A weapons supplier with more than $200 million in federal deals has emerged as one of the best-connected companies in federal politics, with former Labor and Liberal ministers helping it gain a central position in a massive push to build a guided-missile industry.
Nioa Group appears set to gain more contracts to develop the missile’s capability with the help of directors including former Liberal defence minister Christopher Pyne and former Labor parliamentary secretary for defence David Feeney, giving it contacts on both sides of parliament.
David Feeney and Christopher Pyne are both working with Nioa Group.Credit: Marija Ercegovac
But the company’s success has also highlighted the gaps in the regime that is meant to monitor lobbying in federal politics, as most company directors are exempt from the scheme and most businesses do not disclose the “in-house” executives who seek to influence the government.
Federal spending on defence is expected to double to $100 billion a year in a plan to acquire new submarines, warships, drones, missiles and other equipment over the decade ahead, setting up massive contracts for companies that gain insight into government plans.
Nioa has deep connections to the department of defence as one of the country’s most important suppliers of guns, grenade launchers and artillery ammunition, while also being a key player in the $2.5 billion federal plan to make missiles in Australia in partnership with American defence giants.
Company founder Robert Nioa named Pyne and Feeney to an advisory board at the end of 2020 to help expand the family business, and followed this with a restructure in January 2023 to install Pyne as chairman of the group board and Feeney as a director, alongside former soldier Mark Donaldson, VC, and others.
The company has a long connection to federal politics because Nioa’s wife, Liza, is the daughter of independent federal MP Bob Katter, the member for Kennedy in northern Queensland, and the sister of Robbie Katter, who sits in the Queensland parliament as a representative of Katter’s Australian Party.
Liza Nioa donated about $300,000 to Katter’s Australian Party over the three years to June 2022, but the company did not disclose this to the Australian Electoral Commission until March last year, in some cases years after the payments should have been declared under the law.
She donated another $99,996 to her father’s party in the year to June 2023 and disclosed it within the deadline.