Peter Slipper says repayment of MPs' entitlement claims prove 'double standard'

Updated

Former federal parliamentary speaker Peter Slipper says revelations about MPs' expenses prove the charges against him are politically motivated.

Mr Slipper is fighting criminal charges over allegations he misused taxpayer-funded taxi vouchers to visit Canberra wineries in 2010.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott and four other ministers have recently paid back entitlement claims, including allowances used to attend the weddings of colleagues.

Mr Slipper has told the ABC's Insiders program he was never given the opportunity to repay the money.

"I believe strongly that charges against me should be dropped, particularly given the revelations that numbers of senior ministers have had to repay money in recent times," he said.

"Given the fact that Tony Abbott feels it's okay to participate in some sporting event at Port Macquarie, because it's a marginal seat, and given the amount of money that he has in fact had to repay and the amount that he's refusing to repay, I think there's a double standard.

"One thing about the Australian people is that they want people to have a fair go. I think that either the charges against me should be dropped or everyone else should be charged."

Coalition set up 'committee' to remove me from speakership: Slipper

Mr Slipper said the sexual harassment case brought against him by former staffer James Ashby was politically motivated.

The case was dismissed by the Federal Court last year but is still subject to a possible appeal.

The Federal Court found Mr Ashby was working with Mr Slipper's political rival Mal Brough in a bid to damage Mr Slipper's reputation.

"I heard when I became speaker that there had been some sort of committee set up in the Liberal Party designed to undo my speakership and to destroy me," he said.

"I don't know whether that's true or not but you pick up that sort of scuttlebutt along the corridors of Parliament House and so there is no doubt in my view that Ashbygate reaches to the highest level of the Liberal Party.

"It was part of a plot, not only to destroy my speakership [and] my political career, but also to bring down the duly-elected government of Australia."

Ashby affair cost Slipper's wife the chance to become a mother

Mr Slipper said his wife Inge had undergone IVF treatment and was considering another round of it before the scandal broke.

He says she now believes the case had cost her the opportunity to become a mother.

"This Ashbygate thing has had an incredible impact on my wife and me as well as our wider families," he said.

"We've had low-flying helicopters over our house. We sat in the dark for the first few days after it all broke.

"[My wife] Inge and I have been off to the IVF program, and when we returned from overseas [she was] getting to a situation where she felt her state of mind was such [that] she could not go through that traumatic process again.

"All of a sudden Ashbygate descended and she now feels that Ashbygate has cost her the opportunity of becoming a mother. That's a shocking thing."

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

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