Attorney general had a ringside seat in Tony Abbott’s cabinet – then spent public money on books about his former boss’s downfall

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

George Brandis has used taxpayer dollars to buy several books about the downfall of Tony Abbott, including The Short and Excruciatingly Embarrassing Reign of Captain Abbott.

The attorney general’s parliamentary expenses, released by the Department of Finance on Thursday, show he bought the books in January and February, just as parliament returned from its summer recess.

He also bought The Road to Ruin: How Tony Abbott and Peta Credlin Destroyed Their Own Government by Niki Savva and Credlin & Co: How the Abbott Government Destroyed Itself by Aaron Patrick.

Andrew P Street, the Fairfax columnist who wrote The Short and Excruciatingly Embarrassing Reign, said he was pleased to hear Brandis had bought the book (in which Brandis has a starring role).

“I’m thinking of hitting him up for a review on Goodreads,” Street told Guardian Australia. “He’d bring a good insider perspective to it.”

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The parliamentary expenses also show the crossbench senators Ricky Muir and Nick Xenophon were the most frugal politicians in the six months before the election, with expenses less than a 10th of the high-flying foreign minister, Julie Bishop.

The expenses considered include the travel allowance, overseas travel, domestic fares, charter costs, family travel and office administrative costs.

The records show the biggest-spending ministers were those with international travel commitments, with Bishop racking up $839,810 in costs, the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, $612,099 and then-trade minister Andrew Robb $536,642.



The expenses of the Opposition leader, Bill Shorten, cost the taxpayer $460,184 and those of the Greens leader, Richard Di Natale, cost $263,083.

The most frugal of those who served for the whole period from 1 January to 30 June were: former senator Muir ($70,678), Xenophon ($81,018) and Labor’s Carol Brown ($86,028).

Muir, who had been ridiculed after his 2013 election with a ­record-low primary vote of 0.51%, gained a reputation for integrity and reasonableness by the time he lost his seat in the 2016 election, due partly to the Turnbull government’s Senate reforms.

Xenophon spent nothing on overseas travel, charter flights, or family travel.

The deputy prime minister, Barnaby Joyce, spent the most on chartered travel, a total of $85,561, followed by Bob Katter ($53,513) and Darren Chester ($46,453).

The health minister, Sussan Ley, Stuart Robert and Di Natale spent the most on family travel – more than $9,600 each.