'Hockey owes me', Helloworld chief tells his executive as embassy meeting arranged
Liberal Party fundraising chief Andrew Burnes told an executive of his company, Helloworld, that he was able to arrange a meeting with Australian ambassador to the US Joe Hockey on very short notice because, "Hockey owes me."
The bombshell allegation by former Helloworld executive Russell Carstensen was tabled at a Senate estimates hearing on Thursday afternoon. It increases the pressure on Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who denied in question time on Wednesday that Mr Hockey instructed embassy staff to meet Mr Carstensen.
In his statement, Mr Carstensen said Mr Burnes had passed on Mr Hockey's complaints about the way his travel in the United States was being arranged.
"Around the date of the 23rd of April 2017, I was in Europe on personal leave and some business and was planning to fly directly home to Melbourne when I was contacted by Mr Burnes via email/SMS and voice call to tell me he had arranged a meeting with Mr Hockey, and I had to fly home via Washington to meet with him," his statement says.
"I asked Mr Burnes how could this be done so quickly, he verbally advised me, 'Hockey owes me'.
"I found that 'owes me' comment strange in the circumstances but it's not an unusual term from Mr Burnes when talking about his business relationships. I knew Mr Burnes and Mrs Burnes had a long term friendship with Mr Hockey and his family."
Mr Hockey was a shareholder in Helloworld, which holds the Whole of Australian Government (WoAG) accommodation and travel contract, at the time of the April, 2017 Washington meeting. He has since increased his stake in Helloworld to be listed among its top 20 shareholders in 2017 and 2018.
Mr Hockey has said that he has declared all conflicts of interest in relation to Helloworld and played no role in the subsequent tender process run by DFAT for provision of travel services to the Washington embassy.
Helloworld on Wednesday told the ASX that Mr Burnes did not request the meeting.
In his statement, Mr Carstensen said he emailed Mr Hockey direct to arrange the meeting and was contacted by Mr Hockey's assistant to organise details.
"Ambassador Hockey, a Mr McPhillips and a Mr Richards were in attendance. We spoke for about an hour and was (sic) provided with Mr Hockey's travel frustrations, which I totally understood. After the meeting I left without any further communication until I returned to Australia and debriefed Mr Burnes on the meeting.
"On my return I emailed Mr Hockey directly to his embassy email address and gave him the corporate travel options in detail. I assume these details could have been used as a basis of the tender requirements if a tender came up.
"I sent a copy of that email to Mr Burnes. I also advised WoAG Travel [operating within the Finance Department] I met Mr Hockey. The feedback from the WoAG Travel team was that they were uncomfortable with the meeting.
"I decided then that I would not follow up with Mr Hockey. I was advised later in a conversation that ‘people’ in DFAT were uncomfortable that Mr Hockey met me and that he was a shareholder of Helloworld. If I remember correctly I did not know at the time of the meeting in Washington that he was a shareholder."
Helloworld first made headlines this week when The Age and Sydney Morning Herald revealed Finance Minister Mathias Cormann had not paid for a $2700 Singapore family trip in 2017 booked for him by Mr Burnes.
Senator Cormman said he provided his credit card to Mr Burnes but did not check to see it had been charged. He repaid the costs this week.
More to come