Zoe Daniel, an independent MP who went to Canberra promising to help clean up politics, has been referred to the Federal anti-corruption commission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Former Liberal MP and NSW party president Jason Falinski on Tuesday formally asked the National Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate the inner-city Melbourne politician for lobbying on behalf of one of her financial supporters, wealthy renewables campaigner Simon Holmes \u00e0 Court, to keep him out of the press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Staff working for the Goldstein MP requested The Australian Financial Review remove Mr Holmes \u00e0 Court from the \u201ccovert\u201d section of an annual list of influential Australians, according to Mr Falinski\u2019s letter, which was based on the newspaper\u2019s own coverage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf this reporting is accurate, then there has been a misuse of taxpayer-funded resources, specifically involving Ms Daniel\u2019s staff, who are alleged to have been engaged in lobbying efforts on behalf of her donors,\u201d the letter to Commissioner Paul Brereton said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The complaint illustrates how the commission can be used by politicians to attack each other \u2014 one of the main concerns raised by sceptics before it was created by the Federal Labor Government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ms Daniel\u2019s spokesman said the MP hadn\u2019t heard about the complaint and would wait for any notification from the commission or Mr Falinski before responding publicly. Liberal Tim Wilson, who she beat by 3 per cent last election, is running against her again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mr Falinski\u2019s letter quoted an AFR article, which said that another independent MP, Allegra Spender, had also lobbied on behalf of Mr Holmes \u00e0 Court, who established Climate 200, a fundraising company that was the driving financial force behind the election of five teal independents at the 2022 Federal poll.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAbout two weeks after The Australian Financial Review Magazine\u2019s Power list panel met to finalise the 2024 lists, teal independent Allegra Spender walked into the paper\u2019s Canberra bureau seeking a favour,\u201d the article said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Nightly<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The complaint illustrates how the commission can be used by politicians to attack each other \u2014 one of the main concerns raised by sceptics before it was created by the Federal Labor Government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":136855,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[273,999,471],"tags":[5982,13745,13744],"class_list":["post-136854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australia","category-australia-politics","category-news","tag-canberra","tag-nacc","tag-the-nightly"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t