But on Thursday, Labor frontbencher Chris Bowen called for the entitlement claiming system to be fixed to remove ''grey areas''. Nationals MP John Williams also told Fairfax Media on Thursday that the system needed to be tightened up. A long way from Perth or Canberra: The Randalls' Cairns investment property. In the latest episode of the scandal that has dominated the early weeks of the Abbott government, West Australian MP Don Randall, a member of the committee that oversees MPs' privileges and entitlements, has refused to account for thousands of dollars worth of questionable taxpayer claims. When the MP finally responded late on Wednesday afternoon, he brushed over some $10,000 worth of travel expenses and only justified his "publications" claims, which include about $2500 spent on books including children's cookbooks, a guide to Broadway musicals and multiple copies of Guinness World Records. ''In relation to the purchase of books, these were under entitlement and were purchased as gifts for community groups and schools in my electorate," Mr Randall said in a statement. "The claims relating to travel were appropriately acquitted with the Department of Finance.''

Fairfax Media asked Mr Randall's office which schools and community groups received the gifts, and whether the MP had any explanation for the allegations of misused travel entitlements. Inside Don Randall's Cairns investment property. Credit:Ross Duncan Mr Randall, who once described Cheryl Kernot as having the "morals of an alley cat on heat" and Tasmania as a "leech on the teat" of the Australian economy, had not responded by deadline. A Finance Department spokeswoman said she would not comment on the "use of entitlements by individual senators and members". Member for Canning: Don Randall.

Fairfax Media asked the Prime Minister's office if Mr Abbott would investigate Mr Randall or stand him down over the allegations, but a spokesman said his position was unchanged. Mr Abbott has said there are no systemic problems with the entitlements system and changing the rules would not solve the problems. In November 2012 Mr Randall and a family member flew to Cairns for an overnight stay. The MP claimed his $5259 trip to north Queensland as "electorate business", despite it being 3446 kilometres from his electorate of Canning. A week after returning from Cairns, on November 26, Mr Randall updated his pecuniary interests register, saying: "My wife and I have taken possession of the house at the Cairns location. We intend to rent the house as an investment."

The pair, who own three properties, bought land in the Cairns suburb of Trinity Park in 2007 for $148,000 but only began building on the property in mid-2012. The four-bedroom house is rented out for $410 a week. Fairfax gave Mr Randall the opportunity to explain how his trip to Cairns involved legitimate ''electorate business'' but he declined to comment. He also declined the opportunity to deny the trip was associated with his investment property. Mr Bowen, a former Treasurer, said that it was not good enough for Mr Randall to ignore questions about his taxpayer-funded travel to Cairns and Melbourne. The federal MPs' entitlements system needed to be fixed, he added. ''It simply is not good enough,'' Mr Bowen told ABC radio on Thursday.

''The current situation does not pass the common sense test and does not pass the public test. If the government wants to put forward sensible changes for better guidelines, for less grey area, then we would look at that very sympathetically,'' he said. Mr Randall owed the ''Australian people a much better explanation'', following Fairfax Media's revelations about his travel claims, Mr Bowen said. ''Claiming parliamentary sittings in Melbourne is disingenuous; the Parliament hasn't sat in Melbourne since 1927. ''To claim electorate business in Cairns is problematic for him,'' Mr Bowen added. ''I think [Mr Randall] owes people a much better explanation . . . and if he won't give it, Tony Abbott should.'' Nationals Senator John Williams said on Thursday that the rules could be more ''explicit'' to eliminate ''grey areas''.

''The best to thing do is to make sure, whatever happens, if there are changes its transparent, the rules are there clearly and if you breach the rules just like now . . . pay the money back if you do the wrong thing,'' he told Fairfax Media. He said he had not spoken to Mr Abbott about the issue. Asked whether he would encourage the Prime Minister to try and tighten the rules, Senator Williams said: ''Yeah I think so, because the Australian people must have faith in a Government and all politicians that we're doing the right thing. ''If there are question marks about that then we need to clarify that in a better way and be more transparent with it.'' Meanwhile, the South Australian Labor senator Don Farrell has admitted he repaid almost $1000 in travel allowances several months ago after billing taxpayers for accommodation he accepted free.

Senator Farrell blamed an ''administration error'' for the trip to last year's AFL grand final. The Senator's flights and accommodation were funded by a grocery company. "I initiated the repayment," Mr Farrell told Fairfax Media, adding that "it wasn't the work of investigative journalism" that encouraged him to do so. Loading Mr Randall's questionable expenses were discovered by readers who took part in Fairfax Media's crowd-sourced investigation into politicians' entitlements. It follows a series of Fairfax Media stories, which have revealed that a quarter of the Coalition frontbench, including Mr Abbott, have claimed a total of about $16,000 worth of taxpayer funds to attend weddings. About a quarter of this money has been refunded.