Then Queensland senator spent $13,000 on 25 flights to Tony Windsor’s electorate in 2013 and later used airforce jet to fly in for debate with Windsor

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Barnaby Joyce spent more than $18,000 of taxpayer funds travelling to Armidale and Tamworth when he was a Queensland senator preparing to jump to the lower house seat of New England, where the two New South Wales cities are located.

In March 2016, Joyce also used a VIP airforce jet for himself and four staff to fly from Tamworth to Canberra, returning from a televised debate against his New England opponent, the independent MP Tony Windsor.

The revelations are contained in Joyce’s 2013 expense declarations to the Department of Finance and a Department of Defence document produced under freedom of information laws, seen by Guardian Australia.

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A spokeswoman for Joyce told Guardian Australia that all the travel – including the VIP jet – was within the rules and undertaken in his role as shadow minister for regional development, local government and water.

But Joyce’s office declined to explain what official duties he had undertaken in Tamworth and Armidale on the given dates.

The deputy prime minister’s extensive travel to the seat he did not yet represent is a further embarrassment to the Turnbull government, which has announced a new independent parliamentary expenses authority and said it would clarify the rules around travel following a string of expenses scandals.

Between 17 February and 7 August 2013, Joyce spent more than $13,000 on 25 flights in or out of Armidale or Tamworth. He spent a further $3,500 on family travel, $736 for four nights of his travel allowance in the two cities and $950 in hire car costs.

Joyce was elected to the Senate for Queensland in 2004 but resigned on 8 August 2013 to move to the lower house. The federal election was held on 7 September.

According to the defence document, a VIP 34 squadron jet flew from Melbourne to Tamworth on 17 March 2016, the same night Joyce debated incumbent MP Tony Windsor in Tamworth at a pub forum televised by Sky News. The jet returned from Tamworth to Canberra with Joyce and four staff on 18 March.

An ABC analysis of VIP jet trips suggests the cost to taxpayers, including of leasing the aircraft, is $8,000 an hour. The 2hr 50min flight time to and from Tamworth therefore could be caculated as being worth more than $20,000.

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Commercial flights from Tamworth to Canberra via Sydney can cost as little as a few hundred dollars.

Joyce’s spokeswoman said all travel was within the rules.

“As you will have seen, in his capacity as shadow minister, Minister Joyce travelled extensively to more than a dozen other locations,” she said. “The use of the VIP [jet] on this date was within the rules and appropriate as scheduled services were not available to arrive in Tamworth in time for the media commitment.”

In 2013 Joyce also travelled on shadow ministerial business to Brisbane, Perth and Sydney, as well as smaller centres including Toowoomba, Caloundra, Buderim, Grafton, Kalgoorlie, Coolangatta, Mooloolaba, Port Macquarie, Rockhampton and Cairns.

In the six-month period from 1 January to 30 June 2013, almost one third of the $32,000 in domestic fares Joyce claimed was for flights to or from Armidale or Tamworth.

In the period 1 July to 7 August 2013, $3,000 out of $11,500 in domestic fares was spent on trips to or from Armidale or Tamworth.