from Nocookies
Senate Estimates: $1000 fine for James Ashby if prosecuted over plane donation
James Ashby. Picture: Annette Dew
Pauline Hanson’s chief of staff James Ashby will face a maximum penalty of just $1000 if a prosecution being pursued by the Commonwealth Department of Public Prosecutions over his failure to disclose the donation of a plane worth almost $100,000 succeeds.
During a Senate Estimates hearing on Tuesday night, the Australian Electoral Commission confirmed it had referred the prosecution of a company owned by Mr Ashby to the CDPP.
The prosecution relates to One Nation’s use of a light plane during the 2016 election campaign, and was first revealed in The Australianin August.
Asked by Queensland Labor senator Murray Watt what penalty Mr Ashby would face if ultimately prosecuted, AEC chief legal office Paul Pirani said: “It is a small penalty, Senator,” conceding the maximum fine was just $1000.
Australian Electoral Commissioner Tom Rogers confirmed that Victorian property developer Bill McNee’s company VicLand had amended its disclosure to the AEC to the tune of more than $155,000 to account for the cost of the plane, and two payments it made in rent for the party’s office.
One Nation itself has also lodged an amended return for $30,375, which included a calculation of the cost of hiring the Jabiru J230 plane which featured the party’s logo.
Senator Hanson initially said the plane belonged to One Nation, but Mr Ashby later said he had bought it for his own business purposes.
The two-seater plane is currently registered in Mr Ashby’s name.
The AEC investigation was launched in March last year after questions were raised about whether it may have been donated by Mr McNee, who at the time denied that was the case.
Mr Rogers said the AEC had “finished substantially” its work on the long-running investigation, having achieved several outcomes.
“The first of those is that there have been a number of amendments to various donor returns and to One Nation’s party return that disclosed additional donations, so there’s been a donation disclosure amendment by One Nation and by VicLand and by James Ashby, and those disclosures are as a result of the work of the AEC in working with those individuals,” Mr Rogers said.
“At the same time … the CDPP has commenced prosecution of Black Bull Proprietary Limited, a company related to Mr Ashby, as I understand it … as a result of a referral from the AEC to the CDPP.”
Mr Rogers said VicLand had lodged an amended organisation donor return for 2014-15 in relation to two donations made to Pauline Hanson’s One Nation totalling $57,720.
“What I have in front of me is that amended return is rent paid by VicLand for the party’s office,” Mr Rogers said.
Mr Pirani confirmed that on March 15 2018 One Nation had lodged an amended return for the gift in kind of $30,375 which included a calculation on the dry hire rate for a Jabiru aircraft.
“Then on 25 May 2018 VicLand lodged an amended organisation donor return for the 15-16 financial year in relation to the amount of $98,175, which is approximately the cost of the Jabiru aircraft,” Mr Pirani said.