories often characterise his speeches, with tales of Aborigines at the bottom of the evolutionary scale. It's an obsession with Aboriginals that dates back to his first term in parliament in 1987 when citing his friend for more than 20 years - West Australian Independent MP and League of Rights supporter Graeme Campbell - Lightfoot attacked Aboriginal influence over mining on Aboriginal land, claiming "Aboriginal people in the (Northern) Territory behave like oil-rich, mineral-rich sheikhs." Later that year in parliament he argued "We should not turn back the clock and push these people [Aboriginals] back to the Stone Age, to their superstitions, their killings and their dreadful way of life.... The only answer is assimilation".

With his election to the West Australian Legislative Council on June 23, 1993, his maiden speech, usually an occasion for members to spell out their broad philosophy and agenda, proved to be just that. "I intend to frame my speech around Aboriginal Australians and their contribution to society, their genesis, [and] some of their problems." Lightfoot said.

But it did not take long before the new member's view of Aboriginal society was to become tragically apparent. "Tasmanian Aborigines have been described as being retrogressive; that is, they were going backwards in a cultural sense. They were never a civilisation - that is a misnomer", the new member lectured the stunned Parliament, adding "No Aborigines in Australia prior to white settlement had ever formed a civilised community." Lightfoot concluded his address more or less where he started four years later in Canberra, "As a civilised nation I do not know whether we could accept Aboriginal culture in its totality..."

The theme was to repeatedly emerge in State Parliament, an issue that Lightfoot was intent on pursuing. "I hold no guilt for what happened to the Aboriginal people, and black children can hold no guilt for what happened to the early white settlers who were killed or mutilated - I could go on but I will mercifully end now"

And mercifully he did - for about four months until the Perth Sunday Times of October 10, 1993 reported Lightfoot's condemnation of the Anglican Archbishop of Perth, Peter Carnley, for permitting Aboriginal dancing in St George's Cathedral during a welcome ceremony for South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Lightfoot condemned the "pagan Aboriginal dancing in the Anglicans' holiest shrine in Western Australia to appease a black African cleric." And the next month he was at it again when a letter signed by Ross Lightfoot was published in the November 10 edition of Perth's News Chronicle. "Mr Yunupingu, like the former prime minister, Mr Hawke, speaks of Aboriginal people as 'civilised' or 'Aboriginal civilisation'. This is not only distorted but about as wrong as you could possibly get. Aborigines were never civilised. Even in their primitive state today, they are only the bottom colour of the civilisation spectrum."

And then the next day, he followed up the media attention to the letter with an interview on ABC Radio's AM, "I don't resile from my statement of fact that when white settlers came here the Aborigines were uncivilised. It's a fact," Lightfoot said. And then less than a month later on December 1, 1993, Lightfoot claimed in the Legislative Council that Aborigines were a divisive factor in West Australian society, "Why do we go to such extraordinary lengths to see that the 42,000 people, who represent the Aboriginal ethnic group in Western Australia - they are not all pure Aborigine, but they are by definition Aboriginal people - divide this State up along lines of colour?"

How did this man ever get Federal Liberal Party preselection? If the collective West Australian Liberal Party memory had lapsed from his earlier forays could it also have turned a blind eye to what was to come next ? By 1995 Aboriginal reconciliation was at the forefront of the national debate. In the Legislative Council on May 17, 1995, Lightfoot furiously railed against the report to the Federal Government by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission on Reconciliation. Citing Recommendation 53, that the Government should include education about Aboriginals in school curriculums Lightfoot became almost apoplectic.

"We will be forced to study a culture that some people find distasteful, in all our schools. I find that preposterous." The comment provoked a strong response from the then Opposition leader Jim McGinty, "I think he is a racist, expressing outrageously bigoted views."

However, McGinty's response was to no avail. "We are setting up homelands here," Lightfoot continued. "We are saying we will give Aborigines self-determination. We are saying they should have their own law. We are saying ... they should have their own culture studied throughout schools in Australia. We are saying many other things based on race. It is wrong."

Scorched by his similar comments in Federal Parliament last month I asked the Senator whether he now accepted that Aborigines had an equally advanced culture and civilisation. He purred over the telephone. "Well, I won't be repeating those remarks that the Prime Minister found at the time to be offensive," he replied. So I asked him again. "I won't be repeating what I wrote three or four years ago", he said. Still believes it. Won't say it publicly.

As the interview continued I tried a different approach. Should Aborigines who were victims of the stolen children generation now receive compensation? "No", replied Lightfoot. And no apology is warranted either.

According to Lightfoot it was even beneficial that the stolen generation of Aboriginal children were taken away from their families. "I have been with Aborigines all my life and they said to me that they would have amounted to nothing had they not been removed from their less than acceptable environment."

Did the removal have a beneficial effect on them? "Yes" replied Lightfoot. "Even a cursory examination of some of the manifestly successful Aboriginal people - a significant number of those who were from the so-called stolen generation - and I can think of dozens of them that have been high achievers and almost invariably you find that they spent time, for the most part but not exclusively, in a Christian mission environment."

Maybe the Prime Minister forgot to tell him not to say that either before the new Senator was invited a fortnight ago to join the Coalition's Aboriginal Affairs backbench committee to help formulate government policy on Aboriginal affairs.

Ross Lightfoot wasn't exactly born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Educated at Port Lincoln Primary School in South Australia he graduated to the local high school but at the young age of 13 dropped out. He spent short periods of time at the Seemore school of infantry before becoming a national service trainee in 1953.

After his national service he lived in Port Lincoln for a while working variously as a plasterer and jackeroo and then joining the South Australian mounted police from 1961-63.

In 1968 he travelled to Western Australia to make his fortune in the mining industry, later establishing a series of companies, and heading up Southern Goldfields Mining Co, Eureka Minerals and A-CAP, a mining and exploration company of which he was both a director and Chairman.

Unusual then that the Senator now boasts on his Federal Senate curriculum vitae membership of the New York Academy of Sciences.

Curious until we contacted the Academy in New York and discovered that while the membership sounds exclusive, in reality it is open to anyone for US$115.

The Senator also lists his membership as a Life Fellow of the International Biographical Association (Cambridge). The Biographical Association is a little more exclusive. When we telephoned them in England they told us we could also become Life Fellows - for £795. "You can also be awarded International Man of the Year," the lady at the other end of the telephone suggested helpfully, "but we've only got 200 of them left."

Although Mr Howard spoke privately at length to Mr Lightfoot about his reference to Aboriginals in the Senate they didn't discuss the Senator's business affairs. They should have. The Review has learned that Senator Ross Lightfoot appears to have been a director of two companies, which are now in the hands of receivers and liquidators; that those companies have a trail of creditors who lost more than $2 million; and that the Federal Police have investigated their affairs.

In 1987 a mining and exploration company called A-CAP Development Limited registered its head office at 325 Pier St, Perth. According to the Australian Securities Commission, the directors of the company are now Lloyd Peter Shoobert, Noel Edward Partridge and Philip Ross Lightfoot, while back in 1990 George Cash, now President of the Legislative Council in the West Australian Parliament was also a director of a subsidiary company of A-CAP called Coolkalg Resources Ltd. Cash, whose once close relationship with Lightfoot appears to have soured, was also the subject of parliamentary attacks following the abuse of a travel allowance with Lightfoot in 1987.

In July of that year, Cash and Lightfoot travelled to China, purportedly on parliamentary business, drawing handsomely on their taxpayer funded parliamentary travel allowance to pay for expenses.

However, according to Federal Independent MP Paul Filing, while the West Australian taxpayer was paying for the members' 'study trip' abroad the two MPs were in fact using the trip to negotiate multimillion dollar rights for an A-CAP development to recover gold from mining waste in China.

According to Kerry Anne Walsh in The Bulletin "the visit spurred Australia's Ambassador to China, Ross Garnaut, to fire off an official complaint to DFAT, expressing 'surprise and concern' that the pair, on arriving in China, had declared themselves as representatives of A-CAP when the embassy in Beijing had organised an official welcome for them in the belief it was a parliamentary study group. 'Certainly we feel embarrassed by having been unwilling agents in what amounts to misrepresentations to the People's Institute [Foreign Affairs]" wrote Garnaut.' When the matter was investigated by the West Australian Government both Cash and Lightfoot were ordered by State Liberal leader Barry McKinnon to repay the misused $6000.

But a $6000 travel allowance rort was to be just the beginning of difficulties surrounding A-CAP. In October 1990 a liquidator, Barry Taylor, of Ferrier Hodgson Chartered Accountants was appointed by the ACT Supreme Court to wind up the company and its subsidiary Coolkalg Resources Limited. It appears that A-CAP had amassed huge losses and outstanding creditors. According to documents obtained by the Review, the company that Ross Lightfoot had been chairman of had left a massive $2,145,774.00 of outstanding debts to creditors.

Included in the original list of unsecured creditors, were: The Australian Stock Exchange $11,591.73; Tax Office $13,044.50; Ansett Airlines $1,280.00; Australian Directory Services $109.00; Australian Mine Management $18,851.70; Bennett & Co $30,399.04; Blueribbon Holdings $3,265.00; Brian Mullumby $3,322.76; B.P. Australia $44,539.88; D.L.A. Marketing $470.00; Classic Laboratories $1,250.40; Coopers & Lybrand-Sydney a/c $30.00; Coopers & Lybrand-Canberra a/c $307.75; Coopers & Lybrand-Perth a/c $99,759.88; C.I.G. $1,531.98; C.I.P. Research & Development $156.00; City of Perth $528.62; Duesburys $102.20; Freehill Hollingdale & Page $103,636.00; Greenhill Electrical Pty Ltd $2,995.00; Gemma Surveys Pty Ltd $532.00; Gemmell Mining Engineers $18,878.96; Genanalysis Laboratory Services P/L $30.00; Goldfields Metallurgical Services $4,932.00; Mining Supplies (Kalg.) Pty Ltd $1,236.22; Minproc Engineers Pty Ltd $13,809.57; Moregold Carbon Services $5,142.00; National Share & Transfer Agency Pty Ltd $4,172.64; Price Waterhouse $8,500.00; Retair Ltd $15,381.50; Shire of Yalgoo $195.75; Shire of Perenjori $266.22; Shire of Sandstone $879.72; State Taxation-Land Tax $375.46; Statewide Tenement Advice Services $2,316.20; Water Authority $1,025.27; and Woodpacker Building Supplies $12,000.00. T

he unsecured creditors, except for the Tax Office, were to receive a final settlement of only 8 cents in the dollar. The unsecured creditors also included the Bank of Western Australia, Bank West, for almost $1.4 million. It too received 8 cents in the dollar, leaving the bank with a massive loss and write-off to A-CAP.

While Bank West was not able to reveal details of the final settlement to the Review a spokesman for the company did confirm that Bank West had come to an agreement with Senator Lightfoot over other outstanding accounts, and had suffered losses in the A-CAP matter.

Seven years later and A-CAP is still in liquidation. In Australian Securities Commission documents obtained by the Review the liquidators for A-CAP informed the ASC late last year that all funds and assets available in the company had been fully expended and no assets remain.

Yet despite this, the company has left creditors more than $2 million out of pocket. Further, liquidators for the company stated in a letter dated November 29 1996 to the Australian Securities Commission that: "I understand, however, that the Federal Police in Perth may be carrying out an investigation into the former chairman and chief executive, Mr P. Ross Lightfoot."

Richard Kenyon, of Ferrier Hodgson Chartered Accountants and Liquidators, confirmed to the Review that last year "the Federal Police contacted us and asked if they could have access to some of the documents we lodged at the ASC relating to A-CAP and Ross Lightfoot." Liz Harrison, a spokesperson for the West Australian Federal Police told the Review that the Federal Police "could not confirm or deny whether the AFP were investigating Senator Lightfoot."

However, the Review has learned that last year the Federal Police investigated A-CAP and Ross Lightfoot but that the investigation is no longer current, and no charges have been laid.

The same letter filed with the Australian Securities Commission in November 1996 also notes that liquidators advised the ASC on 20 August 1991 that officers of the company had committed offences under Section 556 (5) of the Companies Act which relates to fraudulent conduct with intent to defraud creditors of the company and other persons and carries a penalty of $10,000 or imprisonment for 2 years or both.

Senator Lightfoot appears to have been reluctant to face public scrutiny over his A-CAP directorship. In his financial interest returns for members of the WA Parliament he failed to list his directorship or association with A-CAP or Coolkalg in 1993, 94, 95 or 1996.

The West Australian Members of Parliament (Financial Interests) Act 1992 S.11 is very clear on this issue, stipulating that "A member shall disclose in a primary return and in an annual return the name and address of each corporation of which he was a member or in which he otherwise had an interest or held any position (whether remunerated or not) on the day on which he is sworn in or at any time during the return period." Last week the newly installed Senator Lightfoot filed his Statement of Registerable Interests with the Clerk's Office in the Senate in Canberra.

Again, it appears he has omitted all reference to A-CAP from the Senators' interests register. One creditor who is still seeking outstanding debts from the Senator is Martin Bennett, a Perth solicitor who once acted for A-CAP. Mr Bennett told the Review that Lightfoot still has an outstanding personal debt of $38,000 to him for legal fees which he had personally guaranteed. According to Bennett, A-CAP's liquidator has admitted the debt and solicitors have now commenced action to recover the money from Senator Lightfoot.

"We have commenced a recovery process of costs from a debtor who has sufficient funds to meet that debt," says Mr Bennett. But when questioned about his financial dealings last week by the Review the Senator became vague. "I don't have any outstanding debts in my name. I'm reasonably well off and I enjoy life. I simply don't have any outstanding debts... I don't have any control, equity or anything else in A-CAP."

When asked about his directorship of A-CAP the Senator denied all association with the company "I haven't been a director of A-CAP for 7-8 years. I don't know who the current directors are... I ceased to take an active role or have any equity in the company. I sold my interests back then." It was then pointed out to the Senator that in fact the company had gone into liquidation. "I think, that uh, I think that, that's, that's, uh correct.

Just how it went into liquidation I'm not quite sure. Certainly not while I was a director... That was after the period that I was a director... I don't have any knowledge of A-CAP at all. You're the first one that has asked me for some years about A-CAP."

But the Review has learned that not only was Ross Lightfoot a director of A-CAP, but that according to the Australian Securities Commission he remains listed as a director. And the West Australian Supreme Court appointed liquidators for A-CAP, Ferrier Hodgson, have confirmed to the Review that not only was Ross Lightfoot considered a director at the time of the company entering into liquidation in 1990, but that over the subsequent seven years the liquidators have had dealings with him in relation to the winding up of the company.

A company extract and certificate provided to the Review by the Australian Securities Commission also confirms that Philip Ross Lightfoot is still both a director and Company Secretary of A-CAP, the latter a position that he was appointed to on June 27, 1990 - several months after he claims to have resigned and the Bank lodged a court application to have the company wound-up.

The Company Accountant until January 1990, Gary Aslan, also recalls Ross Lightfoot as an active director of the company. "Certainly Ross Lightfoot was the Chairman and he had a hands-on sort of role... He came into the office daily and dealt with matters.

At the time that I was there, working in the office in Perth, he came in on a daily basis and dealt with correspondence and meetings and things like that," Aslan told the Review. "At the time Ross was quite a large landholder in Western Australia; you know, he had sheep stations and things like that. At the time he had the biggest area of sheep stations in Western Australia, east of Sandstone. Even on the farms there were two mining holes.

Western Mining had one and Forsyth both had open cut mines on his properties... He was certainly a substantial pastoralist... I would think his properties were worth several million dollars." Dr Noel Partridge is a friend of Ross Lightfoot.

He was asked to join the board of directors of A-CAP by Lightfoot in 1987. "I was a non-executive director; I didn't know about the mining industry," Partridge told the Review. "I was a personal friend of Ross Lightfoot and he asked me to be a non executive director, I was not hands on, all substantive decisions about the operation of the company were made by Mr Lightfoot. Ross Lightfoot always was and is Chairman of the company [A-CAP], then and when it went into liquidation.

He was absolutely and totally involved - he was the company." John Gibbs is 78 years old. He was a journalist with the Sydney Morning Herald. He was also one of the original journalists when the Financial Review started up and worked for Frank Packer on the Bulletin. In 1987 he sold his interests in A-CAP to Ross Lightfoot and Lightfoot's company Eureka Minerals. "They gained the controlling interest in the company and had control from that point onwards. Immediately after, I resigned from the company and control went over to Eureka Minerals, which was controlled by Ross Lightfoot," recalls Gibbs.

But Gibbs made the mistake of leaving his superannuation fund money in A-CAP. "I had the fund in A-CAP development, and myself and my wife still held shares in A-CAP as part of our superannuation. We lost a fairly substantial amount of money with them, all that superannuation money."

There were many shareholders who had put their faith in Lightfoot, but who were to lose their investments in A-CAP. The company report for November 1988 (the last report filed with the Perth Stock Exchange - the company was delisted in 1990 for failure to pay the annual listing fee) lists P.R. Lightfoot as Chairman of the Board of Directors and carries a special message from Chairman Ross Lightfoot. "

The entrepreneurial and management ability of the present board should combine to form an extremely strong management base for future developments." Other board members then included George Cash and Dr Noel Partridge.

The final listing for A-CAP held by the Australian Stock Exchange notes that on December 2 1989 A-CAP informed the exchange that Rural and Industries Bank of Western Australia (now BankWest) had demanded the repayment of debts totalling $1,344,086.30 and that on 5 February 1990 the bank lodged an application in the Supreme Court seeking that A-CAP be wound up. The listing also notes that P. Ross Lightfoot was at that time Chairman of the Board of Directors.

Story Continued......