Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young charged taxpayers $50K to ferry lobbyist husband to and from Canberra
Sarah Hanson-Young’s husband Ben Oquist works for a political lobbying firm that counts Ausgrid, Rio Tinto, Salesforce, Spotify, Uber and Wesfarmers among its clients.
Senior Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young has charged taxpayers almost $50,000 to ferry her husband Ben Oquist to and from Canberra, where he works as a lobbyist.
Mr Oquist works for political lobbying firm DPG Advisory Solutions, which counts Ausgrid, Rio Tinto, Salesforce, Spotify, Uber, Wesfarmers, and Workday among its corporate clients.
Analysis of parliamentarian expense records, conducted exclusively by The Australian, shows Senator Hanson-Young has charged taxpayers $49,902 to fly a family member to and from Canberra – mostly to her home city Adelaide – 78 times since July 2022.
The Australian has spoken to several people who said they had seen Senator Hanson-Young flying “quite often” only with Mr Oquist and not with any children.
Mr Oquist is a frequent fixture in Parliament House – often seen hobnobbing at the Aussies cafe – and has previously been executive director of the left-wing Australia Institute think tank and chief of staff to Greens founder Bob Brown.
Senator Hanson-Young’s office has ignored repeated questions asking whether that family member she has charged taxpayers for was Mr Oquist. Mr Oquist did not respond to questions.
The pair have been married since 2022.
Mr Oquist’s social media account shows he is a frequent traveller between Canberra and Adelaide.
For example, he shared on Instagram a picture of Adelaide from the sky on May 26, on the same date of an Adelaide-Canberra flight for which Senator Hanson-Young billed taxpayers $724.07.
“Waves in Adelaide! Oh, and no beach,” he wrote in the caption to that social media post.
The Coalition has demanded an explanation from Senator Hanson-Young.
“Senator Hanson-Young needs to come out of witness protection and front the media today to answer these questions,” said Senator James McGrath, the shadow special minister of state.
“These revelations are incredibly concerning. If Senator Hanson-Young has been charging the taxpayers of Australia to essentially bankroll her husband’s lobbying activities in Canberra then we have a major issue here and she should be repaying the cost immediately.
“Notwithstanding the confirmation of these findings, this is so classic of the Greens and Labor Party. It is do as we say, not as we do, and we have seen this over and over again.”
This latest revelation marks a new direction in the rolling saga around parliamentarians’ family travel expenses.
Previous contentious expenses claims have mostly been tied to travel to sporting events, holidays, or private events that appear to have been bankrolled by taxpayers.
But these revelations about Senator Hanson-Young and Mr Oquist raise questions about whether taxpayers should be paying for private lobbyists to travel so they can influence federal politicians and policymakers.
Communications Minister Anika Wells, who has come under fire for various family trips to AFL grand finals, Thredbo, the Formula One Grand Prix, and Boxing Day Test matches, on Tuesday referred those thousands of dollars in taxpayer-funded flights to the parliament’s expenses watchdog.
The Australian has also previously revealed Senator Hanson-Young – and two other Greens colleagues Mehreen Faruqi and David Shoebridge – have used family reunion allowances to fly family members to music festivals to which they received free music tickets.
Also involved in the saga is Anthony Albanese, who charged taxpayers thousands in flights for partner Jodie Haydon on days of two AFL grand finals and an Australian Open.
All those figures have said they acted within rules.
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