THE Information Commissioner has thwarted a bid by Julia Gillard to prevent the release of four confidential documents about whether she breached rules on taxpayer-funded parliamentary entitlements with the use of a car...
The documents, held by the Department of Finance, were sought by The Australian last October under the Freedom of Information Act, after a source described the use of Ms Gillard’s private-plated, taxpayer-funded car in 2006 and 2007 when her partner, Tim Mathieson, was a promoter of hair products in Victoria.
The car was involved in minor accidents, which became the subject of insurance claims for repairs. Ms Gillard was the deputy leader of the opposition at the time…
“The central facts disclosed in the documents are that there may have been an incident of non-compliance with government guidelines on parliamentary entitlements; that (her) office identified this non-compliance; and that (Ms Gillard) took steps to remedy the possible non-compliance,” [the Information Commissioner] said…
The documents will remain unavailable for a further four weeks to give Ms Gillard time to decide whether to escalate the matter as a public hearing by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.
