The fierce battle for the state’s most marginal seat has taken a new turn as legal advice offered to Labor raises concerns about the Liberal candidate’s assertions about connections to a failed family firm.
According to Adelaide Now, Dr Finizio, a lawyer, has been embroiled in controversy over applying for a Labor job and “airbrushing” involvement in a family business before it collapsed two years after she left.
State government ministers criticised comments she was a “director on paper” and had “no involvement in” the firm that would owe more than $22m.
Ahead of Saturday’s Dunstan by-election, Labor issued new legal advice from one of the country’s leading lawyers, who decided that there was “no room for a ‘sleeping’ director.”
Labor’s manager of government business, Transport Minister Tom Koutsantonis said the “explosive” legal advice raised new questions.
“This legal opinion is a damning repudiation of (Dr) Finizio’s claim she was a director ‘on paper’ of a company, which subsequently collapsed,” Koutsantonis said.
In a letter to Mr Koutsantonis, who complained to the corporate watchdog, an ASIC spokeswoman stated that the misconduct team was reviewing his concerns and would advise whether a formal inquiry would be opened.
Source: Adelaide Now
