Federal Treasurer Joe Hockey wants former assistant treasurer Arthur Sinodinos to eventually return to the frontbench, saying the Liberal New South Wales Senator “is a wonderful person, a man of great personal integrity and from my perspective, obviously I’d like to have my assistant treasurer back.”

Mr Hockey went on to say that said. ” These things need to be resolved and I think everyone is still waiting for the final report from ICAC.” It is not the first time that the federal treasurer states publicly his opinion that his assistant should return to the front bench of the Coalition government.

Liberal Senator Arthur Sinodinos stood down in March after political and media pressure over dealings that have been investigated by the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC).

Senator Sinodinos told the ICAC last week he did not accept “any responsibility” for the NSW Liberal Party accepting donations from prohibited donors via the federal Free Enterprise Foundation during the last state election campaign.

At the time, Senator Sinodinos was the chairman of the party’s finance committee. He said he did not know that property developers, who have been banned from making political
donations in NSW since January 2010, had donated to the campaign.

Source: Fairfax Media