By Jolene Ogle
LOCAL media are the latest victim of Greens candidate Joe Shlegeris who has slammed Noosa Today for giving Member for Noosa Glen Elmes “free advertising”.
Today (Friday 9 December), Mr Shlegeris arrived at the Noosa Today office with a giant cheque to highlight the inclusion of photos of Mr Elmes in the paper when he has donated funds to local charities.
Mr Shlegeris said it needed to be made clear whether the donations from Mr Elmes were paid for out of a “vote-buying slush fund” or his personal bank account.
“Both sides of politics like (slush funds) because if (Mr Elmes) gives $500 to a local charity he gets his photo in the paper and his name and $2000 worth of advertising space in the paper for $500 worth of taxpayers’ money,” he said.
“That is what it is. I don’t think it’s proper but both sides of politics go with that.”
Mr Shlegeris said he didn’t think the public was easily misled but a photo of Mr Elmes with a donation cheque was often reported as “he gave the money”.
“That’s just not the truth of the matter. Maybe he does sometimes make personal contributions but I think it’s incumbent upon you (the media) to ask,” he said.
Mr Shlegeris said he also held concerns for what the cost was of donating money, saying it could cost more than the donated amount to process the donation.
“It costs more than the nominal amount to give that money. It’s an account of taxpayers’ funds that has to be carefully treated so someone has to approve it, someone has to account for it, someone has to acquit it, someone has to audit it,” he said.
“So the cost to the taxpayer of giving $500 to a worthy charity is way, way more than $500.”
Mr Shlegeris said “everything would be different” if he was elected to represent Noosa in the State Government.
He said he would undertake a full, public accounting of the discretionary account and he would also take only a $100,000 salary, as most MPs are “grotesquely overpaid”, and return the remainder to the community.
Mr Elmes said State MPs were given a small amount of discretionary funds to run their office and the funds could also be used to support local charities. Mr Elmes said transferring the money was simple and not expensive.
“We just electronically transfer the money,” he said. “That’s that, job’s done. There’s no middle man, no cost involved, nothing like that. The funds go straight from my account to theirs. So if the donation is $100, they get $100 and it doesn’t cost more to send.”
Mr Elmes said the money donated to charity and given to local groups as support comes from the same account used to run his Noosaville office, so there is no extra cost in monitoring the account.
“We get an allowance which is used to run the office and I have to abide by very strict set of rules in terms on what I spend and what I spend it on,” he said.
“We have to record every transaction and it is audited each year. So there is no loose money lying around. “Everything is closely monitored and watched by the clerk of parliament who answers to parliament.
“If I was allocating money in a way that wasn’t in line with the very, very strict guidelines I’d get rap over the knuckles and would have to pay it back.”
