Stuck in a hole sacked minister Stuart Robert keeps digging

In the overall scheme of things, the $1600 taxpayer-funded trip taken by Stuart Robert, who aspires to serve again as a minister in the Turnbull government, is no big deal. The sum is relatively trivial.

But the circumstances of this trip to a company’s goldmine — and the subsequent fatuous explanation from the member for Fadden after the details inconveniently emerged — are far from trivial. They go to the dumped minister’s integrity and they raise public ire about politicians treating voters like complete mugs.

As the Turnbull government seeks public trust on proposals to cut spending and raise more money from taxpayers, Mr Robert’s sophistry makes the task that little bit harder.

To avoid claims that he wrongfully charged taxpayers for a trip to a mine in which he had recently bought shares (following the lead of his friend, Paul Marks, a major donor to the Liberal and National parties), Mr Robert wants the voters of Fadden, and his government colleagues, to buy a novel explanation.

Mr Robert’s line is that he carved a full day from his diary to travel from the Gold Coast to the north Queensland city of Townsville, then a couple of hundred kilometres southwest deep into mining and moose pasture, because he wanted to try to bend the ear of the then Queensland premier, Campbell Newman, at a mine opening. This, according to Mr Robert, made the long and arduous trip “official business” — and a legitimate claim on the public purse — rather than one in which police might be interested in examining.

It is a line he is sticking with despite internal documents which lend him no support. The premier’s office was told Mr Robert was going in a private capacity. So private, it appears from the leaked documents, that Mr Robert was not to be formally acknowledged in the premier’s official speech as even being there.

Mr Robert’s explanations insult the intelligence of voters. His actions — including his highly controversial trip to China which saw him dumped as a minister, and his subsequent explanations — bring discredit to politics, his colleagues and his party.

It is an absurd notion that he needed to go all the way to north Queensland to talk to Mr Newman when at almost any time they could have met in Brisbane or on the Gold Coast.

Having been caught out, Mr Robert could have owned up and apologised profusely. The $1600 is a trivial amount (which Mr Robert has pledged to repay) but his explanation is as bad as his misjudgment in believing that taxpayers should pick up the tab for a trip to his investment to rub shoulders with a large party donor.