The Sauce: Liberal candidate under fire for taxpayer-funded travel

A star Liberal candidatehas come under Labor fire for spending more than $16,000 of taxpayers’ money, while another Liberal candidate’s honourific has been dropped from promo material. The Sauce investigates why.

Star Liberal candidate Andrew Constance has come under Labor fire for spending more than $16,087 of taxpayers’ money flying ministerial drivers on commercial flights to and from his home base on the South Coast.

The flights are contained in NSW government log books released under freedom of information laws, and follow the ministerial driver scandal which cost the job of former transport minister Jo Haylen.

Liberal candidate for Gilmore Andrew Constance has defended his use of ministerial drivers while in NSW cabinet. Picture: Rohan Kelly

While Haylen did not break any rules, her use of a driver to take her to a boozy winery birthday lunch was deemed to not pass the pub test.

The logbooks show two ministerial drivers for Constance flew back and forth from Sydney and his Bega electorate on 46 occasions between 2014 and 2017.

The flight patterns suggest on some occasions the drivers were flying back to Sydney after leaving the ministerial car in the electorate – or flying to the electorate to pick up the ministerial car.

Separate car logs also include a double-booking of ministerial cars – one for 172.5 hours between May 11 and 18, and a second car booking during that period on May 14 for 1.5 hours.

While Constance has also not broken any rules, his political rivals have questioned why he did not drive the car himself.

Jo Haylen resigned as transport minister after her use of ministerial drivers was found not to pass the pub test. Picture: Richard Dobson

In response to our questions, Constance noted that the trips occurred when he was a cabinet minister – including Treasurer – and MP of a country electorate “located hundreds of kilometres from Sydney”.

“At all times I complied with the ministerial requirements for travel,” he said.

“My roles as treasurer of the state of NSW and as a minister representing a country electorate located hundreds of kilometres from Sydney often required me to return to Sydney urgently, particularly so as minister for transport.

“This is just a Labor smear.”

DR NO

There is nothing quite as impressive on a political candidate’s CV as the golden prefix of “Dr”. So it’s understandable that Liberal Greenway candidate Rattan Virk was pitched as “Dr Virk” to voters by herself and leader Peter Dutton.

Even a profile in Indian newspaper The Times of India listed her as “Dr Rattandeep Kaur Virk” and said: “Virk’s dedication to the medical profession was commendable from earning an MBBS degree in Ukraine to serving as a resident doctor in India.”

Only … the title has now mysteriously disappeared.

Despite earlier promotional material, like a preselection flyer seen by The Sauce, listing her as “Dr Virk”, the candidate has now dropped her impressive prefix from her Liberal Party candidate page. A Facebook post from Mr Dutton has also been updated, according to the edit and cache history seen by The Sauce.

The candidate is also a co-chairperson of the India Australia Strategic Alliance and on the website she is listed as “Dr Rattan Deep Kaur Virk”.

Greenway candidate Rattan Virk with Nationals Senator Bridget McKenzie. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

Sauce correspondent Angira Bharadwaj asked the Liberal Party about the disappearance.

A spokesman said Ms Virk has a medicine degree and practised medicine overseas, but is currently not practising in Australia.

She also has a master’s degree in occupational therapy from Australia.

But the party dodged questions on why, despite her impressive credentials, the title had suddenly been dropped.

We did our own research, and according to AHPRA, Dr is not a “protected title” but, “If the title “Dr” is used in advertising and does not refer to a registered medical practitioner, then … it should be made clear which profession the practitioner is registered in, for example Dr Lee (osteopath).”

A SIGN?

Those pesky teals are clearly giving the Liberals the “ick”, especially in Peter Dutton’s ultra-marginal seat of Dickson.

How else can we explain an expensive swap out of a huge billboard featuring a grinning image of the Liberal leader to a nasty attack one targeting Dickson “community independent” Ellie Smith.

Has independent candidate Ellie Smith got Peter Dutton running scared? Picture: Liam Kidston

Our Queensland operative said the blue backgrounded Dutton billboard had been positioned on a major road leading into Samford, a “must win” part of the electorate.

It was soon replaced with one that has a green background, attacking Smith and branding her a “greenie at heart”.

An accompanying flyer was also dropped to every home in the electorate in a combined blitz our operative has estimated to have cost “about $40,000”.

Rather than recoil, the Smith team has taken advantage of the attack material to generate further donations and volunteers.

A Smith spokesman claimed the team had raised almost $100,000 and enlisted more than 100 extra volunteers since the Liberals turned on the Climate 200-backed Smith.

Despite the margin, it will still be a big ask for Smith, who must also compete with Labor’s Ali France.

But given the sign swap, it’s clear the Libs are not taking any chances.

LABOR BLUES

Premier Chris Minns has clearly had enough of those “Liberal blue”- coloured hoardings surrounding every government worksite across NSW.

With Labor heading into an election in March 2027, the Minns government clearly wants to start putting its own stamp on projects.

How else can one explain the memo that went around departments last week declaring all new hoarding going forward is to be in the colour “red”.

“Hoarding that is currently in place or in production is not affected and does not need to be replaced,” the memo said.

BLOODY ROO

Nothing was going to stop state opposition gaming and racing spokesman Kevin Anderson from attending the races at Royal Randwick on Saturday — not even a rogue ‘roo.

Anderson had been driving down to Sydney from his Tamworth electorate on Friday night when something hit his car bullbar about 6.30pm.

But, as all country people know, the rule of wildlife encounters on the road is to “never swerve”.

Anderson said it was never an option anyway as he saw the ’roo jumping out on the road a second before he hit it.

As it was dark, he also did not see the bloody mess it made on his car until the next morning.

However, to avoid the horrified stares of city folk, Anderson decided to leave the car at Parliament House and take the light rail to Randwick.

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