Exclusive: the One Nation leader held a ‘fish and
chip’ fundraiser, which attracted the support of far-right extremist
group the Proud Boys
Pauline Hanson
charged taxpayers $3,700 for a three-night trip to Perth where she held
intimate dinners for high-paying One Nation donors and a “fish and
chip” fundraiser that drew the support of far-right extremists.
Politicians are not allowed to charge taxpayers for travel if the dominant purpose is party fundraising.
But in October 2018, Hanson had taxpayers pick up the bill for flights to and from Perth, as well as three days of travel allowance, where she hosted multiple One Nation fundraisers.
The One Nation leader held a $20-per-head “fish and chip” fundraiser
for about 300 people at the Botanica Bar & Bistro in Innaloo, Perth.
The event, organised by the party’s WA executive, drew the support of
members of the the Proud Boys, who showed up outside to counter a
protest against Hanson and One Nation.Politicians are not allowed to charge taxpayers for travel if the dominant purpose is party fundraising.
But in October 2018, Hanson had taxpayers pick up the bill for flights to and from Perth, as well as three days of travel allowance, where she hosted multiple One Nation fundraisers.
Hanson also hosted intimate dinners for donors willing to pay $5,000 a head, more than double the amount that WA Liberal party donors had paid for a seat near prime minister Scott Morrison at a similar event.
A spokesman for Hanson told Guardian Australia she only ever “makes interstate trips for the purpose of her parliamentary duties”.
“If time permits outside of those obligations, she will attend fundraising events after hours.”
The spokesman declined to answer multiple questions about the nature of Hanson’s parliamentary business during the trip.
One Nation’s WA state president, Paul Filing, has previously told the Australian that the events were part of a major fundraising campaign in Perth, and said invitations to the 12-person intimate dinners had been sent to lobbyists and business leaders.
Records show Hanson later charged $3,735.07 to taxpayers for her WA trip. Her flights from Brisbane to Perth and back to Canberra cost the public $2,517. Hanson also claimed three days of food and accommodation allowance worth $1,218.
When Hanson arrived in Perth, she spoke to local radio station 6PR. The presenter opened the interview by asking about the One Nation leader’s “fundraising plan” while in WA.
Hanson told the station the $5,000-a-head dinners were “about having an intimate dinner with us and having the opportunity to talk to us about your issues and what you want to talk about with us”.
She also gave the cheaper event a plug: “We actually now have this other function, $20 a head for fish and chips tomorrow. So people can have the opportunity now to talk to me there about their issues; what they want to do. It’s people’s choice, you have a choice. You can either pay $5,000, or you can pay $20, or you can actually corner me in the shopping centre, like a lot of people do, and talk to me there.”
Hanson reportedly used some of the trip to search for and announce local One Nation candidates in WA, and she also attended the Sporting Shooters’ Association of Australia’s Shot Expo in Claremont, where she fired guns and posed for cameras.
The Perth trip again reveals serious flaws in the MP expenses regime, which critics say is ill-defined and open to abuse.
A Guardian investigation has revealed a string of questionable expense claims since Malcolm Turnbull’s reforms in 2017, which were introduced after a number of high-profile scandals.
The rules around mixed-purpose travel – where an MP uses a trip to both fundraise and conduct legitimate parliamentary business – remain ambiguous, according to Yee-Fui Ng, an integrity expert with Monash University.
“The legislation adopts a principles-based approach that tries to ascertain the dominant purpose of undertaking an activity,” but when an MP travelled for mixed purposes that could be hard to determine, she said.
“MPs are the custodians of public power, and trust in democracy is reliant on MPs appropriately exercising their powers and responsibly managing public funds, including their travel expenses,” she said.
Guardian Australia has also found that former South Australian senator Cory Bernardi charged taxpayers for a $2,500 trip to Sydney on the day of a major fundraiser for his fledgling Australian Conservatives party in 2017.
Bernardi flew into Sydney on the afternoon of Friday 27 October 2017.
Comcar records, released through freedom of information, show he arrived at his hotel about 2pm before taking another Comcar to the fundraiser roughly two hours later, joining about 120 supporters for a riverside dinner at Parramatta Wharf.
The records also show he used a Comcar to leave the fundraiser and return to his hotel about 10pm that night.
Footage of the event also shows copies of Bernardi’s book, Revolution, in which he writes that Australia needs to “re-establish the notion that taking responsibility for consequences is just as important as freedom of choice”, were for sale at the fundraiser.
Bernardi stayed in Sydney for the weekend, flying out on Sunday 29 October, and may have had further parliamentary business on those days.
The former senator declined to answer questions about the trip when contacted by Guardian Australia.
“In your eagerness to bottom-feed, you ignore or haven’t a clue what else I did that day, who I met or what parliamentary business was conducted, so I’ll politely ask you to not contact me again,” he said.
The former senator set up the Australian Conservatives after quitting the Liberals in early 2017, hoping his new party would sweep up Liberal voters disenchanted by Malcolm Turnbull’s leadership.
But the party was deregistered in June 2019 after a poor showing at the federal election. Bernardi resigned from the Senate in January.
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