Category Archives: Bridget McKenzie

No consequences likely after Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie failed to disclose flight upgrades

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Independent David Pocock calls for disclosure reform while Liberal James Paterson says many politicians don’t update the log fast enough

Labor is unlikely to pursue formal Senate action against the Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie for not disclosing 16 flight upgrades over her time in parliament, despite parliamentary rules on travel requiring disclosures within 35 days.

The independent senator David Pocock said it highlighted the need for reforming parliamentary transparency rules.

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Bridget McKenzie updates register and apologises after failing to declare 16 flight upgrades

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Shadow transport spokesperson belatedly discloses Qantas and Virgin upgrades after it was revealed she failed to declare offers of better seats

Bridget McKenzie did not declare 16 flight upgrades received over the last nine years, with the Nationals senator apologising and belatedly updating her official register of interests to disclose numerous instances of business class travel which had not been declared as per parliamentary rules.

Two instances were in July and August this year, just a few months before the shadow transport spokesperson claimed to have never been offered a single upgrade on a Qantas flight. Another five upgrades were on personal flights between Australia and New Zealand, including four in 2018 while she was a cabinet minister.

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‘Wicked problem’: Coalition doesn’t rule out EV road user tax as fuel excise falls with uptake of greener vehicles

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Bridget McKenzie tells Insiders she is working on the opposition’s transport policy ahead of the next federal election – including EV plans

Liberal senator Bridget McKenzie has again left the door open for a Coalition government to level a road user charge against owners of electric vehicles, indicating concern about decreasing fuel excise and the impact on budgets for road repairs.

But the shadow transport minister also said the Coalition wouldn’t follow the US in banning Chinese-made EVs, which put her at odds with comments on Sunday from Nationals colleague, Barnaby Joyce. He invoked last week’s Hezbollah members’ pager explosions in raising his concern about technology he claimed could be made with a “malevolent purpose” by a “totalitarian state”.

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Bridget McKenzie forced to deny her oped on aviation divestiture signals support for breaking up Qantas

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Just hours after opinion appears in AFR, shadow minister clarifies divestiture as ‘one of the various tools the treasurer needs to look at’ but not Coalition policy

The shadow transport minister, Bridget McKenzie, was forced to clarify the Coalition does not support breaking up Qantas just hours after floating the possibility of forced divestiture powers in the aviation sector.

McKenzie warned the competition watchdog’s review of the aviation sector “will be a failure if it does not address the role of divestiture” in an opinion piece in the Australian Financial Review on Monday.

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Bonza administrators worry that 20,000 out-of-pocket airline customers could attend creditors meeting

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‘That would require a stadium,’ federal court hears as airline administrators try to organise online meeting for Friday that would allow everyone to vote

Administrators determining the future of the troubled airline Bonza are bracing for as many as 20,000 out-of-pocket customers to join a creditors meeting this week with the federal court hearing that online voting options are being considered.

On Tuesday lawyers representing Hall Chadwick, the administrators controlling Bonza after its planes were abruptly repossessed a week ago, appeared before the federal court justice Elizabeth Cheeseman seeking orders to streamline the process for the first creditors meeting on Friday. It will be held amid ongoing efforts to find a new owner for the budget carrier.

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Bridget McKenzie’s office wanted ‘sports rorts’ funding tripled after consultation with MPs and senators, documents confirm

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Exclusive: FoI documents show senator’s office spoke to other members, duty-senators and some cross-benchers to prioritise marginal and target seats

Bridget McKenzie’s office proposed tripling funding for the “sports rorts” program to deliver “priorities for target and marginal” seats after consultation with MPs and senators, new documents confirm.

After a three-year freedom-of-information battle, the Greens have secured the release of colour-coded spreadsheets related to the community sport infrastructure grant program and the “talking points” document prepared for McKenzie to pitch to then prime minister, Scott Morrison, to expand the program from $30m to $100m.

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Australian politicians spending two-thirds of time on the road at taxpayer expense, data shows

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Nationals’ Bridget McKenzie and Andrew Willcox top list with more than $20,000 spent each on nights away from home

A handful of federal politicians are spending more than two-thirds of their time on the road and in hotels, with one Nationals MP billing taxpayers for accommodation nearly every night over a four-month period, latest travel expenses data shows.

Andrew Willcox, the first-time member for Dawson, spent 113 days travelling over a 116-day period between August and December 2022, according to the most recent independent parliamentary expense authority’s (Ipea) data.

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Former Qantas CEO Alan Joyce avoids Senate inquiry after push to extend probe knocked back

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Coalition motion to reconvene committee fails after Greens and David Pocock side with government

The former Qantas CEO Alan Joyce will not be forced to appear before a Senate inquiry after a Coalition proposal to extend the probe was knocked back by the Greens and David Pocock.

It comes as the federal government announced on Wednesday that the competition watchdog would recommence quarterly flight monitoring before the end of the year.

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Qatar Airways chief says Australia’s decision to block flights ‘very unfair’ after pandemic support

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Akbar Al Baker says request for more flights into Australia was ‘legitimate’ at a time the airline was ‘so supportive of Australia’

Qatar Airways says the Australian government’s decision to block its request for extra flights was “very unfair” given the airline’s support for Australians during the pandemic.

The airline’s bid to fly an extra 21 services into Australia’s major airports was rejected with ministers citing a range of reasons including it being contrary to the national interest.

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David Van to take leave from parliament as more former Coalition colleagues call for him to resign altogether

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The senator – who denies any wrongdoing – resigned from the Liberal party on Saturday and claimed he has been denied procedural fairness

Victorian senator David Van will take leave from parliament this week as more of his former Coalition colleagues call for his resignation from parliament altogether.

Van resigned from the Liberal party on Saturday after he was dropped from the federal party room by leader Peter Dutton and stripped of organisational support in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations being raised against him.

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Bridget McKenzie and Mark Coulton reject suggestion they ‘trespassed’ at inland rail project

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Nationals pair say they were at a level crossing on a public road when they visited the rail corridor without ministerial permission

Nationals MP Mark Coulton and senator Bridget McKenzie have angrily rejected suggestions they may have trespassed by visiting the inland rail project near Narromine after permission to do so was denied.

Coulton told Guardian Australia that the issue, pursued by Labor in Senate estimates, was “absolute complete bullshit”, backing McKenzie’s account the pair were at a level crossing on a public road when they visited the rail without the minister’s permission.

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Australia politics live: $591m cost of cancelling French submarines revealed in Senate estimates; Bob Brown charged with trespass

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Tony Burke is also being quite conciliatory about David Pocock’s concerns about the bill.

Asked by Patricia Karvelas if he is prepared to make more amendments to the IR bill, Tony Burke says that is standard after a senate inquiry process.

I suspect there’ll be more to come.

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Sports rorts: Bridget McKenzie to give evidence but says inquiry appearance a ‘cheap political stunt’

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Labor-chaired probe into $100m program requests further information from McKenzie while she says she has already addressed relevant points

Bridget McKenzie has offered to appear before the sports rorts inquiry for just one hour, warning she has nothing further to add and doesn’t wish to participate in a “cheap political stunt”.

The former federal sports minister wrote to the committee examining the $100m community sport infrastructure grant program disputing claims she had refused to appear but asking for more information to “justify [her] need to attend”.

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Former NSW auditor general blasts Coalition for attempting to ‘reduce scrutiny of government’ activities

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Tony Harris has criticised the Morrison government for slashing audit office funding and delaying federal anti-corruption watchdog

Tony Harris, the former New South Wales auditor general, has blasted the Morrison government for cutting funding to the Australian National Audit Office and for moving too slowly to establish a federal anti-corruption commission.

During an appearance before the Senate committee examining the sports grants saga, Harris said he believed there was “a pattern of behaviour that constitutes a goal” of reducing public scrutiny of government activity.

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Angus Taylor and Scott Morrison won’t be able to brush off uncomfortable questions much longer | Malcolm Farr

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As Australia moves back to normal activities, the Coalition will be held to account on standards of integrity

It has taken a cruel and untamed global disaster to draw attention from the government’s record of questionable integrity standards.

That record is bulging with episodes of controversial conduct, and they are not going to disappear into post-coronavirus history.

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Six grants worth a total of $260k approved in marginal seat of Longman before election

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LNP candidate advertised one of the grants on Facebook a month before election without specifying source of funds

Six taxpayer-funded grants were approved in the key marginal seat of Longman through the Department of Social Services in the month before the last federal election, including $177,000 for the Bribie Island and Districts Junior Rugby League Club.

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Sport Australia defies Senate on questions over sports rorts grants

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Exclusive: senior officials claim no ‘specific recollection’ of a hastily convened teleconference to discuss colour-coded spreadsheets

Sport Australia defied a Senate committee request to respond to questions about its role in the Morrison government’s controversial sports grants program, while senior officials involved in the administration of the grants claim to have no “specific recollection” of a hastily convened teleconference to discuss the government’s colour-coded spreadsheets.

Sport Australia had been ordered to respond to 40 questions its officials had taken on notice following a 28 February committee hearing examining the $100m sports grants program by 6 March.

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Sports rorts changes everything. It’s time for a federal Icac | Katharine Murphy

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If we care about integrity in government, the Coalition must be held accountable for the grants saga

Before we go forward, just for a minute, I want to look back. Let’s track back to last April when the Morrison government was mulling the grants at the centre of the “sports rorts” scandal.

Politics was hurtling towards a federal election that the Coalition (well, perhaps everyone apart from the prime minister himself) fully expected to lose. Believing there were five minutes left to live, the government went into hyperdrive. There was a rush of appointments and decisions – in the press gallery it felt like a volcano was erupting in our inboxes.

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GDP grew by 0.5% in December quarter, national accounts show – politics live

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The economy holds the headlines as government inches closer to releasing its stimulus package in response to coronavirus. All the day’s events, live

I missed this yesterday:

Mathias Cormann reveals that he personally intervened to chose the colour of the new fleet of Comcar vehicles, which will shift from their traditional white to dark grey. #Estimates pic.twitter.com/PqsJCQFOBC

*Grandstanding*

*Actually evidence from officials*

Don’t be misled by Senator Carr’s grandstanding & fear-mongering. The Bushfire & Natural Hazards CRC has funding until mid-2021 & the Govt is considering future funding for its work to continue. We’re actively engaging with the CRC, including a meeting with the PM last month. https://t.co/xZgEyqH2g7

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Liberal MP says Coalition needs to look at a 2050 net zero emissions target – politics live

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Trent Zimmerman says Australia needs to look beyond good target for 2030 as we head into Glasgow. All the day’s events, live

It’s time for who’s that MP?

It’s Andrew Wallace.

Asked about the Nationals (and some Liberals) who claim a net zero 2050 emissions target would bring about end of days, Trent Zimmerman tells the ABC:

No-one is saying that getting to 2050 with a net zero target is an easy task. It is a challenge.

We know in many areas we are doing really well.

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