Revealed: Every SA politician’s income, property, investments, gifts and family trusts
EVER wondered whether your local MP has other sources of income? Or how many properties they own? Or what gifts and travel come as a perk of the job? Whether state or federal, every SA politician has to declare these interests — and we’ve accumulated all the latest data into an easy-to-search register.
EVER wondered whether your local MP has other sources of income? Or how many properties they own? Or what gifts and travel come as a perk of the job? Whether state and federal, every South Australian politician has to declare these interests — and we’ve accumulated all the latest data into an easy-to-search register.
The database — which accumulates all the pecuniary interest declarations made by SA’s state and federal politicians — reveals our state politicians own 116 homes and a third of them have family trusts, while six federal MPs own properties in Canberra under rules that allow them to simultaneously collect a $288 a night travel allowance.
Released as part of The Advertiser’s Your Right To Know campaign, the database gives you visibility of each MP’s declared gifts, hospitality, income, employment, land holdings, shares, investments, directorships and memberships of political, trade and professional associations. Filters allow you to sort the MPs by party, upper or lower house and jurisdiction, then click on each MP for a full list of their declarations.
**This database was first published in October 2018 and updated on January 15, 2019 and is current as of Wednesday July 17, 2019. Please note, former MPs have been removed from the database, except those who submitted a return since January, 2019. Newly-elected MPs, including James Stevens, Andrea Michaels and Joe Szakacs, will be added to the database when their first returns are lodged.
Their gifts: Free flights to Israel, jewellery and sport tickets
October 17, 2018
SOUTH Australia’s state and federal MPs have received a variety of expensive gifts and perks, from trips to Israel to thousands of dollars worth of jewellery, it can be revealed.
It comes as The Advertiser today unveils a series of articles detailing all our MPs’ interests and launches an exclusive online tool to view them.
Details of the gifts, obtained through 14 separate Freedom of Information requests, has raised debate about greater public disclosure of political perks.
Presently, MPs must declare all gifts of more than $750 in their annual register of members interests, while ministers must keep a log of all gifts valued at more than $375 from industry sources.
The FOI requests secured the state ministers logs, excluding Industry and Skills Minister David Pisoni who publishes his gift register online.
Gifts received by Lower House MPs are published online in their register of interests form, while a visit to the Legislative Council’s Clerk at Parliament House is necessary to secure the register of interests for Upper House MPs.
But Greens MP Mark Parnell said all information about gifts should be publicly available and ministerial gift registers kept up to date, in the same way that federal Parliament requires MPs to routinely update their registers.
“People shouldn’t have to go chasing this information, it should all be freely available,” Mr Parnell said.
He also said all gifts valued at more than $200 should be declared.
The State Government said there was no plan to publish gifts received by ministers online, in the same way it published their credit card statements and travel logs.
Some ministers declared gifts in their annual return, including Energy and Mining Minister Dan van Holst Pellekaan, who received a free charter flight from Chevron Energy to see its operations on Barrow Island, off WA, and Tourism Minister David Ridgway declared free hospitality from a range of stakeholders.
Child Protection Minister Rachel Sanderson was gifted $1500 worth of Penny Horn jewellery, while Liberal MPs Matt Cowdrey and Sam Duluk both received free trips to the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast.
SA’s federal MPs and senators undertook domestic and international travel paid for by a range of organisations; Senators Anne Ruston, Stirling Griff and Alex Gallacher and MPs Nicolle Flint and Tony Pasin were all the beneficiaries of free trips to Israel.
Family trusts boost State MPs property portfolios
October 17, 2018.
OUR state politicians own 116 homes and a third of them have family trusts, an Advertiser analysis of pecuniary interest registers show.
MPs’ register of interest forms show MacKillop Liberal MP Nick McBride owns the most properties with 12 — mostly scattered across the state’s southeast — all owned through his family trust.
But Mr McBride said 10 of those properties were all part of one land package, Conmurra Station, a 3500 hectare property stretching across three council areas.
He also declared his parents’ beach house at Robe, owned by the trust, as well as a house in Adelaide’s eastern suburbs he bought recently.
Environment and Water Minister David Speirs boasts eight investment properties on top of his Kingston Park home, selling off his Glenelg East investment property in January.
Energy and Mining Minister Dan van Holst Pellekaan, from Wilmington in the state’s Mid North, owns seven properties, including three commercial properties in Port Augusta, and a rural commercial property in Tasmania.
Mr van Holst Pellekaan said the cumulative value of the properties would be less than most MPs, saying he and his wife paid just $120,000 for their Wilmington home in 2005.
SA Best MP Frank Pangallo, who called for a bridge linking Kangaroo Island and the mainland, owns a rental property on Kangaroo Island through his superannuation fund. Mr Pangallo said it was well known he had a strong interest in Kangaroo Island and he had declared the property: “I have nothing to hide”.
Human Services Minister Michelle Lensink has State Parliament’s biggest share portfolio, listing 32 different companies including the big banks, Sydney Airport, Telstra and healthcare and mining companies.
What we pay for MPs’ second mortgages in Canberra
October 17, 2018.
SECOND homes in Canberra, investment properties, share portfolios and family trusts have all been declared by South Australia’s federal MPs and senators on parliamentary registers of interest.
Senators Penny Wong, Cory Bernardi, Don Farrell and David Fawcett all list properties in Canberra on their registers of interests, as do Adelaide MP Kate Ellis and Kingston MP Amanda Rishworth.
MPs and senators receive a $288 per night travel allowance when they are in Canberra. It is within parliamentary rules for members to use the allowances to help pay off mortgages on second homes in the federal capital.
Independent Senator Tim Storer and Boothby MP Nicolle Flint are the only two SA federal representatives who don’t own any residential properties.
Senator Storer, who lived and worked overseas for many years, lists investments in more than 29 companies.
The House of Representatives and Senate both maintain registers of interest and any updates by members are published on a weekly basis.
In addition to her family home in Mawson Lakes, Liberal Senator Lucy Gichuhi owns three investment properties in Whyalla and one rental property each in Dernancourt and Gilles Plains.
Senator Gichuhi also owns an idle block of land in her native Kenya and a property in Nairobi, which is occupied by relatives.
Makin MP Tony Zappia owns a residential property in Pooraka and lists part-interests in six investment properties in Pooraka, Moana, Ingle Farm and Clare. Senator Farrell lists his ownership of Clare Valley-based Red Bridge Wines, which trades as Don Farrell Wines.
Defence Minister Christopher Pyne declared royalties from his autobiography A letter to my children and a holiday property at Robe.
Centre Alliance Senator Rex Patrick owns a home in Adelaide and investment properties in NSW and Queensland.
WHAT WE WANTED TO KNOW: What do our MPs own and what gifts do they receive.
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT: The information declares any potential conflict of interest for our state’s political representatives.
HOW EASY IS IT TO FIND:Information for Federal MPs is easily available online. State MPs disclose their interests each year, with the Lower House publishing its report online, but a physical copy needing to be picked up from Parliament House to see the report for Upper House MPs. Ministers also keep gift registers but they’re not published online, or given out unless a freedom of information request is put in.