Crossbench MP Fraser Ellis plans to defend fraud charges and speak ‘uncomfortable truths’ about Marshall Government policies
He quit the Liberal Party after being charged with fraud – now sources say MP Fraser Ellis plans to utter “uncomfortable truths” about the Premier’s policies.
SA News
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Crossbench MP Fraser Ellis is poised to “speak some uncomfortable truths” on State Government policy as he defends 23 charges of rorting a parliamentary allowance by arguing his errors were unintentional.
It is understood Mr Ellis, who last Friday quit the Liberal Party in a shock late-night announcement, will attempt to explain an accommodation claim made after attending an event 10 minutes from his Yorke Peninsula home and emphasise the $42,130 he has repaid.
Sources close to Mr Ellis have confirmed he intends to honour his written promise to Premier Steven Marshall not to back a no-confidence motion to bring down the government or to block supply.
But they signalled that Mr Ellis was expected to use parliamentary privilege to outline “uncomfortable truths” on as-yet-unspecified policy issues, seizing on new-found political freedom as one of five independent MPs.
Mr Ellis in 2018 was among four conservative Liberal MPs who crossed the floor to vote with Labor three times to put off a vote on mining reforms.
His resignation has plunged the Liberals into minority government, because the defection means the Liberals have 22 MPs on the lower house floor, with 19 Labor MPs and five crossbenchers.
Mr Ellis, elected in 2018 as the MP for Narungga, stunned parliament last Friday when he rose at 2.12am to declare he had been charged the previous day with offences arising from an Independent Commission Against Corruption investigation into the possible misuse of the Parliamentary Country Members Accommodation Allowance.
He vowed to “vigorously” defend the allegations.
Independent Commissioner Against Corruption Ann Vanstone QC later issued a public statement confirming the charges against Mr Ellis over 78 allegedly fraudulent claims for the country members allowance totalling more than $18,000.
She pointedly noted her “investigation into claims by other members continues”.
“It will be alleged that Ellis claimed the allowance for nights he did not spend in Adelaide,” Ms Vanstone said in the February 19 statement.
In July, The Advertiser revealed Mr Ellis had claimed the allowance for a night when he was photographed at an event just 10 minutes from his Yorke Peninsula home, but declared he was staying in the city.
Mr Ellis will argue he drove back to Adelaide after being photographed at the event, to stay the night ahead of a 9am parliamentary committee meeting the next day.
His defence also is likely to include confusion over a 2018 allowance rule change.
Former ministers Stephan Knoll and Tim Whetstone, along with former Upper House president Terry Stephens, resigned in July last year after revelations over the country accommodation allowance. Mr Knoll admitted three incorrect travel claims but also paid back almost $30,000 due to claimed ambiguity in the rules. Mr Whetstone repaid almost $7000.
An ICAC announcement last October significantly cleared the former ministers and several other country MPs of misconduct or corruption. The statement was silent on the status of other Liberals – Mr Ellis and Mr Stephens – but urged no conclusion should be drawn from that.
A Liberal MP said on Wednesday there was a view in some sections of the party that a 2018 change to rules governing the country members allowance had “turned what was a reasonably simple process involving a per diem payment into a minefield”.
“Pretty much without exception, that’s what all these country Liberals have walked into,” the MP said.
Another Liberal holding a country seat said the rule change had been so confusing and complex that the MP had stopped claiming the allowance until taking advice from lawyers and accountants to decipher the process.
Mr Ellis did not respond to requests for comment.
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