Search the news, stories & people Personalise the news and stay in the know Emergency Backstory Newsletters 中文新闻 BERITA BAHASA INDONESIA TOK PISIN Four Corners Topic:Federal Government A Dutton family trust operated lucrative childcare businesses while he was a cabinet minister. (ABC News: Matt Roberts) Opposition Leader Peter Dutton was the beneficiary of a family trust for two years, but did not disclose this to parliament. Four Corners investigated property records for both leaders, finding Mr Dutton's family, with his father Bruce, made almost $15 million over 20 years. Documents show Mr Dutton's family also had a long business history with former childcare mogul Eddy Groves and his family. Opposition Leader Peter Dutton failed to declare for two years his interest in a family trust that operated lucrative childcare businesses when he was a cabinet minister, a Four Corners investigation has found. Documents obtained by Four Corners and ABC Investigations show that while Mr Dutton's register of interests disclosed his wife Kirilly's interests in childcare operations at the time, he did not declare between 2014 and 2016 that he was a beneficiary of the RHT Family Trust that owned the businesses, as required by parliamentary rules. The investigation also analysed more than 20 years of property records tied up in complicated and opaque trust structures and found that the Dutton family, with Peter Dutton's father Bruce, made almost $15 million in profit from buying and selling private childcare businesses as well as dozens of residential property deals. The Dutton family made millions from multiple childcare business dealings. (File photo) We've discovered that since 2002, the Dutton family made millions from multiple childcare business dealings with a group closely linked to controversial ABC Learning mogul Eddy Groves — the man at the centre of Australia's biggest corporate collapses. The RHT Family Trust was responsible for the final business transaction with a group closely linked to Mr Groves and his family. The sale was signed on May 20, 2022, the day before the last federal election and 10 days before Mr Dutton became opposition leader. Mr Dutton declined an interview but the Liberal Party responded late on Sunday night in a statement to say that he "has disclosed his financial interests and those of his family, including in relation to his wife Kirilly's previous childcare businesses". "Mr Dutton's declarations lodged over the period between 2014 and 2022 show that RHT Investments acquired, operated and subsequently disposed of interests in a childcare business," the statement said. The statement did not answer many of our questions and did not respond directly about the non-disclosure of Mr Dutton's interest in the trust. The ABC investigation uncovered Mr Dutton's failure to declare his interest in RHT over two years after obtaining copies of the deeds of Mr Dutton's private trusts that confirm his position within the structures when they were first established. MPs are required to declare to parliament any beneficiary interests in trusts and the nature of the trusts' operations. Unlike private or public companies, details of a trust's controllers, beneficiaries and holdings are not publicly available. The deed for the RHT Family Trust reveals its structure when it was set up in 2014. The deed lists Mr Dutton and his wife Kirilly as the primary beneficiaries when it was established in February 2014. It also reveals that Mr Dutton and his wife were appointors of the trust, with the power to choose the trustee who administers the trust. Mr Dutton disclosed to parliament the existence of this trust on his register of interests in April 2014, but this declaration listed only his wife as having an interest in the trust and noted that the trust had purchased a childcare business. Kirilly Dutton (left) and Peter Dutton. (ABC News: Matt Roberts) Mr Dutton's declaration on the register did not mention he was a beneficiary. It wasn't until two years later in August 2016 that Mr Dutton declared on the register his beneficiary status in the trust, when he lodged his first register of interest in the newly-elected Turnbull government. Director of the Centre for Public Integrity and former court of appeal judge Margaret White said at the very least the failure to include an interest on the register "gives rise to a perception of a conflict of duty and personal interest". Ms White said it raised questions that "call for a response which would disabuse the disinterested political bystander of concerns". "While it is somewhat historical, it calls for an explanation because of the reason that it goes to the character of a person who wants to be prime minister." Transparency International Australia chief executive Clancy Moore said family trusts could be legitimate financial structures but needed to be properly disclosed. "The public has a right to know not just whether a politician has a trust but what financial interests are held within it — especially if those interests could be influenced by or benefit from government policy," Mr Moore said. He said without full transparency trusts undermine public confidence. Go behind the spin and the slogans as Louise Milligan investigates the men vying to be the next prime minister. Watch Four Corners’ True Colours tonight at 8:30pm on ABC TV and ABC iview. Four Corners did a deep dive into the historical finances of both the prime minister and the opposition leader — finding that Anthony Albanese made $1.8 million in profit from the sale of two investment properties in Marrickville and Dulwich Hill. Mr Albanese did not have business outside of his work as a parliamentarian. Last year, Mr Albanese bought a $4.3 million clifftop home in Copacabana on the NSW Central Coast with his fiancée Jodie Haydon. The investigation has found that since the 1990s the Duttons — in various complex ownership combinations including via the RHT trust, Peter Dutton, his father Bruce and wife Kirilly — have owned four Brisbane childcare centres. All four of the childcare centres owned by the Dutton family over 20 years have been found to have had significant business dealings — including sales and leases — to and from ABC Learning or entities connected to Eddy Groves. In 2022, a Dutton-owned childcare business at Everton Hills in Brisbane was sold to a company in which Mr Groves' stepson Scott Noonan was a shareholder and director. Mr Noonan signed the mortgage document. The centre was rebranded as an Imagine Early Learning centre, a sprawling childcare empire in which Eddy Groves's wife has been heavily involved for more than two decades. US court documents show that Mr Groves is a shareholder of the American operation of the Imagine business. The US business even has the same rocket logo as the Australian business. The logo for the Australian Imagine Childcare (top) and the US-based Imagine Childcare (bottom). (Supplied) Four Corners used publicly available documents to calculate the 2022 sale price of the last childcare lease the Duttons owned. Based on the stamp duty paid, it can be revealed that $2.7 million was paid for the childcare business in Everton Hills. This method for calculating the sale of leases and property has been confirmed by the Queensland Revenue Office. The lease sale was signed the day before the 2022 election that then-prime minister, Scott Morrison, would go on to lose. Ten days later, Peter Dutton became opposition leader. In 2007, Mr Dutton described Eddy Groves as a friend. Mr Groves twice made political donations worth a combined $15,000 to Mr Dutton's campaign in 2004. Mr Dutton's statement said that: "Any donations that were made were to the party and not to Mr Dutton directly". "Political donations are a matter for party divisions and declared in accordance with the requirements set out in the Commonwealth Electoral Act," the statement said. Mr Dutton did not comment directly on Eddy Groves or the business between the families. ABC Learning collapsed in 2008 — when taxpayers funded a $56 million bailout of the childcare behemoth. Mr Groves, once a media darling, disappeared from public view more than a decade ago after ABC Learning's demise caused havoc in the childcare sector, but his stepson, Mr Noonan, and Mr Groves's wife, Viryan Collins-Rubie, have been active in the childcare sector. Eddy Groves was the founder of the now-defunct ABC Learning childcare centres. (AAP) The Duttons' dealings with Eddy Groves-related entities began in 2002, when, as a young MP, Mr Dutton and his father sold a property in Brisbane's Waterford West to Mr Groves's then-brother-in-law for $500,000. That centre was then leased to ABC Learning. Lease documents from 2002 obtained by Four Corners also show that Mr Dutton shared with his father $167,500 a year from leasing another two centres to ABC Learning. At the time, his backbench salary was $98,800 a year. In the following years, the Duttons sold the two centres leased to ABC Learning for more than $2 million. The lack of publicly available information about the trust was highlighted in a major controversy in 2018. In that year, Mr Dutton's interest in the RHT Family Trust came under scrutiny over whether its receipt of federal government childcare subsidies may have caused him to be in breach of a section of the constitution that prohibits MPs doing business with the Commonwealth. Mr Dutton denied the allegations, saying he had obtained legal advice in 2017 confirming he was not in breach. The Solicitor-General Stephen Donaghue QC, who was asked to provide advice on the matter, found that Mr Dutton was not in breach. But Mr Donaghue noted in his opinion that he had been given limited information about the case including not having access to the deed of the trust. At the time Mr Dutton described the trust as being operated by his wife and said that he had always complied with cabinet rules and "declared any interests that I've had in any discussion". Mr Dutton failed to disclose his interest in the trust for two years. (ABC News: Brendan Esposito) He also said in an address to the National Press Club in 2018, that he had "never taken a dollar of dividend or distribution". "I was very clear at the start that I would not take a dollar of distribution from that trust which she operates, and I've been true to that,'' he said. Earlier this year when issues were raised about his business transactions and delays in declarations to his register of interests Mr Dutton said he had always conducted himself with integrity. "I've been proud of what my family and I have been able to achieve," Mr Dutton said at a press conference. "I actually think the Australian public wants somebody who knows how to manage money, knows how to manage the economy. I've demonstrated that as assistant treasurer." In 2019 Mr Dutton said he had relinquished his interest in the RHT Family Trust. Four Corners met with Peter Dutton during our research period in his office in February, before this information came to light. Since that time, we have made multiple calls and texts to his staff, rode on his campaign bus for three days and at the end of that process, a staffer texted to decline an interview. Watch Four Corners’ True Colours tonight at 8:30pm on ABC TV and ABC iview. 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