The United Australia party senator Ralph Babet has defended continuing to work for his family real estate business by claiming he is not paid and that his job in the Senate still “takes priority”.
But Babet said on Monday he was “likely” to return to real estate full-time after serving one term in parliament because he did not see himself as a “career politician”.
The Victorian senator did not deny that his business may have been paid for his work, only that he did not “take a cent” for it and he would update his register of interests if he did. Guardian Australia does not suggest that Babet has breached disclosure rules.
The Australian Financial Review reported in October that Babet continued to appear in promotional material for Babet Brothers, a real estate business that Australian Securities and Investments Commission records indicate is co-owned with his brother Bertrand.
Controversy about Babet’s work outside parliament flared again at the weekend when the activist and former Democratic Alliance Senate candidate Drew Pavlou questioned on social media why Babet was “still working in real estate” when being a senator was a “full-time job”.
Babet replied that he worked in real estate “on the weekends” but if “someone asks me to come and speak at their event or there’s some Senate-related duty on the weekend or something of that nature, then that will take priority”.
I work in real estate on the weekends when I can.
— Senator Babet (@senatorbabet) March 11, 2023
I enjoy working. Sitting around on the weekend doing nothing feels like a waste of time. So I would rather work. However, if someone asks me to come and speak at their event or there's some Senate related duty on the weekend or something of that nature then that will take… https://t.co/3Lnv4xQrQ6
— Senator Babet (@senatorbabet) March 11, 2023
On Babet’s register of interests he declared that he is a director of Babet Brothers Pty Ltd, but he does not declare “any other substantial sources of income” beyond his senator’s salary.
“Sometimes when I’m free … not when I’m in the Senate, not when I’m doing something Senate-wise, I’ll help out at an open for inspection at my family business,” Babet told Guardian Australia.
“I don’t get paid – I do it for free, because it’s my family business, the same way … if an [MP or senator] had a family farm, they’d go back to the family farm and help out on the weekend.
“It’s not that big of a deal. People should be happy I do regular things instead of sitting around, which is what most senators do.”
Asked if Babet Brothers was paid a commission for his work, Babet replied: “I don’t take a cent, I don’t take any money out of the business, I’m completely focused on my job in the Senate.”
Babet said although he is a director, he “takes no income from the business” and if he ever did, “I would update my register of interests”. “Right now it says zero, because it is zero.”
On the register, Babet declares that he has no interests in real estate. His brother claimed in promotional material that the pair set up the business “after successfully securing multiple investment properties of our own”.
Babet insisted that his disclosure was accurate and a land title search appears to confirm that he holds no real estate in Victoria. “I personally, under my name, don’t own any property,” he said.
“It is completely accurate, I have no property,” he said. “That’s the way that I like it – I’m not interested in owning a property right now. Right now, anyway. The property market is on the way down, as you know.”
Babet said he tried to attend “as many little things, community events, functions as much as I can”, citing the fact he is the only UAP senator.
He said he did not intend to sit in the Senate for several decades, insisting he would “do my one term then go back to the real world”.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do exactly. It’s going to be in five years. It’s going to be likely back to real estate … back to the family business.”
Babet is not the only MP or senator to perform work outside parliament, which is not prohibited.
In 2021 Guardian Australia revealed that the Liberal senator Hollie Hughes was performing paid consulting work for a for-profit biofuels company that had been disclosed on her register of interests through a trust assisting “charitable organisations”.
