Pauline Hanson reveals Gina Rinehart paid for London, Rome and Sicily flights
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Pauline Hanson has updated her parliamentary register of interests, declaring that billionaire Gina Rinehart paid for her flights between London, Rome and Sicily – as well as gifted her an invitation to attend a Dolce & Gabbana fashion parade.
The One Nation leader said she had personally covered the cost of her accommodation, meals and daily expenses during the European trip, which included a stop at the luxury Sicilian resort town of Taormina with Australia’s richest person.
Hanson’s updated disclosure, lodged on Tuesday, came after photographs emerged of her holidaying with Rinehart at the five-star Grand Hotel San Pietro, where the pair were seen by the pool during the mining magnate’s visit for the Italian fashion house’s event.
The images, first reported by The Australian Financial Review, showed Hanson strolling poolside, fully clothed and holding a mobile phone, while Rinehart swam in the resort pool.
Hanson had not publicly disclosed the side trip while speaking at a major conservative conference in London, despite posting on social media during the same period about issues including supermarkets squeezing farmers and foreign ownership of Australian assets.
The One Nation senator spent the parliamentary winter recess touring Britain, where she met with figures from the far right, including recording an interview with anti-Islam activist and convicted criminal Tommy Robinson.
Speaking at a Seven West Media event in Perth last week, Hanson defended her friendship with Rinehart and rejected suggestions taxpayers had funded any part of the trip.
“It didn’t cost the taxpayer one cent for my trip overseas. Not one cent,” Hanson said.
She praised Rinehart’s business success, saying the mining magnate had “done it tough” and built her company from difficult beginnings.
“This is a woman that’s done it tough … and you think that she’s come with a silver spoon? She didn’t,” Hanson said. “She had to borrow everything and was flat out in the very start to pay the bills. She’s built up that company.”
Hanson’s relationship with Rinehart has become an increasingly prominent feature of One Nation’s finances and public profile.
In April, Hanson was gifted a new Cirrus G7 aircraft by a Rinehart company, with the plane valued at about $1.3 million. The donation was followed by $2 million in cash contributions from Rinehart’s business associates, including former Northern Territory chief minister Adam Giles and climate sceptic Ian Plimer.
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Rob Harrisis the national correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age based in Canberra. He is a former Europe correspondent.Connect viaemail.
