The Whitehouse Institute of Design courted the prime minister’s daughter Frances Abbott a number of times and gave her a scholarship during her first and only interview, raising more questions over whether the $60,000 scholarship should have been declared on Tony Abbott’s interest register, according to new revelations published by New Matilda.
The independent news site has reported leaked documents from the institute which show the precise amount, $60,636, Frances was awarded to complete her design degree. The chair of the institute’s board of governors, Les Taylor, is a personal friend of the prime minister and has made donations to the Liberal party.
Guardian Australia revealed on Wednesday that Frances had been the recipient of a “chairman’s scholarship” from the institution, with Taylor later saying he had recommended her personally. Taylor said he had no say in the selection process.
New Matilda reports that Taylor was tasked with courting Frances away from other institutions with the lure of a scholarship. It states that internal Whitehouse documents show that from December 2010 at least four attempts were made to contact Frances. A meeting with Whitehouse’s managing director, Leanne Whitehouse, eventually took place on 18 February 2011.
The report states that Abbott was offered the scholarship during that first meeting.
The New Matilda report raises more questions about the nature of the scholarship, which is not advertised on the Institute’s website and, according to the CEO of Whitehouse, Ian Tudor, is only granted “occasionally”.
The New Matilda documents describe the scholarship as a “managing director’s scholarship”, but it has been referred to by Leanne Whitehouse, Tudor, and Taylor as a “chairman’s scholarship”.
Tudor said on Wednesday that Abbott was only the second recipient of the award. He has not replied to detailed questions from Guardian Australia about the criteria for the scholarship, who else has won it, and whether it is open for public application.
A spokeswoman from the prime minister’s office initially said on Wednesday that disclosure of the scholarship was “not required,” but that if alternative advice was provided the prime minister would meet the amended requirements.
But the spokeswoman said later that further advice had been provided from the clerk of the House of Representatives, who said there were “no obvious provisions” that would require declaration of the scholarship.
The registrar of the parliamentary pecuniary interest registers, Claressa Surtees, told New Matilda the disclosure rules for parliamentarians did not provide a comprehensive list about what should or should not be disclosed.
“It’s not an exhaustive list of what is and isn’t required to be declared. Not all items are explicitly referred to in the [rules],” Surtees said.
“In relation to dependent children, there are only general statements about what might need to be declared.
“There’s nothing that talks about scholarships. The word ‘scholarship’ does not appear in the [rules].”
On Thursday, Abbott said in an interview on Channel Nine that his daughter’s scholarship was awarded on merit.
"I'm very proud of her; she's doing a fantastic job," he said.
"I've always said families should be kept out of the front line. That's the way I've always tried to run my political operation – that we play hard but fair. Families should be [left] out of it."
During Abbott’s 2013 election campaign, his daughters appeared frequently at his side. In an address to the Big Brother house, Abbott said: "If you want to know who to vote for, I'm the guy with the not bad-looking daughters."