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ACT's federal politicians have charged taxpayers more than $650,000 in the first six months of this year, new reports reveal. Expenditure reports for current and former MPs between January and June 2016 released by the Department of Finance this week showed Liberal senator Zed Seselja lodged the biggest bill with taxpayers of the ACT's four MPs in Parliament. Senator Seselja spent $187,039 in the first half of this year, with more than $110,000 of that on office expenses alone. Fenner MP Andrew Leigh was close behind, costing taxpayers $178,899, followed by Gai Brodtmann with $174,525 and Senator Katy Gallagher with $114,482. Dr Leigh had the biggest travel bill out of the four MPs, with more than $40,000 spent on domestic travel, which included a $1639 plane trip between Canberra and Perth. Among the other expenses claimed for by the Labor MP was more than $5500 on flags, which are given to community groups. He wasn't the only ACT politician to charge for flags, with his counterpart in the House of Representatives Ms Brodtmann spending almost $500, while Senator Gallagher spent $1600. Ms Brodtmann spent the most on office administration costs, billing taxpayers $88,000, while Senator Seselja was the ACT's highest user of government cars, spending $13,000, with taxpayers also billed for car cleaning. The MP with the biggest bill to taxpayers was Foreign Minister Julie Bishop with $839,000, followed by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull with $612,000 and Health Minister Sussan Ley with $497,000. The recent expenditure reports also revealed John Howard had the highest expense bill out of the former prime ministers, lodging a $152,000 bill, nearly double that of the second-highest bill of $83,000 lodged by Bob Hawke. Former speaker in the House of Representatives Peter Slipper notched up the largest domestic-travel bill with his Life Gold Pass, costing taxpayers more than $12,600. The Life Gold Pass allows for retired MPs to have unlimited business-class travel paid for by taxpayers. The release of the reports comes as the Coalition announced it would put on hold plans to axe the Life Gold Pass. The plans were initially brought in by the Abbott government in 2014. Special Minister of State Scott Ryan has said he was working on overhauling the entitlements of MPs following an independent review. The review was triggered in the wake of former speaker Bronwyn Bishop charging taxpayers more than $5000 for a chartered helicopter flight between Melbourne and Geelong in 2015. Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Dr Leigh's $1639 plane trip was from Canberra to Sydney. The flight was actually to Perth. It also said the flags Dr Leigh claimed were for his office, when they were actually for community groups.

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