Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

And it is, of course, very important, which is why I made the statement to put into context what I knew when. Going back to where I was:

… when seeking to put in place this payment, further information came to light—namely, that the bank account to receive the rental payments was an account linked to then Senator Day—

That is what I said earlier today—

Given this, a conscious decision was made that the Commonwealth would not pay rent to the owners of the 77 Fullarton Road property in the circumstances, neither by way of reimbursement for the period from 1 July 2015 nor prospectively from 1 March 2016. In fact, at no stage during then Senator Day's occupation of the 77 Fullarton Road property as his electorate office did the Commonwealth pay any rent for those electoral office premises. I understood at the time that the non-payment of rent meant that any potential breach of section 44 of the Constitution had been avoided. Indeed, at no point did I receive any advice from the Department of Finance that the lease signed on 1 December 2015 in itself—

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