The Finance Minister Forgot Someone Else Paid For His Family’s Holiday, As You Do

I am the first to admit that I don’t keep track of my finances as well as I should. Because of this, I have chosen to embark on a career that does not actually require me to do so that often. But the same cannot be said of Finance Minister Mathias Cormann, who has just admitted he went on an entire overseas holiday with his family, and never noticed that someone else had paid for the flights.

Cormann today told the Nine newspapers he had “no idea” that $2780.82 worth of flights for a family trip to Singapore in January 2018 had been paid for by Helloworld Travel, just weeks after the company successfully bid for part of a $300 million contract from Cormann’s department.

Following enquiries from the media, Cormann has now repaid the cost of the flights, saying he didn’t realise his credit card had never been charged for them.

The CEO of Helloworld, Andrew Burns, is also Treasurer of the Liberal Party. Cormann admitted in Senate Estimates today that he will often directly contact Burnes, who he has a “close personal relationship” with, to book his travel arrangements.

In a statement, Cormann blamed an “administrative error” for the payments.

“At no point, until approached by the media yesterday, did I receive any reminders that the payment due remained outstanding, even though I now understand it appeared as outstanding and unresolved on the internal Helloworld system since that time,” he said.

“The payment was processed immediately once it became apparent to me that it remained outstanding.”

Mathias Cormann also denied any link between the free flights and the Finance Department’s decision to award the $300 million tender to Helloworld.

Just rang Helloworld to book a couple of flights and they insisted on payment up front even though I spoke in my best Belgian accent.

— Jack the Insider (@JacktheInsider) February 19, 2019

“I can confirm that I had absolutely no involvement in either the selection of the preferred tenderer or the awarding of the contract,” he said. “At no point did I influence or seek to influence the outcome of that tender process.”

In a letter to Cormann today, Helloworld CFO Michael Burnett said the failure to process the payment for the flights was “regrettable”.

“The flights were never free and they were never intended to be free,” he said. “Because we held your credit cards at the time of booking, payment reminders were not sent to you, even though the amount remained listed as outstanding on our internal system.”

Mathias Cormann “Assumed” Payment Was Finalised

Under questioning today, Cormann admitted he should have been more on top of his personal expenses.

“I know that the question is going to be asked: didn’t you keep an eye on your credit card?”

“I should have, is the truthful answer, but what I would offer by way of explanation, if not by way of an excuses that with the extensive travel that I do undertake on a weekly basis, there’s a lot of travel-related expenditure that goes through my credit card and having made the booking, having given and having provided the credit card details and given the instruction for the payment to be deducted, I assumed that that had happened.”

Q: Was there any indication that the travel, ultimately charged to you, was provided at a discount? Cormann: "No, absolutely not". Q: So no special deal from a special friend on speed dial? Cormann: "No, no, definitely not" #auspol

— Katharine Murphy (@murpharoo) February 19, 2019

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has also defended Cormann.

“He had nothing to do with the issuing with the contract, that had been issued prior and ministers are not involved with those decisions, there is a big separation administratively, the suggestion the two are linked would be complete rubbish,” Morrison said in a radio interview this morning. “There was an oversight which has been identified and he has fixed it up. I mean, what more can he do?

So there you go. Let those among us who have never failed to realise when someone else pays for our family’s international flights cast the first stone.