MP SHARE SHAME
SHORTEN SLAMS HENDERSON
AUSTRALIA’S Opposition leader has slammed local Liberal MP Sarah Henderson, questioning her honesty about her shares portfolio.
Almost a full year after claiming she would divest her entire shareholdings, Corangamite MP Sarah Henderson’s Parliamentary Register of Interests shows she still holds shares in at least seven companies.
In October, it was revealed that the Corangamite MP had falsely told Parliament she had sold her shares in gas giant AGL, despite still owning about $10,000 worth of the shares.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten slammed Ms Henderson’s shares shame, after she publicly questioned his support for Labor’s new Corangamite candidate Libby Coker.
“Libby’s a great Labor candidate,” Mr Shorten said. “Sarah Henderson should be worried. She’s supported Turnbull’s cuts to Geelong jobs, his cuts to penalty rates and his cuts to Medicare.”
“She’s constantly backing the millionaires and multinationals not the people of Corangamite.
“The community needs a better voice in Canberra than Sarah Henderson, who can’t even be honest about the shares she owns.”
On Thursday, Ms Henderson would not say what companies she currently holds shares in. When asked why she had not yet divested her portfolio, the MP blamed complications around her deceased mothers’ estate. Ann Henderson died 15 years ago.
“I undertook to review my holdings, which has not been straight forward because it involves my deceased mother’s estate,” Ms Henderson said.
“Any change in my interests will be updated in my Register, as is required, and then placed on the public record.”
Ms Henderson also called Mr Shorten’s founded”.
Ms Henderson’s election rival Libby Coker, a Surf Coast Shire councillor and former mayor, also hit out at Ms Henderson’s shares portfolio oversight this week.
“I do not know how an elected member of parliament can forget she has shares. The people of Corangamite deserve better than Sarah Henderson,” Ms Coker said.
In February the Advertiser revealed Ms Henderson owned shares in pokies company Aristocrat Leisure, despite slamming the “social curse” of gambling in her electorate.
Ms Henderson was also crit- claims “un- icised for owning shares in gas companies despite being a vocal opponent of fracking and coal seam gas exploration in her electorate.
In March, the MP announced she was “in the process of divesting all my shareholdings”, removing shares in 18 companies from her Register of Interests. In October, News Corp investigations found Ms Henderson still owned undeclared shares in AGL, Fairfax, and possibly more companies. The scandal prompted the MP to announce her own audit of her finances.
Months later Ms Henderson still appears to own shares in at least seven companies.