Pressure mounts as second minister faces audit over travel entitlements
Updated ,first published
Attorney-General Michelle Rowland is the second minister to use the exercise of family travel rights to monitor; Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he had asked parliament’s spending watchdog for advice on rules governing politicians’ spending.
The decision to refer Rowland’s expenses to the Independent Parliamentary Expenditures Authority (IPEA) came to light three days after beleaguered Sports and Communications Minister Anika Wells lodged her own claims for an audit following a week of headlines about her use of privilege. flying her husband to their first consecutive sporting events, their kids to Thredbo for ski tripand I’m leaving Taxpayer-funded chauffeured cars idle for hours external events.
Rowland finished fifth. List of federal MPs claiming the right to family reunificationts first billed taxpayers $16,050 for three family flights on a week-long trip to Western Australia in 2023; This puts the total trip cost at $21,685. Australian Financial Review.
A spokesman for Rowland said on Friday: “The Attorney-General has sent a trip to the Independent Parliamentary Expenditure Authority to seek advice from 2023.”
Rowland spent the most on family benefits of all capital MPs on the east coast ($52,600 over 3.5 years), followed by Wells. They both have young families.
The Prime Minister insisted at a press conference at the Tomago aluminum smelter in NSW on Friday that he had sought advice from the spending authority on the rules, a day after staunchly defending MPs’ use of their powers..
“At least two members of parliament have referred them to details of their audits. But in addition to this we have asked IPEA, please give us some advice and we will take it into account and once that advice is received we will make a decision as usual,” he told reporters.
Albanese had previously said he would welcome the watchdog’s advice when asked about Wells, but did not confirm he had sought further advice from the organisation.
Asked to clarify the day on which it sought advice from IPEA, he said: “I always ask publicly.”
A. Statement issued by the official on Friday night He confirmed that the Prime Minister had made the request.
“The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Independent Parliamentary Expenditures Authority (IPEA) has received a request from the Prime Minister to provide preliminary advice on certain aspects of parliamentary travel,” the statement said.
“The CEO will respond to the Prime Minister’s request in due course. IPEA will not otherwise comment on the details of the Prime Minister’s request or the CEO’s response.”
Earlier on Friday, Opposition Leader Sussan Ley wrote to Albanese demanding Wells be investigated by the prime minister’s office and offering to meet to make bipartisan reforms to the entitlement system.
Ley told Sky News: “What Minister Anika Wells has done is clearly scandalous and the whole country is stunned by all the information they have received about her actions. She has not shown an ounce of remorse. She has not stepped forward and apologized or understood what Australians are struggling with.”
Ley was forced to resign as president in 2017 after it was revealed that Malcolm Turnbull had used a taxpayer-funded trip to buy a property on the Gold Coast.
The independent watchdog’s investigation into Wells, which could take months to complete, has the power to interview ministers about events for which they have claimed travel rights, check calendars and examine metadata to determine whether business events are planned around social events already locked into the calendar.
The government gave a signal earlier on Friday that reform of powers could be on the table after Albanese repeatedly insisted. shirked responsibility for dealing with the ordealHealth Secretary Mark Butler said the IPEA investigation could herald legislative reform.
“I think we should wait for the independent authority to give advice,” Butler said. sunrise When asked if the rules should be changed.
“If [reforms] “Then it would have to be enacted through legislation, and I’m sure we would do that.”
The Parliamentary Employment Resources Act requires an independent review every three years, but the last report was completed in late 2021.
The government postponed the next review twice, Australian Financial Review According to reports, this event is planned to take place in late 2027.
Ley said he told the prime minister that Wells had told him ministers’ behavior should be investigated for possible breaches of the ministerial code of conduct, which says ministers should not waste or squander public resources.
“What I would like to see is public confidence being restored and public confidence in the system, which has clearly been derailed under Prime Minister Albanese,” he said.
Ley has so far left attacks on government spending to finance spokesman James Paterson as the debate has dragged on for more than a week.
Asked about his own expenses scandal on Friday, Ley said: “I raised my hand, apologized, resigned and held myself accountable to the department’s code of conduct.”
Read more about the spending myth
Brittany Busch is the federal politics correspondent for The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email.
