Communications Minister Michelle Rowland’s department hired a consultant to review its gambling advertising policy who is an old acquaintance of hers and a former colleague of 10 years, Crikey can reveal. 

Rob Nicholls, a digital policy expert, academic, and proprietor of the boutique consultancy firm Nicholls MMC, worked at the law firm Gilbert + Tobin for 12 years starting in 1998 and sat in the office next to Rowland’s after she joined the firm in 2000. They both quit the firm in 2010, according to their LinkedIn pages. 

In January, Nicholls was hired by the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts to perform a “wagering advertising reforms impact analysis” at a maximum contract value of $27,500 including GST. 

There’s no suggestion of wrongdoing, including by Nicholls, who signed a conflict of interest declaration and was open about his connection to Rowland when contacted by Crikey earlier this week. 

“The minister and I were both working at the same law firm, in the same area, at the same time, and we had next-door offices,” he said. “We’ve known each other for a long time.” 

Rowland’s office said she was not involved in hiring Nicholls and that she was not required to sign a conflict of interest declaration. 

“The department procured the services of Nicholls MMC to support the department’s consultation process and provide specialised advice on the potential financial impacts of gambling advertising reforms,” a spokesperson for Rowland told Crikey.

“Dr Rob Nicholls was required to sign a conflict of interest declaration. A standard term of Commonwealth contracts is to require a conflict of interest declaration at the commencement of the contract, and at any time during the term of the contract as soon as the supplier becomes aware that a conflict of interest has arisen or is likely to arise.”

While Rowland’s office said the minister herself had nothing to do with Nicholls’ consultancy work and “there was no contact” between them, documents obtained by Crikey under Australia’s freedom of information law show the two were in touch on a different matter during the time Nicholls was contracted by the department. 

Between February and April, Nicholls was emailing back and forth with Rowland’s office about a project he was launching on behalf of the University of Sydney, where he is a senior research associate. The emails show Nicholls was asking Rowland to record a video welcoming the launch of an online database of international digital regulation. 

In a letter attributed to Rowland, she said she was “keen” on the project and mentioned Nicholls had briefed her on the launch. It wasn’t clear if the letter was authored by Rowland herself or a suggested draft written by someone else. Her spokesperson said the speech she ended up delivering bore no resemblance to that document.

“My view was that it was not a conflict in [emailing Rowland’s office about] that,” Nicholls told Crikey. “It would be a normal thing at the launch of a bit of research to ask for somebody at the Commonwealth to help.”

The consultancy work Nicholls was hired by the department to do was intended to inform the government’s response to the online gambling inquiry chaired by the late Labor MP Peta Murphy, which delivered a report in 2023 that recommended a comprehensive ban on all forms of advertising for online gambling. 

“The government is closely considering all 31 recommendations from the final report of the online gambling inquiry and will release a comprehensive response in due course,” the spokesperson said. “Since receiving the online gambling inquiry report, the department has been consulting with stakeholders to understand the impacts of the committee’s recommendations.”

The comments about Nicholls’ work are the most exhaustive from the minister’s office so far — when Crikey reached out with questions about the tender in July, the email went unanswered.

Nicholls, like many others involved in the government’s consultations about the recommendations, is bound by a confidentiality agreement that forbids him from revealing any details about the work. 

The Sydney Morning Herald previously reported he had reached out to “multiple media companies” in March as part of the work. The tender for the work says the contract period was between January 8 and June 30. Nicholls told Crikey he didn’t end up billing the government for the entire $27,500, but did not say how much the work ended up costing.