Tony Abbott defends use of taxpayer funds to attend weddings

Updated

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has defended his use of entitlements after confirming he paid back taxpayer money he claimed to attend the weddings of Sophie Mirabella and Peter Slipper in 2006.

It was revealed yesterday that Mr Abbott repaid more than $1,000 he claimed for a trip to Ms Mirabella's wedding, while he confirmed today that he also repaid more than $600 he claimed to attend Mr Slipper's wedding.

Just last month, Attorney-General George Brandis repaid nearly $1,700 he spent on flights, accommodation and car hire to attend the wedding of radio shock jock Michael Smith in 2011.

Mr Abbott says it was that issue that prompted him to go back and check his own travel claim for Ms Mirabella's wedding.

He says the Department of Finance was unable to provide clear advice to him about whether or not the claim was legitimate.

Mr Abbott told reporters that MPs have certain representational roles and he thought the fees were within his entitlements.

"When the controversy arose after the Michael Smith wedding, I remembered that some seven years ago I had been to a couple of weddings and so I went back and I checked," he told reporters at the APEC summit in Bali.

"I was advised - because I sought advice on this - that the entitlement was unclear and so in order to avoid doubt I paid the relevant money back.

"That's what people should do: they should act within entitlements, they should err on the side of caution, and, if there is any doubt, they should act immediately to clear the matter up. That's exactly what I have done."

Joyce under fire for expenses claims

Meanwhile, Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce has once again fended off claims that he misused taxpayer money to attend a wedding.

Last month, Mr Joyce and Liberal Senator George Brandis denied any wrongdoing after reports they claimed expenses to attend the wedding of broadcaster Michael Smith.

The Nationals Member for New England has now come under fire for claiming expenses for a 2011 trip during which he attended a wedding in India.

Mr Joyce and Coalition colleagues Julie Bishop and Teresa Gambaro attended the Hyderabad wedding of the granddaughter of mining magnate Gina Rinehart's business partner.

All three claimed overseas study entitlements for the trip home, with Mr Joyce stopping off in Malaysia for a one-day study tour.

But Mr Joyce says Ms Rinehart paid for him to fly to the wedding, making the trip cheaper for taxpayers.

"If someone else wants to pay half a trip, pay for it privately, which is basically what Gina Rinehart did, then it's actually made it cheaper for the taxpayer," he said.

There are also questions about Labor MP Bernie Ripoll, who claimed expenses for a 2011 trip to France during which he watched stages of the Tour de France.

Calls for politicians to be held to code of conduct

Transparency expert and lawyer Peter Timmins says politicians should be held to a code of conduct to lay out explicitly when it is OK to claim money.

"We don't have, for members of Parliament, a code of conduct that [former Labor senator] John Faulkner tried to introduce in the last Parliament," he said.

Mr Timmins says some expenses, such as those claimed by Mr Joyce, "seem to be testing the limits".

Sorry, this video has expired Video: Transparency expert Peter Timmins talks to ABC News Breakfast (ABC News)

"At one level the rules are reasonable, that members of Parliament do need to travel in the course of carrying out their duties as members of parliament," Mr Timmins said.

"But as we've seen, whether going to a wedding - where you rub shoulders with lots of other politicians and some journalists - is related to their work, I guess that's very questionable."

Mr Timmins says transparency into the use of taxpayer-funded entitlements is needed.

"I think we all agree that members of Parliament should be properly remunerated and should have tax-payer funded entitlements," he said.

"But the rules should be very clear... we've got some significant holes in the system at the moment."

He says solutions are on the table to help increase accountability, and all that is needed is political will to enact them.

Peter Reith says accusations are 'petty'

Former Howard government minister Peter Reith says MPs have done nothing wrong in the expenses cases that have been revealed so far, and it is "silly" and "petty" to deny politicians the right to travel.

"I think it's a reflection of the fact that politics is not as entertaining as it was under Labor, and a few in the press have decided to kick some of the Coalition members," he said.

"They've evened it up by having a go at Bernie Ripoll who doesn't seem to have breached any of the rules whatsoever, in the same way I don't think the Coalition did either.

"As a minister, you are 24/7 a minister. This is all part of being a politician. If you get an invitation to go to a private occasion, then the judgment you make as a minister is, is this worth it from a political point of view?"

Mr Reith says there cannot be a blanket rule as what functions should and should not be claimable.

"Where are you going to draw the line and who's going to manage it? I'll tell you who - it's the Department of Finance and they couldn't run a chook raffle," he said.

"MPs should not have to respond to the bureaucrats. The ultimate response about all this has to be the sensible treatment of these expenses, cars and flights, by MPs. And the public and in the end their colleagues will determine what sort of person they are.

"The vast majority of Australian politicians are decent people, and they don't need to be pushed around by The Age as they've done on the front page today.

"You can never win these debates. They're always run against you, and you'll never satisfy people about it."

"I'm all in favour of politicians being subject to the highest levels of scrutiny provided it's reasonably managed."

But former Liberal leader John Hewson disagrees with Mr Reith's suggestion that politicians are always on duty and therefore should be entitled to claim the cost of attending private functions.

"I'm sure the electorate... expect their parliamentarians to be accountable and look, if they're doing parliamentary work I don't think anybody's got any concern, in an electoral sense, about them being funded to do that, in terms of travel allowances and so on," he said.

"But if they're mixing it up or if they're trying to take advantage of a set of circumstances where they're not doing strictly parliamentary business, and they know that to be the case, then I think they do need to be prepared to declare that and pay for it themselves."

Slipper cries foul over Cabcharge treatment

Former Parliamentary speaker Peter Slipper says it is breathtaking that MPs have been allowed to repay the expenses when he is facing court over disputed travel claims.

Mr Slipper has been charged after allegedly misusing his Cabcharge vouchers for trips to Canberra wineries in 2010. He says he repeatedly tried to repay the money.

In a statement, Mr Slipper says his treatment makes a mockery of justice and fairness in Australia.

Cabinet minister Malcolm Turnbull, meanwhile, has told his Coalition colleagues to "err on the conservative side and if there's any doubt don't make a claim".

"The rules are a little bit ambiguous at times and it's not uncommon for people to pay expenses claims back," Mr Turnbull told the ABC's Insiders on Sunday morning.

Three years ago the Belcher Inquiry reported to the then-Labor government that the system was ruled by at least 11 acts of Parliament, six determinations of the Remuneration Tribunal, 21 powers awarded to the Special Minister of State, and nine formal procedural rules and guidelines.

The Belcher report found travel entitlements were arguably the most complex and ambiguous in the system, but most of the report's recommendations were ignored by the then-government.

In 2011 the then-special minister of state, Gary Gray, announced changes to the rules designed to make the system clearer and more transparent.

He said at the time: "You won't again have the appearance of members of Parliament going on overseas study tours to look at wine-making in Latin American countries.

"You won't again have overseas study tours of members of Parliament travelling to Las Vegas to look at gambling. The important thing here is that we have got rid of this entitlement."

Call for independent entitlement commission

Greens Deputy Leader Adam Bandt wants an independent commission established to provide advice to MPs on which entitlements are appropriate, and which are not.

He says the rules need to be clearer and an independent commission would help.

"What we need to do is have a place that all MPs can go to before they incur the entitlement, so that you can get advice about whether it's inside or outside of the rules. And that would prevent these kind of expenses from being incurred in the first place," he said.

"You need perhaps clearer rules, but you need an arbiter to be able to decide beforehand about which side of the line something falls on, rather than just relying on someone being caught out."

Interim Opposition Leader Chris Bowen says the rash of stories about expense claims shows poor judgment in government ranks.

"This money is only being paid back after journalists are asking questions, not because the individuals involved have decided on balance that it was an illegitimate claim but because they have been exposed through journalism," he said.

Topics: federal-parliament, government-and-politics, federal-government, parliament, abbott-tony, australia

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