[Peetwo]

“Do you operate or conduct business under any other names?"


These donations were made in the name of Rex.

Given ATSB was conducting investigation of PelAir at the time, should Rex have answered Yes to this question and declared they also operated as PelAir?

Good question slats personally I would have thought so but in the corporate world there is all kinds of murky arrangements that you would expect not to pass muster but inexplicably do. Maybe it is a case of no-one having the balls to bring these discrepancies to the attention of the relevant authorities - in this case ASIC - except of course a certain independent Senator.. : Senator Xenophon queries political donations by regional airline Rex

INDEPENDENT senator Nick Xenophon has called large political donations by listed regional airline Rex “incredibly baffling” and said he would be buying shares in the company so he could press board members on why the donations were made.  

Mr Xenophon, who led a Senate committee inquiry into much criticised government investigation into the crash of a Rex-owned passenger plane off Norfolk Island, said the airline had an “obligation” to disclose why the donations were made.

Between July and November 2012 — amid a three-year inquiry into the Norfolk Island crash — Rex made a $250,000 donation to the ALP, $95,700 to the federal Nationals and $40,000 to the Liberal Party. This made the small airline one of the biggest political donors in the country.

“Rex is a public company and it had an obligation to explain whether even one (word) regarding the crash was spoken with any of the political parties,” Mr Xenophon told The Australian.

“This largesse to political parties is inexplicably baffling and I will be buying some shares in Rex and asking them to explain it.”

Rex spokeswoman Alicia Chapple has declined to respond to repeated questions from The Australian this week regarding the donations and other matters, saying that the airline did “not see the need to devote additional resources to this matter”.

The airline had earlier incorrectly claimed it had made no donations to the LNP; however, when shown otherwise, Ms Chapple said the airline had meant it had made no donations to the Queensland LNP.

Of particular interest was Rex’s $250,000 donation to the federal ALP given the airline was a highly vocal critic of the Labor government.
In 2013 Rex publicly said the ALP was “hellbent” on destroying regional aviation and “along with it pretty much the rest of the economy”.

Mr Xenophon said it appeared to defy reason why Rex would donate heavily to a government it would shortly afterwards describe as “destroying its industry”.

“Perhaps Rex had a case of Stockholm syndrome?” he said.

In 2009 a Rex aeroplane — operated under the group’s Pel-Air brand — ditched into the ocean with six passengers on board, badly injuring one.

A lengthy Australian Transport Safety Board investigation blamed the Pel-Air pilot involved in the crash but failed to mention 57 breaches or “serious deficiencies” at Pel-Air.

Mr Xenophon headed a Senate committee inquiry into that botched investigation, which led to the federal government last month calling on the ATSB to reopen the investigation.

Rex has also come under the spotlight after it was last year awarded a series of key Queensland government contracts which had previously been held by Cairns-based rival Skytrans.

   
Company Directors & Board members are also supposedly bound by similar declarations e.g.

1. POLICY

Directors are required to act in good faith to avoid conflicts of interest between the interests of the Company and their own personal, professional and business interests. To this end a Conflict of Interest Register is to be maintained by the Company Secretary to record all conflicts of interest.

 

i. outside interests:

a. a contract or transaction between the Company and a Director or an immediate relation (by blood or marriage) ("family member"*) of such Director; or

b. a contract, consultancy or transaction between the Company and a company, partnership, business or entity in which the Director, or any such family member of the Director, has a material financial interest or of which such person is a director, officer, agent, partner, associate or trustee.

So in the REX/PelAir case did a Director who was appointed in 2010 declare his interests (as per b. above), especially given that his company was singularly responsible for setting up the REX/PelAir SMS (which includes amongst other things the company FRMS) before taking up his appointment as a Director in a safety sensitive position??
MTF..P2