John Alexander’s failure to declare rental income ‘contempt’: Credlin

Peta Credlin says John Alexander “should know the rules by now” and should have declared his rental income.

John Alexander, left, with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. Picture: John Feder.

Former chief of staff to Tony Abbott, Peta Credlin, says Liberal Bennelong candidate John Alexander has breached parliamentary guidelines and exposed himself to potential contempt in failing to declare rental income from a lavish $4.8m country estate.

While Mr Alexander declared his May acquisition of the NSW Southern Highlands property, he did not declare the rental income on the parliamentary register of members’ interests.

The property has been advertised for rent online at $1440 a day.

Mr Alexander has indicated that he does not believe he was obliged to disclose the income but Ms Credlin, who is now a Sky News commentator, said he was “wrong”.

“It also requires substantial income to be listed,” she told Sky News.

“Now if a property he has for rent at $1400 a day could potentially earn him $500,000 a year, in anyone’s book that’s substantial income, particularly when his salary as a backbencher is in the order of $200,000, so it’s double his salary plus some change, so it should be there.”

Ms Credlin said that when she was former prime minister Tony Abbott’s chief of staff, Mr Abbott used to declare $2000-$3000 her received annually in royalties from books he had previously written.

“Income as an author was always disclosed,” she said.

“That income Tony Abbott disclosed was made by, or could be made by John Alexander’s rental property in two days, so I think it’s a breach, out and out, no bones about it.

“I think the Prime Minister’s comment, ‘well others have done it too’ may well be accurate, I have no doubt, I’ll go back and look at some others, but it doesn’t make it any better for John Alexander, and the penalty for a breach requires a test of knowingly withholding information.

“Now I don’t know whether he knowingly withheld it or not, but if he did knowingly withhold that information and (didn’t) properly fill out the form, that is contempt.

“That’s the actual charge, it’s contempt. I’m not saying it’s contemptible. It’s contempt.”

Ms Credlin said there was nothing complicated about the register of members’ interests form, which had been the same since 1984.

“If you don’t know the rules by now John Alexander, you’ve been in the parliament for seven years, you’ve got to get it right. I actually don’t think it is rocket science,” she said.

“I do not think it is difficult to fill in. The test for members of parliament is a lot less than the test for ministers.

“I was involved in administering the scheme for ministers. It’s much more intrusive, much more detailed financial information is required.

Peta Credlin.

“This is not difficult, and quite frankly I’m sick to death of excuse after excuse and blame-shifting and trying to hide behind a Labor person or a Liberal person who has similarly not done the right thing.

“This is not hard and people expect them to do better than they are currently doing. You’ve got to wonder how these guys even pay their taxes, whether they do their tax paperwork, whether they can apply for a drivers licence. For goodness sake, this is not hard.”

Ms Credlin tipped Mr Alexander to win narrowly tomorrow with an eight per cent swing against him, meaning the two-party preferred vote would be 52-48 to the Liberals.

Mr Alexander earlier said he had “complied entirely” in declaring the property.

“I complied entirely with the demands,” he told Sky News.

“We talked to the Clerk of the House in filling out the form to confirm that we did it 100 per cent correctly.

“As with shares, you have to declare that you have BHP shares. You don’t have to say how many you bought or whether you’ve been receiving a dividend. It’s exactly the same with a property.

“I have an interest in a property. You don’t have to declare the income.”

Ms Keneally said she would leave it to Mr Alexander to answer questions on the property.

“We know that Mr Alexander isn’t very good his with paperwork but it’s up to him to

explain that,” she said.