Assistant Treasurer Stuart Robert has paid back an eye-watering $37,975 worth of home internet bills that he previously had been claiming as part of his parliamentary expenses. That is, by my estimate, an insane number of hours put into Fortnite.
https://twitter.com/stuartrobertmp/status/1050596931108364290?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1050596931108364290&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.goldcoastbulletin.com.au%2Fnews%2Fgold-coast-politics-assistant-treasurer-stuart-robert-pays-back-nearly-38000-home-internet-bill%2Fnews-story%2F210f3cd0a9f16c6bf224e72ee4b17b35
News emerged earlier in the week that Robert’s home internet bill was in the region of $20,000 – charging roughly $1000 a month since 2016. His defence was that he had to resort to using 4G because the connection at his Nerang home was so poor. Obviously, even if that were true, that’s a lot of usage.
The MP’s tweeted statement confirms that the usage – at nearly $38,000 – is almost twice as much as was earlier reported. That’s a lot of internet, folks.
Special Minister of State Alex Hawke also issued a statement, confirming that Robert paid the money back voluntarily, and that a Department of Finance investigation had determined that “very high excess internet charges” had rightfully “caused concern.”
Special Minister of State @AlexHawkeMP statement on matters relating to @stuartrobertmp and his home internet connection #auspol pic.twitter.com/D8psU1e5qb
— Political Alert (@political_alert) October 12, 2018
There’s a lesson in this for all of us: if you get on 4G you can bloody rack up those charges like no one’s business. And if you’re charging the taxpayer for those charges, you’ll probably end up in the newspaper! You don’t want that.
