Fitzgibbon quits Defence | National Breaking News | News.com.au

Fitzgibbon quits Defence | National Breaking News | News.com.au

Defense minister of Australia quits under shadows of corruption with American Insurance Companies.

DEFENCE Minister Joel Fitzgibbon has resigned from his portfolio.

Mr Fitzgibbon resigned after it was revealed that he had instructed an Army general to meet with a US Insurance company, of which his brother Mark is an employee, Sky News reports.

Major-General Paul Alexander, who is in charge of defence health services, told a parliamentary committee that staff of a junior minister and defence staff told him to attend the meetings with Mark Fitzgibbon, the chief executive of insurer NIB Health.

The resignation comes after revelations of the meeting was made during a Senate Estimates hearing last night.

“Having read through the proceedings (of a committee hearing), I decided to thoroughly examine the nature of the contact,” Mr Fitzgibbon reportedly wrote in a letter to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

Mr Rudd said that Mr Fitzgibbon handed in his resignation at 1pm (AEST) today.

In a letter to Mr Rudd, Mr Fitzgibbon said to protect the integrity of the Government, he had decided to resign as defence minister effective immediately.
Mr Rudd accepted.

“The minister has accepted responsibility for these mistakes – they are mistakes,” Mr Rudd said.

“I believe it was the right thing to do,” Mr Rudd said.

Mr Rudd said a decision on who will take on the Defence portfolio will be made later today.

Mr Fitzgibbon is the first ministerial casualty for the Rudd Government.

It follows admissions two months ago that he failed to declare trips to China paid for by Chinese-born businesswoman Helen Liu.

This week he admitted he had failed to declare hotel accommodation paid for by NIB.

The Opposition had called for him to go.