Lucy Gichuhi says $200,000 salary ‘not a lot of money’

A media interview in which Lucy Gichuhi complains about her salary and the lack of “house girls” emerges as she faces heat for travel claims | WATCH

A media interview in which Lucy Gichuhi complained about her $200,000 salary and the lack of “house girls” in Australia has emerged as she is forced to repay misused public funds for travel.

It was revealed yesterday the Kenyan born Senator claimed $12,000 for trips to Sydney as “electorate business”. Her electorate is in Adelaide. The trips included speaking at the National Australia Bank’s African Australian Inclusion Program, attending an international event organised by a Christian radio program and appearing on the ABC program Q&A.

Senator Gichuhi appeared in a live interview on the Kenyan program Kenya Citizen TV in January in which she said her salary was “not a lot of money.”

“Yes, my salary it is somewhere on the website, I don’t look at it because it comes into the bank, but it’s not a lot of money by the way,” she told the program host.

“Politicians, and I mean Australian politicians, work so hard 24/7, nobody, and I mean nobody, can compensate them for the work they do.

“$200,000, in a whole year, that’s not a lot of money.”

She then admits her pay is more reasonable than what Kenyan politicians are paid.

The Senator said the lack of “house girls” made life difficult for her when she first arrived in Australia.

“There are no house girls, for your information,” she said. “Without house girls it was such a challenge but I learned and learned very quickly.”

Senator Gichuhi said her husband had put in a lot of effort to become more domesticated around the house.

“My husband was working so hard to adjust from that man attitude to help around the house.”

Senator Gichuhi entered the Senate for Family First after the High Court ruled Bob Day ineligible. When Family First merged with Cory Bernardi’s Australian Conservatives she spent time as an independent senator before joining the Liberal party.

The SA Senator has already agreed to pay back $2139, which she had claimed for flying her family to Adelaide for her birthday last October.