Exclusive: James Ashby also drives new Ford Ranger given to party and is main pilot of plane donated by Gina Rinehart, which he says are not for personal use
The company – jointly owned by Ashby, Hanson and the party’s national treasurer, Alexander Jones, gets a shed worth 56k and puts it on his land. Note that it’s “valued at” in the council documents, not “price paid”.
Firstly, it’s a blurring of ownership between a company owned by political leaders and the private holdings of one of them. (Added edit: Any good accountant or solicitor will tell you not to mix business and personal assets. From an accounting perspective it makes things harder come tax time because the tax man thinks you’re shielding personal income/assets via the company. From a legal perspective it exposes your personal assets to risks incurred by the company, and vice-versa. For example, the bank comes around and forecloses on your personal property. What happens to the company’s shed that is on top of it?)
Secondly, the company is described as “non trading” which implies it doesn’t have the resources to get a shed and put it on land that it doesn’t own.
Which leads to the possibility that the shed supplier has given or heavily discounted the price of the shed because it’s going to a company that’s jointly owned by political leaders with a reasonable amount of sway in local electorates. I.E. there’s a bit of expectation that this favour of a cheap shed will be repaid at some stage by those people who also just so happen to be able to use the public purse in their political endeavours.
There is nothing substantial. But all of it stinks of corruption. Add in the “donation” of a car for “work use only”, and Gina’s plane that Ashby flies on a regular basis and you start to wonder if perhaps people are getting personal gains while in office.
Ashby owns a block of land in Yeppoon.
The company – jointly owned by Ashby, Hanson and the party’s national treasurer, Alexander Jones, gets a shed worth 56k and puts it on his land. Note that it’s “valued at” in the council documents, not “price paid”.
Firstly, it’s a blurring of ownership between a company owned by political leaders and the private holdings of one of them. (Added edit: Any good accountant or solicitor will tell you not to mix business and personal assets. From an accounting perspective it makes things harder come tax time because the tax man thinks you’re shielding personal income/assets via the company. From a legal perspective it exposes your personal assets to risks incurred by the company, and vice-versa. For example, the bank comes around and forecloses on your personal property. What happens to the company’s shed that is on top of it?)
Secondly, the company is described as “non trading” which implies it doesn’t have the resources to get a shed and put it on land that it doesn’t own.
Which leads to the possibility that the shed supplier has given or heavily discounted the price of the shed because it’s going to a company that’s jointly owned by political leaders with a reasonable amount of sway in local electorates. I.E. there’s a bit of expectation that this favour of a cheap shed will be repaid at some stage by those people who also just so happen to be able to use the public purse in their political endeavours.
There is nothing substantial. But all of it stinks of corruption. Add in the “donation” of a car for “work use only”, and Gina’s plane that Ashby flies on a regular basis and you start to wonder if perhaps people are getting personal gains while in office.
You can always assume corruption and be right most of the time