This masthead can confirm that Robert has claimed that both contractors engaged with his firm this year as part of the data centre proposal.
According to briefings prepared by Robert in July and August and circulated among financiers, the ex-minister described discussions with “Oracle and Salesforce, for the provision of additional data centre capacity for their government operations”.
Robert was Australia’s first digital transformation minister, a post he held from 2018 to May 2022, and was previously assistant defence minister.
Robert has also sought to raise $500 million in private capital to develop the data centre, according to briefings prepared by the ex-minister.
In the documents, Robert explicitly links his previous work as a Morrison government minister to the commercial data centre proposition offered by his company, Coram Deo Capital Pty Ltd. Robert registered the company in 2022 after losing his ministerial posting and moving to the opposition backbench.
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