Di Natale Says Those Pesky Reports Of Underpaid Au Pairs Are “Beat-Up”

ICYMI the ramping up of the firing cannons this election yesterday, Greens leader Richard Di Natale – who up until this point had remained largely unscathed – was exposed by The Age for failing to disclose his family farm for a solid 15 months, as well paying three au pairs a mere $150 per week plus room and board.

The paper pointed out that the property mishap potentially placed him in “serious contempt” of the Senate, and made his vocal criticisms of Labor MP David Feeney‘s failure to disclose his $2.3m property hypocritical. (Pots, kettles, etc.)

It also did the math, and worked out that $150 per week amounted to just $3.75 per hour when based on a 40-hour work week.

Di Natale has hit back at both of these allegations, calling them “disappointing” and “wrong” in a lengthy Facebook post this morning.

He writes that he declared his farm “the moment” he took office, and that his au pairs were paid $500 for 25 hours a week (including rent, meals and sundries), after seeking advice from a specialist employment agency.

“What the newspaper did, was fail to take into account accommodation, meals and sundries,” he wrote. “We had a really positive experience with au pairs, and were rigorous in making sure that we did the right thing by them. That’s why this story is so disappointing.”

Although James Massola, the journalist behind the original article, has yet to respond to Di Natale’s post, he did tweet in reply to the Greens leader last night that he was not declared in line with the rules on the ownership of property.



You can read Di Natale’s post in full below:




Photo: Getty / Stephan Postles.

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