One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has failed to properly declare multiple free flights gifted from mining billionaire Gina Rinehart's agricultural company, S Kidman and Co. The undeclared flights include a trip from Tamworth to Brisbane on 8 December last year, the same day former Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce announced his defection to One Nation.
Hanson updated her register of interests on Tuesday after questions from Guardian Australia, adding the Tamworth-Brisbane flight and two other flights for the News Corp bush summit in August last year: Brisbane to Toowoomba on 24 August and Toowoomba to Canberra the next day. This brings to five the number of private flights from Rinehart's companies that Hanson failed to declare within the required 35-day period under Senate rules.
Flight tracking shows a Pilatus PC-12 registered to Kidman and Co departed Tamworth at 10.30pm on 8 December, landing in Brisbane an hour later. Hanson's office refused to explain the missed disclosure and did not respond to questions. NSW One Nation senator Sean Bell also updated his register to declare he was on that flight.
Hanson has made contradictory statements about Rinehart's support. In February, she denied being funded by Rinehart, but in a podcast the week earlier, she said Rinehart was 'very much behind me' and compared her backing to that of billionaires supporting the left. Guardian Australia previously revealed Hanson failed to declare flights from Rinehart's Hancock Prospecting to Florida, where she stayed at Rinehart's Palm Beach mansion.
