Opposition Leader Selena Uibo was forced on Friday to admit abusing the taxpayer-funded government white car chauffeur service for personal use following an FOI application filed by the ABC, saying she will now pay back the money, which the NT Independent understands was used for transport to dinners in Darwin, a birthday celebration earlier this year and other personal events.
Ms Uibo called a press conference on Friday morning to front-foot the scandal before the ABC could report it, apologising to Territorians for her misuse of the car service, pledging to repay the money and insisting she would not resign and that her leadership position was not in question.
Her personal use of chauffeured cars included trips for dinner at Moorish in Darwin, a 40th birthday party celebration and a medical appointment, Ms Uibo confirmed, as well as transport from the Darwin airport. It is further understood that another private trip involved travel to Darwin Mexican eatery Prickles.
While she is in the process of repaying taxpayers, Ms Uibo said her deputy leader Dheran Young and caucus member Chansey Paech will not reimburse taxpayers for their private interstate holidays in 2023 at the expense of taxpayer-funded fuel cards.
Ms Uibo said she acknowledged that her misuse of the government cars was a “mistake” and involved numerous “poor decisions”.
“Whilst I have made arrangements to repay the cost in full, I know that I cannot undo my mistakes,” she said. “There is no excuse for my actions. I accept they were inappropriate and they should not have occurred and I take full responsibility.”
She added she had met with her caucus team to discuss the breaches and that they supported her staying on as leader.
“My leadership is solid but to remove any doubt, we have agreed that for the remainder of the parliamentary term (until August 2028), I will no longer access the white car service in my role as the Opposition Leader,” she said.
Asked later how that would work given she would need to get around Darwin for official duties during parliamentary sittings, Ms Uibo told the NT Independent she would use other resources but the details had not been worked out yet.
Ms Uibo said that after the ABC’s FOI was filed, she had reviewed all of her travel since becoming Opposition Leader last August and seen that she had “blurred the lines between professional and personal use”. She did not mention her time as a minister in the Labor government that included access to the taxpayer-funded chauffeur service.
The car service is provided for ministers, the Speaker and the Opposition Leader for official duties.
One of Ms Uibo’s personal trips in the last 12 months included a 9pm run to Moorish following parliamentary sittings in March that saw her eat her meal inside the restaurant while the car and driver waited to take her to her Darwin accommodation.
Ms Uibo said that was her 40th birthday, but when asked by the NT Independent about another trip involving a birthday celebration days later, she admitted to using the car service for that as well, even though the white cars were unavailable that day, forcing the government to pay for a private hire car service to transport her.
“On March 28, I did have a birthday dinner post-parliament and the trip was outsourced to a private hire car company,” she said.
“I requested the invoice back in April. On reflection, I could have looked at that earlier.”
She said she paid that invoice in April, which was for $160. She said the total cost of her personal use of the car service over the last 12 months was $655.
Ms Uibo added on other occasions she used the car service for medical appointments in Darwin and transport from the airport.
“The caucus was very supportive of me,” she said. “We want to accept responsibility if we make a mistake.”
However, asked if Mr Paech and Mr Young would now repay taxpayers for the thousands of dollars they charged on government fuel cards back in 2022 to go on separate interstate Christmas holidays, Ms Uibo said she was only focused on her own actions today.
“At the time [of their holidays], it was in the [remuneration] rules, before the rules were tightened,” she said. “There’s grater clarity around that now and the use of those fuel cards.”
The NT Independent revealed that in late 2022, then-speaker and Labor MLA Mark Monaghan altered the rules around politicians’ entitlements to permit Mr Paech and Mr Young to use their government fuel cards for thousands of dollars in personal travel interstate.
The Remuneration Tribunal, that sets the rules around entitlements, later overruled Mr Monaghan and ordered that MLAs cannot use their government cars for private interstate travel. But the two Labor politicians have continued to refuse to pay back the money.
Acting Chief Minister Gerard Maley did not respond to a request for comment on Ms Uibo’s admission of misusing the car service.
When will this substandard Northern Territory jurisdiction grow up and become a mature professional adult jurisdiction where NT politicians and NT public service bureaucrats actually respect tax payer funded dollars for a change?
Lucio, you already know the answer to this question.
The CLPALP Alliance is going great guns. Full steam ahead.
Both parties are giving you and the rest of us the middle finger to your concerned handwringing.
To Change the Territory political landscape, For Better, we need trustworthy people with a track record of honesty, integrity and fighting in Court for transparency and accountability.
Changeforbetter.party has the very people we need. People who have already taken on these rotten systems and their rotten people in Court, and many times beat them.
They are the only group openly advocating for the fundamental Change in the System that would stop all this rorting and complicity.
Everyone else is silent because they love and profit from the Status Quo.
But you know that already. 🙂
When a child makes bad choices and steals from someone else, the child must not only return what they have stolen, they must also face a punishment to deter them from making those bad decisions again in the future.
Given Selena is still making childish bad choices as an adult, it shows that she has never been punished for her bad choices and is still not being punished for her bad choices, therefore I conclude that she will never learn and will continue to make bad choices.
The same goes for the rest of the political mob who continue to make bad choices as adults and who steal from other people, taxpayers currently but who knows who else they will steal from in the future.
Just another day at the office in the NTG, no wonder the public servants are fiddling the till.
In the past this would have resulted in the offender get the boot.
How things have changed for the worst.
As we keep saying: CLP is ALP is CLP is ALP.
None of them really understand what ethics and morals actually are. It’s too late to teach them.
They keep doing it and keep laughing at us because we keep voting them in, hoping it will Change. But it never does.
Same thieving shitshow, different coloured letterhead.
The CLPALP Alliance has learned that you can do these things, lie about them, get caught, lie again, say sorry (sometimes) then back to business as usual. Rinse and repeat.
They will never change. As they ALLiance continue to show us, time and time and time again.
The only way to stop this never ending corruption and lies and secrecy and crooked cronyism is to vote in a new Party.
https://changeforbetter.party
One who will have the electoral power to unseat these imposters and put them ALLiance in the Corrupt Bin for good.
We must vote for Change, For Better politicians and Better behaviour while in office.
Asking snakes to stop being snakes is never going to work.
One can see vividly in the NT, why neither political party seriously supports the existence of an anti- corruption body.
Good morning all,
Well what can l say, just more of the same old, same old learned corruption exercised by NT political parties . Given the NT people have accepted they are governed by a duopoly, ALPCLP, is it not reasonable to expect the CM to state “ l have complete faith in support of Selena Uibo!” just as she has done with “ Boothby!
Did anyone else spike to the fact that it appears to me that a government employee has possibly breached the code of conduct and very essence of privacy by leaking details to Labor that an FOI had been requested!
The ABC left reeling with Uibo coming out first!
They are all a disgrace and at the next election l have faith that we Territorians will flush this ALPCLP back to a place whereupon manners, morality and compliance are taught, not to mention basic respect!
It’s not like this was an oversight or done accidently. It was purposely done and repeatedly. I hope getting caught and having to pay it back is enough of a deterrrant for others.
The moral principle involved is a salient issue in the US at the moment and, like everything else American, infects us here sooner or later. Evidently ‘sooner’.
Shoplifters in America now steal with impunity but, when caught, pay for the goods stolen and get to keep them. This prevents the business-owner from being accused of racism when he prosecutes the criminal.
Clearly, Selena subscribes to this new morality. Stealing is OK if you pay back when caught. Talk about slippery slopes and leading precedents. I guess murder and rape will be next. “Sorry. Gosh, what was I thinking?”