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| Andrew and Olesja Laming. |
12:00AM January 5, 2018
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/andrew-laming-family-trip-sparks-taxpayer-anger/news-story/4244760da7eec2692db4a1da9d27bcb3
RACHEL BAXENDALE
ReporterCanberra
@rachelbaxendale
ROSIE LEWIS
ReporterCanberra
@rosieslewis
Liberal backbencher Andrew Laming’s $13,500 bill to the taxpayer for business-class flights for his wife and daughters to join him on a trip to a remote indigenous community last year would still be acceptable under new rules intended to end travel rorts, which came into effect on Monday.
Under the new rules, introduced following the Sussan Ley and Bronwyn Bishop expense scandals, politicians may still claim three business-class return trips each financial year to anywhere in Australia for family members.
Spouses are also entitled to nine business-class return trips to Canberra or within the parliamentarian’s electorate, while up to three economy-class trips to Canberra or within the electorate can be claimed for each dependent child.
The peak body representing taxpayers, the Australian Taxpayers’ Alliance, said Mr Laming’s claim, revealed in The Australian yesterday, was “unconscionable”, while Nick Xenophon Team senator Stirling Griff said it did not appear the taxpayer had got “value for money”.
Former Labor leader Mark Latham said parliamentarians should have to apply for taxpayer-funded travel in advance. “The onus of proof should be on the MP to demonstrate ... that yes, this is parliamentary business, somehow related to their electorate and their official duties, rather than a family holiday or visiting the boyfriend,” he told 2GB.
The controversy over Mr Laming’s travel comes as the government prepares to spend $38.1 million over four years to overhaul outdated systems used by politicians and their staff to report expenses. The reforms are designed to make politicians’ expenses more transparent after the independent review into the parliamentary entitlements system recommended the urgent development of a fit-for-purpose, integrated online system.
Under the changes, MPs should be able to make claims faster and more efficiently, with three-monthly reporting of expenses expected to become monthly reporting.
Special Minister of State Mathias Cormann and his Labor counterpart, Don Farrell, declined to comment on questions regarding the appropriateness of Mr Laming’s expenditure.
Australian Taxpayers’ Alliance director of policy Satyajeet Marar said: “At a time when gross public debt is ballooning to nearly $600 billion and politicians keep telling us we need to tighten our belts, it’s unconscionable for hardworking Aussie families to foot the bill for expensive business-class family holidays.
“Though there have been some changes to entitlement rules and stricter reporting requirements, instances like this show that there will always be loopholes or ways to pass the rules that fall short of community expectations or the standards of the private sector,” he said.
“The only way to ensure meaningful change is to have a public, online disclosure portal for travel spending and allowances in real time.
“CEOs are accountable to their shareholders and politicians should have no problem with taxpayers vetting how our money is used.
“This will ensure that a politician’s travel entitlements pass the pub test rather than simply complying with the regulations.”
Greens senator Jordon Steele-John, who at 23 is parliament’s youngest senator, said all MPs should be “discouraged” from taking taxpayer-funded trips with their families.
Senator Griff said taxpayers did not seem to have got “value for money” from Mr Laming’s family accompanying him to Kununurra.
“You need to look at economic ways to undertake such trips and whether it’s appropriate to have your kids travel with you or not, or have your kids travel business class,” Senator Griff told The Australian.
“I’ve never had a situation where any member of my family has travelled business class with me.”
In January last year, Ms Ley was forced to step down as health minister after it was revealed she had made 27 taxpayer-funded trips to the Gold Coast in recent years, using one to buy a $795,000 apartment and another two to attend New Year’s Eve celebrations.
In 2015, Ms Bishop resigned as Speaker following revelations she had spent more than $5200 to charter a helicopter from Melbourne to a Liberal Party fundraiser near Geelong rather than making the hour-long car journey.
Mr Latham suggested the new Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority was not up to the task of cracking down on rorts. “My suspicion was always going to be that there would be members of the insiders club, the establishment, people who are very much sympathetic to parliamentary entitlements who’d be on the board of this authority,” he said.
“That is the case. I’ve got a concern that two former machine politicians — that is, people who ran political parties and were in favour of entitlements because it makes it easier to campaign at election time — they’ve been part of this authority, Gary Gray and Nick Minchin. Now I don’t think they’re hardheads.”
The Australian has confirmed that Mr Gray stood aside as an IPEA board member last year, amid the illness and subsequent death from breast cancer of his wife, Deborah Walsh.
Mr Minchin, who has been appointed as Mr Gray’s temporary replacement, said the authority had been structured so that one former MP was in the minority on the five-member board, which is chaired by former ASIC commissioner Jillian Segal.
Other board members include Remuneration Tribunal president John Conde; barrister, accountant and corporate governance expert Julianne Jaques; and former Federal Court judge Jeffrey Spender.
“The parliament sensibly decided it was a good idea to have one former MP on the board,” Mr Minchin said.
“It is useful to bring to bear my experience as a former senator, special minister of state and minister in the Howard government.
“I certainly don’t see myself there as a lobbyist for or representative of MPs, but I believe it is helpful to have my first-hand experience of the realities of being an MP at the table.”
