Sara Hanson- Young loses Immigration portfolio

Sarah is not happy at the loss of this portfolio.

"South Australian Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young has been stripped of the immigration portfolio, in a major internal reshuffle.

"I fought hard to keep the immigration portfolio, but ultimately it was a decision of the leader of the party," Senator Hanson-Young said in a statement after The Greens meeting in Melbourne.

Tasmanian Senator Nick McKim is the new immigration spokesman. He described it as a "massive honour" to take on the portfolio held by Senator Hanson-Young for nine years.

Under the reshuffle she will instead take on the broad-ranging education portfolio, along with finance and trade, water, arts and youth portfolios."

4 comments

 

Good move

cant have tree huggers in charge of immigration

recipe for disaster

I'm guessing you would call all Green tree-huggers. (Please tell me if I'm guessing wrong.)

That makes it hard for them to have an immigration spokesman at all by your rules.

 

Why are you people caring about who has which portfolios in the Greens?

Is this an acknowledgement that the Greens are now a major political force? And you're worried about them?

And why are we only looking at Hanson-Young? (With a tiny side mention of Nick McKim.)

Who has the other portfolios?

Poor teardrops might have to cancel her Taxpayer funded trips abroad.

Abby, she is no different to Bronwyn Bishop but we never heard much about this.

"Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young has to repay $15,186 to taxpayers — almost twice the debt she was originally thought to have — after blowing her electorate staff travel budget.

The Australian revealed in December that Senator Hanson-Young had the largest debt of any MP or senator, at that point $8686.34 owed to the Department of Finance, and had negotiated a rare payment plan.

But documents released late yesterday under Freedom of Information laws show the total debt was actually $15,186.34. It relates to staff travel in 2013-14 — which for Senator Hanson-Young was also an election year — when her office had a $49,549.80 budget but exceeded it by about 30 per cent.

The South Australian senator, who holds three portfolios for the Greens, has previously come under scrutiny for the use of charter flights and overseas trips to environmental meetings and refugee camps.

Senator Hanson-Young has declined to explain why her electorate staff travel budget blew out by almost a third.

While the department sent Senator Hanson-Young an invoice for the total amount outstanding on April 8 last year, requiring her to pay within 30 days, within three weeks she had convinced the department to agree to a $1300-a-month payment plan. It was initially due to begin on April 30 last year but the difference between the total amount originally owing and the $8686.34 still owed at December 15 equates to five repayments of $1300. A department spokeswoman declined to comment on the case.

Senators have a base salary of $195,130 and at least four staff who are allowed to accompany them anywhere in Australia on official business. They also have electorate resources, which for Senator Hanson-Young relates to her principal office in Adelaide.

The documents suggest the bulk of the overspend related to taxi fares, through Cabcharge payments, but there were also payments through the government travel provider FCm Travel Solutions.

In August, after a furore over then Speaker Bronwyn Bishop’s use of taxpayer-funded helicopter charters for Liberal fundraisers, the government announced a review of the entitlements system.

The review committee, headed by former department secretary David Tune, is due to report to the government within months."

Well, she IS different from Bronwyn Bishop. Bishop spent it all on herself.

Still doesn't sound good though.

Pepe

There is a difference Browyn Bishop lost her job over a much smaller amount compared to Hanson-Young who receives a salary from the Taxpayer ????

In my opinion Hanson-Young stole from the Taxpayer and should be charged accordingly.

 

Come off the grass.

Bronny's helicopter flight was just the straw that broke the camel's back. She had been ripping off the system for years, and still doesn't believe there was anything wrong with what she had been doing.

I'm not excusing Hanson-Young, but trying to excuse Bishop is just not on.

 

Abby, Sarah was a good spender as was Ludlam it would appear.

"HIGH-profile Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young has claimed 

HIGH-profile Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young has claimed almost $1 million on travel entitlements, with trips including visits to refugee camps and environmental meetings.

The Daily Telegraph can reveal Ms Hanson-Young’s bill for charter flights and overseas study tours amounts to more than $85,000.

And her party has racked up almost $245,000 on its MPs’ charter travel claims.

According to Department of Finance documents, between her entry into parliament in mid-2008 and December last year, Senator Hanson-Young claimed almost $970,000 on travel entitlements. These included domestic fares, travelling allowance, family travel costs, car costs, charter and overseas expense claims.

Senator Hanson-Young and Greens deputy leader Scott Ludlam — based in Adelaide and Perth respectively — each claimed more charter travel than former leader Christine Milne.

Senator Ludlam’s claims, totalling more than $66,000, doubled Ms Milne’s claims made between 2008 and 2014.

Greens leader Senator Richard Di Natale defended his party members’ use of charter flights.

Under entitlement guidelines, senators can use charter flights to attend photo opportunities and community rallies within their “statewide electorates”.

The Daily Telegraph can reveal Ms Hanson-Young’s bill for charter flights and overseas study tours amounts to more than $85,000.

And her party has racked up almost $245,000 on its MPs’ charter travel claims.

According to Department of Finance documents, between her entry into parliament in mid-2008 and December last year, Senator Hanson-Young claimed almost $970,000 on travel entitlements. These included domestic fares, travelling allowance, family travel costs, car costs, charter and overseas expense claims.

Senator Hanson-Young and Greens deputy leader Scott Ludlam — based in Adelaide and Perth respectively — each claimed more charter travel than former leader Christine Milne.

Senator Ludlam’s claims, totalling more than $66,000, doubled Ms Milne’s claims made between 2008 and 2014.

Greens leader Senator Richard Di Natale defended his party members’ use of charter flights.

Under entitlement guidelines, senators can use charter flights to attend photo opportunities and community rallies within their “statewide electorates”.

 

Pepe, are you going to list sepnding by other MPs as well?

A comparison with members from other parties would be good. And some more detail than just numbers, so we can decide whether the spending was justified for ourselves.

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