To be honest I find it hard to warm to the man, but I was still very surprised to find that Greens Senator for Victoria Richard Di Natale had not properly declared the property interests of both he and his wife.
Di Natale was elected to the Australian Senate at the 2010 federal election and his term began on 1 July 2011.
On 19 July 2011 Di Natale signed the Statement of Registerable Interests for senators.
In this declaration to parliament he stated that he received income from “Twin Gums” – a small rural property, near Deans Marsh in Victoria .
On 4 August 2014 he again declared income from “Twin Gums” farm.
Senator Di Natale told The Sydney Morning Herald (in a video) in June 2015 that the property was purchased “about ten years ago”.
On 20 May 2016 he was quoted in The Australian as saying that his wife Lucy Quarterman became a full owner of this farm in October 2012.
In The Guardian on the same day it was reported:
A spokesman for Senator Di Natale’s told Fairfax: “the farm was listed as a business interest from the time Richard was elected” and that by declaring income from the farm, he had met the requirements for declaring property in the register of senators’ interests.
This has been a significant misstep and is likely to affect The Greens party image with some voters.
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