Liberal senator Lucy Gichuhi to repay misused funds

A new Liberal senator recruit will fork up thousands of dollars to pay back Australian taxpayers for the misuse of public funds.

AUS ONLY - Senator Lucy Gichuhi at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture Kym Smith

A new Liberal senator recruit will fork up thousands of dollars to pay back Australian taxpayers for the misuse of public funds.

The Daily Telegraph reported on Sunday that Senator Lucy Gichuhi, who joined the Liberals in February, billed taxpayers to fly two family members to Adelaide for her 50th birthday.

Regarding the media reports about my travel expenses, this was an administrative error involving misunderstanding of travel rules.

I’ve raised an invoice from the department to pay the costs of $2139 in full.

— Lucy Gichuhi (@senatorlucy) June 17, 2018

“This was an administrative error involving misunderstanding of travel rules,” Senator Gichuhi tweeted on Sunday.

“I’ve raised an invoice from the department to pay the costs of $2139 in full.”

A review of the parliamentary expenses system recommended family travel be permitted, but not as an indulgence.

It followed the “Choppergate” scandal that forced the exit of then Speaker Bronwyn Bishop.

“The family reunion travel entitlement is provided to allow senators and members to balance their work and family responsibilities, and to reconcile the need for them to be away from home for long periods with their family obligations,” parliamentary travel rules say.

“The entitlement is not ­intended to provide a general travel entitlement for a senator or member’s spouse or nominee, dependent children or designated persons.”

Senator Gichuhi this month moved to kill off speculation she remained a dual citizen following leaked legal advice suggesting the independent-cum-Liberal senator may not have completed all steps required to relinquish her Kenyan citizenship.

Advice from University of Nairobi professor Edwin Abuya said Senator Gichuhi should have written to Kenya’s nationality affairs minister to renounce her Kenyan citizenship, but in a statement Senator Gichuhi highlighted a series of “definitive statements” she said proved she was solely an Australian citizen.

This included an April 2017 statement from the Kenyan High Commission: “Mrs Gichuhi was then informed that since she had not applied for dual citizenship following the promulgation of a new Kenyan Constitution in 2010, we did not recognise her as a Kenyan citizen.”

The South Australian senator, who replaced Bob Day in early 2017 and joined the Liberals in February this year, said that advice was supported by Kenyan constitutional law expert Professor Yash Pal Ghai and High Court Justice Geoffrey Nettle.

The Australian/AAP