Pauline Hanson and Barnaby Joyce stayed at Gina Rinehart’s $20m mansion after One Nation fundraisers
Exclusive: New details underscoring depth of relationship between billionaire and party revealed in first episode of Guardian podcast The Populist
Pauline Hanson and Barnaby Joyce stayed overnight at Gina Rinehart’s $20m Brisbane mansion after fundraising events held for One Nation, Guardian Australia can reveal.
On one occasion, Joyce conducted a live television interview with Channel Seven’s Sunrise program from a room that appears to be a bedroom in Rinehart’s home.
The interview took place on Monday 13 April, the morning after a fundraising event at the mining magnate’s house on the banks of the Brisbane River in Hawthorne.
The new details underscoring the depth of the relationship between Australia’s richest person and One Nation have been revealed in the first episode of the Guardian’s new podcast about the party, The Populist , released on Monday.
Parliamentary expenditure records show that Hanson and Joyce declared flights on 13 April courtesy of Hancock Prospecting, with flight-tracking data showing that the pair flew on Rinehart’s luxury Gulfstream jet from Brisbane to Sydney that afternoon.
The accommodation at Rinehart’s home has not been declared to the parliament, which has rules in place mandating that gifts or hospitality valued at more than $300 – or any interest “where a conflict of interest with a [parliamentarian]’s public duties could foreseeably arise or be seen to arise” – should be declared.
The guidelines state that “hospitality” refers to “free or concessional accommodation” provided to the MP, the MP’s spouse or partner or dependent children “wholly or partly by any person, organisation, business or interest group or foreign government or its representative”.
The provision of meals or accommodation excludes “hospitality provided in a purely social way by friends or colleagues”, but the guidelines are designed to place on the public record interests that may conflict, or be seen to conflict, with an MP’s public duty.
Joyce told Guardian Australia that Rinehart “was a long-term friend over decades not a motel”.
“When I stay with family or friends they don’t charge me, nor do I see it as work,” he said.
Guardian Australia can also reveal that Hanson has been using one of Rinehart’s bodyguards for her personal security.
The man, who has been seen escorting Hanson in Perth and Canberra, has been one of Rinehart’s closest bodyguards for more than a decade.
The New South Wales supreme court heard in 2013 that Rinehart had asked the bodyguard to offer one of her daughters, Bianca Rinehart, a $25m loan to pull out of a court battle contesting the family trust. The offer was rejected.
5News aggregated this summary from the outlet’s public feed. The full article, with all the context, is on www.theguardian.com — the content belongs to The Guardian Australia - Australian Politics.