Senior staffer accused of historical sex offences still on UAP leader Craig Kelly’s team

A staffer remains in a taxpayer-funded job in United Australia Party leader Craig Kelly’s office nearly a year after being charged with sex assault offences.

Frank Zumbo, left, dines with UAP leader and former Liberal MP Craig Kelly. Mr Zumbo is facing 18 criminal charges linked to sexual assaults.

A senior staffer remains in his taxpayer-funded job in Liberal turncoat Craig Kelly’s office nearly a year after he was charged with a string of historical sex assault ­offences, including the alleged ­assault of a teenage girl.

Frank Zumbo, who would be on an annual salary of $120,000, is still serving as chief of staff for Mr Kelly.

Photographs of the United Australia Party leader and Mr Zumbo meeting publicly – including one outing at Cafe Vostro in Sydney’s Sutherland Shire – have been obtained by The Weekend Australian.

Local residents claim to have seen Mr Zumbo driving a campaign truck emblazoned with Mr Kelly’s face and the UAP logo around the Loftus netball courts.

A spokesman for the UAP confirmed that Mr Zumbo is still serving as chief of staff for Mr Kelly.

“He has not been found guilty of any charge and has presumption of innocents (sic),” he stated.

The spokesman refused to say whether Mr Kelly had been interviewed by police about the allegations or what the UAP’s position on Mr Zumbo’s continued employment was.

As a longstanding staff member, Mr Zumbo will be eligible for a sizeable redundancy payment if Mr Kelly loses his seat at the federal election on May 21.

According to the public register, Mr Kelly and his office have not completed the Safe and ­Respectful Workplaces training program that was introduced after former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins went public with allegations that she was raped in Parliament House.

Mr Zumbo is facing 18 criminal charges after four women accused him of inappropriately touching them at work – nine counts of common assault, two counts of ­aggravated sexual touching and seven counts of aggravated indecent assault of a victim under his authority.

A police investigation into Mr Zumbo’s conduct was instigated in August 2020 when police received reports he indecently assaulted a teenage girl.

Three other women in their 20s subsequently came forward to allege Mr Zumbo had indecently assaulted them at Mr Kelly’s Sutherland electorate ­office between 2014 and 2020.

Mr Zumbo was arrested in June last year and spent a night in custody before being granted bail under strict conditions that prohibit him entering the grounds of schools and universities and contacting prosecution witnesses.

He is pleading not guilty to all charges against him.

After the charges were laid, Mr Kelly continued to stand by his chief of staff, saying he allowed Mr Zumbo to retain his position on the grounds that he was entitled to the presumption of innocence until he had his day in court “like every single Australian”.

“Mr Zumbo obviously will take some time off to defend this matter (but) I’m not going to throw aside the principles that I believe in the presumption of innocence for some short-term political expedience,” Mr Kelly said last year.

“Just because someone has had allegations made against them does not mean they are guilty … and Mr Zumbo, like every single other Australian, deserves to have his day in court.”

In the “Australia that I live in” it “shouldn’t apply to the average citizen that they lose their job because of an allegation”, he added.

While Mr Kelly was still a Liberal Party member, Scott Morrison asked him to remove Mr Zumbo from his office on a number of occasions.

Frank Zumbo leaves the Surry Hills police centre in 2021 after being charged with historical sexual offences. Picture: Damian Shaw

Mr Kelly was first elected to the seat of Hughes in 2010. The electorate was in Labor hands from 1969 to 1996 until John Howard swept to power. It has been a blue-ribbon Liberal seat since and ­remains notionally Liberal on a ­margin of 9.3 per cent despite Mr Kelly’s defection to the UAP.

Malcolm Turnbull stopped a preselection challenge against Mr Kelly in 2016. Mr Morrison did the same in 2019.

This time, he faces tough competition from at least four candidates: Liberal Jenny Ware, a senior legal executive; the Greens’ Peter Thompson; independent Georgia Steele, who has the backing of Climate 200; and independent Linda Seymour, from the We Are Hughes group.

Peter Tsambalas, a local teacher who was preselected by the Labor Party, withdrew from the race a few days ago after he failed to renounce his Greek citizenship in time. The Weekend Australian understands Labor is not putting any ­resources into the seat.

Mr Kelly sold his Illawong home last year and bought a property more than 100km away on the NSW central coast.

In February last year, Mr Kelly quit the Coalition government’s ranks and moved to the crossbench over his promotion of ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine as treatments for Covid-19.

He became leader of the UAP in August.