Helloworld chief Burnes denies Hockey ‘owes me’ line

Helloworld Travel CEO Andrew Burnes has denied ever having said Joe Hockey ‘owes me’.

Australia’s ambassador to the US, Joe Hockey, with Donald Trump. Picture: ABC

Helloworld Travel CEO Andrew Burnes has denied ever having said Joe Hockey “owes me” and has cast doubt on key evidence given to a parliamentary committee as Labor questions whether Australia’s ambassador to the US used his position to help a company for his personal benefit.

Mr Burnes, a good friend of Mr Hockey’s and the Liberal Party’s honorary federal treasurer, said he did not organise any meetings between one of his former employees, Russell Carstensen, and the ambassador.

His declaration followed a concerted attack from Labor, which is ramping up pressure on Mr Hockey over a meeting he attended in April 2016 with Mr Carstensen, who was then group general manager of Qantas Business Travel — the government’s sole travel management services provider.

Mr Hockey has a $1 million shareholding in QBT, which is a subsidiary of Helloworld.

In written evidence to the Senate’s Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade committee, Mr Carstensen claimed he had been advised that Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade officials were “uncomfortable” he met with Mr Hockey and alleged Mr Burnes said the meeting was set up quickly because the ambassador “owed” him.

The claim was seized on by Bill Shorten and his senior Labor frontbenchers as “explosive” as they tried to undermine the government and Mr Hockey on the final parliamentary sitting day ­before the April 2 budget.

Hockey with former US presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Picture: Instagram

Mr Carstensen wrote to the committee: “Early 2017 Andrew Burnes advised me that his long-term friend Mr Hockey was frustrated that his travel arranges (sic) were unprofessional and with limited hours of operations … Mr Burnes told me that he was going to arrange a meeting with Mr Hockey and me at some point in the first half of 2017.”

Mr Carstensen claimed Mr Burnes informed him around April 23, 2017, he had arranged a meeting with Mr Hockey and he was to fly to Washington DC to see the ambassador.

Emails tabled by the committee show Mr Carstensen wrote to Mr Hockey on April 24, 2017, to line up a time for the meeting after Mr Burnes “gave me your details”.

Responding to the claims for the first time, Mr Burnes told The Australian: “I did not organise any meetings between Russell Carstensen and Joe Hockey. Mr Carstensen’s own email of April 24, 2017, shows that he organised the meeting with Mr Hockey and I was simply CCed on the email.

“Further, Mr Hockey and I did not discuss the meeting in Washington at any time after it took place. DFAT employees were present at all times in that meeting and the meeting was disclosed by Mr Carstensen to the Department of Finance and Administration at the time, as was appropriate and necessary under the contractual arrangements with DOFA.

“I emphatically deny ever having told Mr Carstensen that Mr Hockey ‘owes me’ or any words to that effect. Joe Hockey and I have been close friends for 20 years and it would be ridiculous to suggest I would say or imply he owes me anything.”

Mr Carstensen resigned as group general manager on May 23 last year. It also showed his salary was slashed from $786,841 and set at $450,000 from September 1, 2016, as “part of the review of executive remuneration”.

Hockey with tennis greats Fred Stolle and Rod Laver. Picture: Instagram

Opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman Penny Wong questioned if Mr Hockey helped QBT in early 2017 and in the process created “a commercial opportunity for a company in which he has a financial interest”.

Labor sources claimed a future Shorten government could sack Mr Hockey as ambassador if he is found to have engaged in wrongdoing but Senator Wong did not confirm or deny this last night, telling The Australian appointments were a matter for the government of the day.

“However, today’s estimates hearing has raised serious questions about Mr Hockey’s conduct,” she said.

Former Australian ambassador to the US Dennis Richardson yesterday defended Mr Hockey’s achievements in the role, saying he “was wise enough” to develop links with the Trump campaign and “well plugged in to the administration and to the Congress”.

The government did not call for bidders to provide the Washington DC embassy with a “travel management solution” to assist staff in their travel needs until August 2018 and the winner of the contract has not been announced.

DFAT secretary Frances Adamson said she believed Mr Hockey had done “all that was required” to uphold high standards in his dealings with QBT but wanted the opportunity to hear from him.

Mr Hockey’s meeting with QBT took place on April 26, 2017 but he only officially declared his interest in Helloworld on May 9 of that year.

DFAT chief of people officer Daniel Sloper said Mr Hockey informed him on Wednesday he had verbally told staff of his interest before the meeting and that was conveyed to Canberra.

He stressed the meeting was not about the tender “at all”.

Scott Morrison claimed Labor had kept details of the Hockey-QBT meeting “in their bottom drawer for some time” and accused the opposition of appealing to the “good old Canberra bubble”.

Both Mr Richardson and the executive director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, Peter Jennings, praised Mr Hockey for having the initiative to commemorate the “centenary year of mateship” between Australia and the US marking the 100th anniversary of the first time Australian and US forces fought together at the battle of Hamel in France on July 4 1918.

Mr Jennings told The Australian: “He used that in a very clever way to build a deep base of support for Australia and the alliance in Washington ... The test of that is you’ve never heard Trump be as negative about Australia as he has about Canada or the European allies”.