Pauline Hanson has billed Australian taxpayers nearly $16,000 for private charter flights to visit flood-affected Queensland, despite previously insisting the trip came at “no cost to the taxpayer.” The flights were taken on the suggestion of mining billionaire Gina Rinehart, who also provided a luxury Gulfstream G700 for the first leg of the journey.
In January, Hanson and Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce flew on Rinehart’s Gulfstream G700 from the Sunshine Coast to Mount Isa, then took separate charter flights to flood-hit communities around Julia Creek to meet local mayors. On the 2 Worlds Collide podcast in February, Hanson explained that Rinehart had offered to fly them up, saying, “She said ‘I think you should go up to Julia Creek’ … She said ‘I will fly you up there’, which she did at her expense and flew us up.” Host Sam Bamford emphasized the trip was “not at the taxpayer’s expense,” and Hanson enthusiastically agreed: “No - no cost to the taxpayer!”
Parliamentary expense reports published this week tell a different story: Hanson billed taxpayers $15,990 for three private charter flights between Mount Isa and Cloncurry, Cloncurry and Julia Creek, and Julia Creek back to Mount Isa on 10 January. The company providing those charters remains unidentified. Under parliamentary rules, such claims must meet a “dominant purpose test” of parliamentary business and achieve “value for money.”
Hanson has also previously claimed $9,000 for a flight from Tamworth to Avalon in October last year to attend an event honouring Rinehart at a private agricultural college. In March, at a press conference, she doubled down: “The flights are of no cost to the taxpayer. That’s what I don’t get. It didn’t cost the taxpayer a cent for me to fly on a plane.”
The saga continues: Hanson last month announced she had been given a “sexy” new plane by Rinehart, along with $2 million in donations from three of Rinehart’s close associates. One Nation did not respond to a request for comment.