Helloworld on Wednesday told the ASX that Mr Burnes did not request the meeting with DFAT personnel.
Illustration:Matt GoldingCredit:
But in an April 24,2017 email to Mr Hockey,with Mr Burnes copied in,Mr Carstensen wrote:"Hello Joe,Good morning. Andrew[Burnes] gave me your details. I assume there has been a discussion ... had about our business."
The email goes on to begin setting up the meeting in question.
Late on Thursday,Mr Burnes issued a statement addressing what he called"erroneous information"aired in the senate.
“I did not organise any meetings between Russell Carstensen and Joe Hockey. Mr Carstensen’s own email of April 24,2017 shows that he organised the meeting with Mr Hockey and I was simply CCed on the email.
“Further,Mr Hockey and I did not discuss the meeting in Washington at any time after it took place. DFAT employees were present at all times in that meeting and the meeting was disclosed by Mr Carstensen to DOFA[Department of Finance] at the time,as was appropriate and necessary under the contractual arrangements with DOFA.
“I emphatically deny ever having told Mr Carstensen that Mr Hockey'owes me'or any words to that effect. Joe Hockey and I have been close friends for 20 years and it would be ridiculous to suggest I would say or imply he owes me anything.”
Andrew Burnes.Credit:Damian White
Mr Carstensen,who was head of both QBT and Air Tickets at the time of the meeting with Mr Hockey and the DFAT employees,resigned from Helloworld Travel in June 2018 and left the business immediately.
The same day,a member of staff at the embassy replied via email to Mr Carstensen,saying,"Ambassador Hockey has asked that I set up a meeting while you are in Washington on Wednesday."
In his statement,Mr Carstensen said he emailed Mr Hockey directly to arrange the meeting and was contacted by Mr Hockey's assistant to organise details.
"Ambassador Hockey,a Mr McPhillips and a Mr Richards were in attendance. We spoke for about an hour and was[sic] provided with Mr Hockey's travel frustrations,which I totally understood. After the meeting I left without any further communication until I returned to Australia and debriefed Mr Burnes on the meeting.
"On my return I emailed Mr Hockey directly to his embassy email address and gave him the corporate travel options in detail. I assume these details could have been used as a basis of the tender requirements if a tender came up.
"I sent a copy of that email to Mr Burnes. I also advised WoAG Travel[operating within the Finance Department] I met Mr Hockey. The feedback from the WoAG Travel team was that they were uncomfortable with the meeting.
"I decided then that I would not follow up with Mr Hockey. I was advised later in a conversation that ‘people’ in DFAT were uncomfortable that Mr Hockey met me and that he was a shareholder of Helloworld. If I remember correctly I did not know at the time of the meeting in Washington that he was a shareholder."
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Mr Carstensen resigned from Helloworld 13 months after the Washington meeting. Among the reasons given for his departure was a disagreement over appropriate levels of remuneration.
Opposition leader Bill Shorten said that,if he won the May election,his government would refer the Helloworld saga to his anti-corruption commission.
"Australians do care about integrity. That is why if we are elected,Helloworld will be the first item on the national integrity commission that we will set up,"he told parliament.
Prime Minister Scott Morrisson defended Mr Hockey and Mr Burnes in question time,saying neither had requested the DFAT tender nor had any involvment in it.
He accused Mr Shorten of arrogance by talking what action he would take in relation to Mr Hockey and the Helloworld matter once Labor was in power.
Helloworld first made headlines this week whenThe Age andThe Sydney Morning Heraldrevealed Finance Minister Mathias Cormann had not paid for a $2700 Singapore family trip in 2017 booked for him by Mr Burnes.
Senator Cormann said he provided his credit card to Mr Burnes but did not check to see it had been charged. He repaid the costs this week.