Barnaby Joyce bills taxpayers to sleep 90min from home
BARNABY Joyce claimed hundreds of dollars in taxpayer-funded allowances to stay 90 minutes from his family home last year, while still together with wife Natalie.
NSW
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BARNABY Joyce claimed hundreds of dollars in taxpayer-funded allowances to stay 90 minutes from his family home last year, while still together with wife Natalie.
In March, while Mr Joyce was meant to be living with his wife and children near Tamworth, he repeatedly claimed the $372 a night allowance to sleep in Armidale, just over 100km away.
As a minister, Mr Joyce is entitled to claim the taxpayer-funded allowance to spend nights away from home only if he has ministerial business.
The Sunday Telegraph can find no record of media events or parliamentary business in Armidale on those nights.
A further audit of Mr Joyce’s parliamentary expenses also reveals he charged taxpayers to spend more than 80 per cent of nights on the road in March last year.
During that month, Mr Joyce claimed taxpayer-funded travel allowance for 26 nights compared to Treasurer Scott Morrison, who spent 10 nights away from home.
In May, when the federal Government handed down its budget, Mr Joyce again claimed travel allowance on 25 nights — more than Mr Morrison and Senator Mathias Cormann, who hold key economic portfolios.
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In August last year, when Mr Joyce reportedly assured Mr Turnbull that his affair with his former staffer was over, he claimed the nightly allowance for 25 nights.
Yesterday Mr Joyce was asked why he claimed the allowance to stay 90 minutes from his family home last March.
His office did not respond to the request before deadline.