Nick Xenophon hits back at criticism over parliament pension while representing Huawei

Senate candidate Nick Xenophon is now copping heat for raking in a big parliamentary pension while he did legal work for Chinese tech giant Huawei.

South Australian Senate hopeful Nick Xenophon has been pocketing a taxpayer-funded pension of nearly $90,000 per year since January 2019, sparking criticism for receiving government entitlements while working for banned Chinese tech giant Huawei.

Mr Xenophon, who is hoping to become an SA senator for a second time, revealed he started claiming the $88,000-a-year pension in January 2019 when he turned 60.

Mr Xenophon is entitled to the pension, which is partly funded by his own superannuation contributions, as he served in SA parliament's Legislative Council for 10 years. He was elected in 1997, before the parliamentary superannuation scheme was wound back in 2004.

Mr Xenophon said the entitlement would be suspended if he is elected to the Senate, where he would earn a salary of $211,250.

Nick Xenophon walks down Rundle Mall in Adelaide, South Australia, with Katie the mule during the 2007 federal election campaign, after leaving state parliament, where he had served for 10 years.

SA senator Rex Patrick, who once worked for Mr Xenophon as an adviser, said many people were “fed up” with former MPs receiving “generous” payments from taxpayer-funded superannuation schemes while “enjoying highly paid employment”.

“Public disquiet is likely to be further raised when the company involved is headquartered in an authoritarian state and viewed with deep suspicion by Australia’s intelligence and security agencies,” Senator Patrick said.

Mr Xenophon hit back at his former ally, highlighting that Senator Patrick last year “made me an offer to be on his Senate ticket”.

“He didn’t seem to have any problems with me then. He also asked me to endorse him for Grey should he run in that seat.,

“He’s now obsessed with churning up baseless accusations against me.”

Mr Xenophon has repeatedly defended his legal work with Huawei, describing the “outrageous” attacks against him as “hysterical” and “politically motivated”.

Senator Rex Patrick is battling against his former boss Nick Xenophon for the Senate. Picture: NCA Newswire/Gary Ramage

Gideon Rozner, the director of policy at the right-wing Institute of Public Affairs think tank, criticised Mr Xenophon for doing legal work for Huawei between September 2019 and December 2020. The company was banned from Australia’s 5G rollout over national security concerns.

“Nick Xenophon purports to be a beacon of political integrity. Yet for over a year he was accepting money from Australian taxpayers with one hand, and a Chinese state-owned enterprise with the other,” Mr Rozner said.

Mr Xenophon slammed the “unhinged” attack as a “political hit-job from the extremist IPA”.

“IPA needs to get its facts straight – the former client of the law firm was never a state owned enterprise,” he said.

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Originally published as Nick Xenophon hits back at criticism over parliament pension while representing Huawei