Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young will no longer use taxpayers’ funds to ferry her lobbyist husband to Canberra after she was criticised for spending almost $50,000 flying him to the city where he works.
While the Liberal Party was bracing for a leadership spill and senators grilled public servants in Senate estimates on Thursday, Hanson-Young broke her months-long silence and addressed the issue on Sky News.
Hanson-Young insisted her spending had been within the rules and done in good faith, but said she would not use the entitlement again after being put under extensive scrutiny.
“It’s all been above board, but let me say… I’ve made a decision that going forward, I’m not going to use the entitlement because it’s just not worth the stress and the attention that it brings on to families,” she said.
The South Australian became embroiled in last year’s MP expenses saga when it was revealed she had charged taxpayers $49,902 for flights to Canberra for her husband Ben Oquist, a senior lobbyist for firm DPG Solutions, whose clients include Wesfarmers, Rio Tinto and Catholic Education.
MPs are required to travel regularly for work, including between their electorates and Canberra for the 16 to 18 sitting weeks per year. Under family reunion rules, politicians are allowed to fly their partners and children to join them to help support their family life, but questions were raised over Hanson-Young’s expense claims because Oquist would already be regularly travelling to the capital for work.
“I know there’s been some questions raised about this, and I’ve had it all checked by the independent authority,” Hanson-Young said.
“I wasn’t taking the mickey. I was within the appropriate rules as they’re designed, to keep families together and to make sure that you can have some element of family life in this job that is unusual.”
Hanson-Young said she had previously been challenged for using the entitlement to fly her daughter and carer to join her at work.
“There were questions about that. People didn’t like me flying my family. They don’t like family reunion across the board,” she said.
“I get that. I understand the community expectations on these are real and that they change.”
She said she did not begrudge other MPs making the personal choice to use the entitlement.
A routine watchdog review of the senator’s expenses released in January found no wrongdoing but excluded the family reunion flights from its investigation.
Hanson-Young faced internal backlash over the expenses furore, with the South Australian Young Greens trying to pass a motion at the state council last month condemning federal MPs’ spending behaviour as “bringing the party into disrepute”.
The failed motion called on unnamed MPs to repay taxpayer money and disclose their travel allowance claims in annual reports.
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Brittany Busch is a federal politics reporter for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email.