New South Wales Liberal senator Hollie Hughes justified claiming a taxpayer-funded travel allowance for Melbourne Cup day by saying the alcohol company that gave her a spot in its marquee had employees in her home state, making her attendance parliamentary business.
Hughes billed taxpayers for a short trip to Melbourne in 2019, during which Victorian brewery Furphy, owned by alcohol giant Lion, treated her to an $800 spot in its Flemington marquee on Melbourne Cup day.
The NSW senator had no other official engagements that day in Melbourne, but did have meetings and media engagements in Melbourne either side of race day, which justified the trip and her expense claim as predominantly for parliamentary business.
Freedom of information documents show that the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority began investigating Hughes’s expense claims after reporting in the Guardian. She was asked to explain why she claimed the travel allowance, which was about $392 for the day of the Melbourne Cup.
Hughes told the watchdog that Furphy was associated with Tooheys, also a Lion brand, which was a “major employer in my state”.
“I was hosted as a Senator for NSW by Furphys at the Melbourne Cup, owners of Tooheys. A major employer in my state of NSW,” she wrote to Ipea.
Hughes told the watchdog she had visited one of the company’s factories at a later date, which was “an extension of the working relationship with the organisation”.
“This [the relationship] included working with them throughout the Covid lockdown and the NSW State Government to avoid the factory closure during lockdown,” she wrote.
Furphy is a Geelong brewery.
Ipea accepted the explanation and said the case warranted no further investigation. But it also told the senator that she would need to be prepared to publicly justify her claim.
“IPEA further notes that while such an event might appear to have personal benefit to some in the Australian community, in the principles-based scheme it is the responsibility of the parliamentarian to be prepared to publicly justify for their use of public resources for conduction [sic] their parliamentary business,” the watchdog wrote.
The Guardian asked Hughes whether she stood by her claim that her attendance was linked to her parliamentary work because Lion had employees in her state.
On Friday, her office asked for more time to respond due to the fact the senator was “currently very ill with Covid”. She appeared for an in-person interview with Sky News at the channel’s Sydney studio two days later, on 10 April.
NSW Covid rules require positive cases to isolate for seven days. Those who test positive also must wait a further 24 hours if they are experiencing a sore throat, runny nose, cough, or shortness of breath before ending isolation.
A spokesperson said the senator had begun isolation on 2 April, a day after she appeared in parliament, until 9 April. The senator then finished her isolation the day prior to the Sky News interview, and returned a negative rapid test on the day of the interview.
“Senator Hughes tested positive for Covid on Saturday 2 April. She isolated at home from 2 April to 9 April and had a negative RAT on Sunday 10 April,” the spokesperson said.
“Senator Hughes did not have a sore throat, runny nose, cough or shortness of breath in the last 24 hours of her isolation period.”
The spokesperson did not respond to further questions about the Melbourne Cup travel allowance claim.
