Travel firm issue a Labor beat-up: Liberals
Attorney-General Christian Porter has downplayed senior Liberals’ links to a travel company run by the party’s federal treasurer after Labor demanded an investigation.
Australia’s ambassador to the United States Joe Hockey, a former treasurer, reportedly asked embassy staff to meet with Helloworld before it lobbied for government work.
“I think this is an issue that has been trumped and overblown by a Labor Party who has destroyed our border security in the short space of two weeks,” Porter told the ABC today.
Hockey is one of the top 20 shareholders in Helloworld, which is run by Liberal Party treasurer Andrew Burnes.
Labor will reportedly dump Hockey as ambassador if it wins this year’s federal election.
On Tuesday, Finance Minister Mathias Cormann said he “genuinely thought” he had paid for a family holiday booked through Burnes.
Cormann has now paid $2780 for flights to Singapore in January 2018, after it was revealed he got the holiday for free.
Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack dismissed the Helloworld controversy as a “Canberra bubble” issue.
“There are always ups and downs and ebbs and flows with any political week,” he told reporters.
-AAP
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