Another State Government Minister has been asked to explain travel allowance claims
Another senior minister has come under fire over travel allowances after a visit to a country rodeo sparked Opposition claims taxpayers were being billed for electorate work.
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A senior State Government minister has come under fire for claiming a travel allowance for a night’s stay in Adelaide – after returning from a country rodeo.
Energy and Mining Minister Dan van Holst Pellekaan had attended the Kapunda Rodeo in November last year before staying in Adelaide, where he claimed the country members’ accommodation allowance.
It was part of a list of claims the senior minister, who lives in Wilmington, 300km north of Adelaide, but has a unit in Payenham, made in November amid a raft of duties, including parliamentary sitting days, cabinet meetings as well as official functions. But it was the rodeo claim that caught the attention of the opposition, which claimed the minister should not be claiming the allowance for electorate work.
Opposition government accountability spokesman Tom Koutsantonis told the Sunday Mail that the accommodation allowance should only be used for appointments in Adelaide.
The Kapunda Rodeo was held on Saturday, November 16, and is understood to have finished at about 10pm.
A government spokesman said the minister attended the Premier’s Awards in Energy and Mining on Friday night, staying in Adelaide overnight.
“On Saturday night, the minister stayed in Adelaide, and during the weekend undertook ministerial work in Adelaide as well as attending electorate duties in the southern half of his electorate,” the spokesman said.
“The minister stayed in Adelaide before the Monday morning cabinet meeting.”
Mr van Holst Pellekaan, who represents the seat of Stuart, receives an electorate allowance of $51,423 each year due to the size of his electorate.
Stuart, SA’s second largest electorate, covers the northeast, extending from just north of the Barossa Valley all the way to the Northern Territory, Queensland and NSW borders.
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Mr Koutsantonis said: “On what basis does Mr Dan van Holst Pellekaan justify claiming the allowance when he spent the day in his electorate at a rodeo?
“Given the minister’s only event on Saturday the 16th of November 2019, for which he already receives a very large electorate allowance, was in Kapunda, it is now for the minister to explain what made him entitled to claim for that night’s stay in Adelaide from the country members’ accommodation allowance, given his engagement was in his electorate, not Adelaide.”
Last Sunday, senior ministers Stephan Knoll, David Ridgway and Tim Whetstone all quit after revelations over country travel entitlements and the use of a ministerial chauffeur.
Upper house president Terry Stephens has also revealed he would resign from his position. It followed a Sunday Mail report that Premier Steven Marshall was growing increasingly concerned about “distractions” that were taking focus away from government priorities.
Ten years of country members’ accommodation allowance claims were tabled in parliament late last month.
