No matter how much he clearly wishes they would, two big scandals, old and new, just aren’t going away for PM Anthony Albanese. The old scandal is The Scandal That Keeps on Giving: the Brittany Higgins scandal Labor strived so mightily to whip up while in opposition. Having won government largely on the backs of that scandal, they desperately want it to go away – in vain.
But first, the new scandal: Travel Rorts 2.0.
Anthony Albanese is refusing to tighten generous entitlements for MPs despite having the powers to update travel guidelines, as new figures reveal at least 37 per cent of almost $1m that Labor ministers claimed in family reunion expenses since 2022 was not for dependants or partners with young children […]
Standing alongside under-siege Communications Minister Anika Wells, the Labor leader said: “I’m not the finance minister … I haven’t changed the rule. My focus is not on entitlements and the finance minister’s rules.”
He doesn’t hold a hose, you might say. The fact remains that he’s the finance minister’s boss: if he really wanted the rules to change, all he has to do is order it to be done. Clearly, then, he doesn’t want to.
Pressed on why he won’t conduct a review to ensure travel rules are fit-for-purpose, Mr Albanese said there were now more women in the parliament and spoke about how he brought his son Nathan to Canberra when he was a “bub”.
Well, so what? Joe Lyons was PM while he had 12 kids, aged between a baby and 15-year-old. This was a time when the only way to travel from his home in Tasmania to Canberra was a days-long trip by ship and train. His wife Enid Lyons became an MP and then minister when she was a widow and her youngest was still just 10.
If modern women with an MP’s starting salary of $225,000 (plus allowances and perks) can’t somehow find anyone to look after their kids for the average of just 67 days that parliament actually sits, then maybe they shouldn’t be in the job.
And the ‘but think of the children!’ excuse is as garbage in this case as it ever is.
Analysis by the Australian showed that of the almost $1m charged to taxpayers by Labor ministers for family travel in the past three years, at least 37 per cent of the spending was not for dependants, nor for partners of MPs with young children[…]
This challenges the argument Labor ministers have frequently deployed in defence of the family reunion allowance, saying it allowed young parents and single parents to serve in parliament.
As previously noted, the highest spender in the Labor ministry is 71-year-old Trade Minister Don Farrell, who has no dependants.
Rare praise must be reserved for ‘Climate Change and Energy’ Minister Chris Bowen, who does have dependant children, has not billed taxpayers for family travel since 2022.
But with stunning hypocrisy even for him, Albanese is suddenly questioning family travel claims – but only when it comes to his political enemies. Labor MPs can stick their snouts jowl-deep in the trough and Albanese won’t say a word, but Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young’s family travel claims, he says, are “of genuine concern”.
He’s right, of course: but what a hippotwit, as Tweety would say.
The party’s Senate leader hunkered down on Thursday and continued to evade questioning after the Australian revealed she had charged taxpayers $49,902 to fly her husband, Ben Oquist, to and from Canberra, since July 2022.
That month is when he began working at DPG Advisory Solutions, a Canberra-based government relations firm founded by Liberal operative David Gazard, whose clients include Rio Tinto and Ausgrid.
And, for the first time in her life, Hanson-Young is scuttling out of the spotlight as fast as her chubby little legs can carry her.
Senator Hanson-Young’s office continued to ignore queries regarding her travel claims when contacted by this masthead on Thursday.
That morning, her office also pulled her regular morning slot on Sky News, where she regularly appears alongside Nationals deputy leader Kevin Hogan. A similar booking next week – which would have been her final appearance of the year – has also been scrapped.
Back to The Scandal That Keeps on Giving.
Linda Reynolds will ask the federal corruption watchdog to reopen its investigation into the $2.4m settlement between Brittany Higgins and the federal government, with the former Liberal senator arguing the commission did not have access to the full breadth of information when interrogating her claims.
National Anti-Corruption Commission chief Paul Brereton, appearing before a parliamentary committee on Thursday, invited Ms Reynolds to apply for reconsideration of a decision that found there was no corrupt conduct involved in the controversial settlement, but would not commit to reopening the matter.
He also would not commit to reopening the investigation over additional concerns about an alleged conflict of interest regarding a Finance Department official who appears to have been tasked with handling both the Higgins settlement and Ms Reynolds’ Federal Court case against the commonwealth.
Predictably, Albanese is putting on his best Sgt Schultz act.
The revelations came as Anthony Albanese invoked the “protection of the commonwealth”, dodging questions about his government’s treatment of Ms Reynolds and her former chief of staff Fiona Brown.
Meanwhile, Australian taxpayers have been bilked of $2.4m of our money and a woman, whose career and reputation were baselessly destroyed by the lies Labor did so much to amplify, has yet to see a cent of what she’s owed in compensation from the liars.
