Overdue fine FAIL: Taxpayers pick up tab for MPs' 3,779 late payment fees

Updated

Paying bills on time has proved too hard for federal politicians nearly 4,000 times in six years.

The late payments — typically $15 charged on every overdue Australia Post invoice — have cost taxpayers an extra $56,700.

Former prime minister Tony Abbott is Parliament's worst offender, missing payment 69 separate times since the late fees were introduced in 2011.

But Labor and crossbench MPs are also culprits.

How can this happen?

As part of their entitlements package, all federal MPs are allowed to print thousands of glossy brochures from their annual $130,000 office budget.

On top of that, the taxpayer foots the bill for a "distribution" budget for postage — $1 multiplied by the number of enrolled voters within the MP's electorate.

MPs are sent their Australia Post bills by the Department of Finance and are required to certify them five days before their due date, as provided in official instructions from the department.

But that has proven too difficult for Australia's elected representatives 3,779 times since 2011.

This widespread failure of administration has not been previously revealed due to the difficulty in collecting and analysing MPs' late payment records, spread across 4,000 PDF documents.

New ABC analysis of MPs' office costs indicates 4,033 late payment fees have been paid, with 254 refunded in cases where Australia Post reversed late payment fee charges due to a dispute on the amount charged.

Although instructions for avoiding late payment fees have been provided to MPs, the Department of Finance confirmed there is nothing in the entitlements rules that prevents such expenditure.

Australia Post changed its billing practices in August 2017 so overdue fees are now calculated based on the size of the order.

Some promise to improve

The ABC invited the MPs with the largest number of fines to explain their late payments.

A spokesman for Mr Abbott highlighted the "overwhelming majority" of these fees were accrued when he was a party leader.

"As you'd expect, there was a large volume of correspondence being sent around the country during this time," the spokesman said, also suggesting the system places excessive administrative burden on the MPs themselves.

"Given the nature of the work a prime minister and opposition leader does, [the administrative unit of the department] should not expect these office holders to sign off on mail-outs before paying Australia Post and should allow this function to be delegated to an appropriate member of staff."

Labor's Jenny Macklin, who recorded 43 charges, said engaging with the community was an important part of the job.

But she was more remorseful about the late charges, pledging: "I will be asking my office to review procedures to ensure that these fees are not incurred again."

Jane Prentice, Liberal MP and Assistant Minister for Social Services, accrued 50 charges.

"It's quite possible I have given the department less time than they need to pay the account and I will definitely talk to my office about that," she said.

"But as you can understand, by the time they question it and checking into it, I might be away, I might be interstate, and I always insist that I sign all the approvals."

Ms Prentice also argued she had actually saved the taxpayer money by challenging mistakes in quotes from Australia Post, one she claims by as much as $1,400.

Labor's Ed Husic accrued 46 late payment charges.

He said his electorate office signed off, "hundreds of invoices every year" and said it was "regrettable" that some of these were late, although changes to internal systems had now been made.

"The reality is that Australia Post has a two-week payment period on their invoices," he said.

"This can present challenges when I am on the road and not physically present to sign an invoice."

Seven of the eight months that have recorded the most in late fees were during summer.

A spokeswoman for Queensland MP Bob Katter, who missed 43 payment deadlines, said: "This is a case of a government agency applying other government bodies with revenue-raising late fees."

She noted Mr Katter's electorate was more than twice the size of Victoria, but declined to address whether changes would be made to stop the late fees occurring.

Some MPs have not accrued a single late fee.

One of these — long-serving Labor Senate whip Anne Urquhart — divulged her secret of avoiding these charges.

"I forward the Australia Post bill each month to my office manager who ensures the paperwork is completed and the bill is paid," Senator Urquhart said.

Topics: government-and-politics, federal-government, governance, australia

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