Minister's $60k overpayment a shocking look for Labor
Most people would notice if they were burdened with an extra $60 grand in their pay packets over a couple of years.
Especially so, you’d think, if you were the bloke in charge of finance for a $69 billion operation.
So it was a surprise on Tuesday to find that Victorian Assistant Treasurer Robin Scott had managed to be overpaid by $63,161 between November 2014, when he scored his job as Finance Minister, and September 2016 when the error was identified and be blissfully ignorant of the fact.
Oh well, we all make mistakes. Scott hadn’t actually claimed the money, so has not been found to have done anything wrong.
Somebody in the Department of Parliamentary Services, which is responsible for these matters, just decided to top up Robin’s wages with a second residence allowance.
Parliamentary Services is probably getting a surge of job applications on the back of Tuesday’s news, as Scott, regarded as one of state cabinet's brighter sparks, maintained his usual under-the-radar profile.
Robin’s overpayment, being three years old and all, is not likely to be the political scandal of 2019 but the revelation comes on the heels of news that Treasurer Tim Pallas owned shares in Transurban, the toll road giant set to make a motza from infrastructure deals negotiated with ... yes, the very same Tim Pallas.
Pallas hadn’t broken any rules either but the point was made at the time, quite reasonably, that it wouldn’t have killed Tim to keep an eye on what companies’ stock was in his share portfolio, maybe putting a line through the more politically awkward ones.
So it's been an embarrassing few weeks for Andrews’ government money men which should be taken as a cheap warning not to let complacency creep into your second-term effort.
But how different this could have been if Scott’s overpayment had come to light two years earlier when the Labor government was engulfed in scandal arising from two blokes actually rorting that second residence allowance.
With the heat well-and-truly on Daniel Andrews’ first-term government over the activities of Telmo Languiller and Don Nardella in early 2017, Scott would have had to have been investigated thoroughly, at the least, and maybe even cut loose if things got too hairy, innocent mistake or not.
As it stands, the matter didn’t come to light until three years after the money had been paid back. Lucky, that, because it takes a lot of sting out of it.
Does not look good though.