Labor MPs busted using publication allowance to funnel taxpayer money to an ALP think-tank
FIVE Labor MPs have been sprung using a little-known allowance meant for newspaper and magazine subscriptions to funnel taxpayers’ cash to an ALP think-tank linked to Bill Shorten.
NSW
Don't miss out on the headlines from NSW. Followed categories will be added to My News.
LABOR MPs are using a little-known electorate allowance meant for newspaper and magazines to funnel thousands of taxpayer dollars to a union-backed think tank run by leader Bill Shorten’s former adviser.
The Daily Telegraph can reveal five Labor MPs used their publications allowance to send up to $2000 each to the John Curtin Research Centre, named after the party’s wartime prime minister, under the guise of a subscription to its magazine Tocsin.
That publication is available for free online, or an annual print subscription to the think tank — run by former Shorten staffer Nick Dyrenfurth — costs just $50.
But Labor MPs Mike Kelly, Michael Danby, Peter Khalil, Tim Hammond and Kimberley Kitching have all subscribed at an annual cost of about $1000 each.
The JCRC was launched by Mr Shorten last year, and is used BY his Right faction to campaign for policies and to publicise a number of MPs.
In recent issues, Tocsin has published a piece by Dr Kelly rubbishing the Coalition’s national security policies as “at times … the worst kind of jingoism” and Labor frontbencher Kim Carr on “why we must be a nation which makes things”.
The subscriptions are noted under the publications allowance by the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority, an allowance used by most MPs to pay for newspaper, magazine and books used as part of their work.
MORE
NEWSPOLL FIRMS LABOR AS ELECTION FAVOURITE IN 2018
ALINTA ENERGY TO BUY LIDDELL POWER STATION: TURNBULL
REBEL MPS DEMAND REBUILD OF HAZELWOOD POWER STATION
In the three months to the end of September last year, Mr Danby spent $2000 on a two-year Tocsin subscription but just $461 on newspapers, records show.
Dr Kelly spent $909 for a one-year subscription and $262 on newspapers.
Mr Khalil and Senator Kitching, both close confidants of Mr Shorten, spent $1818 and $1000 on Tocsin respectively, with no other publication expenses.
Mr Hammond, Labor’s consumer affairs spokesman, spent $1000 on Tocsin and $885 on other newspapers in the last three months of last year.
Tocsin has published four issues — all freely available — since being launched by Mr Shorten and also counts Ms Kitching and Mr Khalil as contributors.
In a statement, the Labor MPs said the Finance Department was “satisfied the subscription was within parliamentary work expenses guidelines”.
“Members and Senators are offered an institutional subscription, not a personal subscription,” the statement reads.
Mr Danby told The Daily Telegraph he “worked closely with the JCRC which produces ideas for a better and fairer Australia”.
“For instance they are shortly to publish results of some mutual research on the democratic effect of long term Labor efforts to ensure that millions of unenrolled Australians have a chance to vote,” he said.
Mr Dyrenfurth did not respond to queries about the total number of institutional subscriptions, not publicised on the website, taken out.