Tania Mihailuk charged ratepayers for alcohol, weekend meals, and expensive cabs

One Nation candidate Tania Mihailuk charged thousands of dollars worth of food, booze, and cabs to Bankstown ratepayers while she was the local mayor, council receipts obtained by The Telegraph have revealed.

One Nation candidate Tania Mihailuk charged thousands of dollars worth of food, booze, and cabs to Bankstown ratepayers while she was the local mayor, claiming reimbursements for things like vodka, Baileys, cartons of beer, and takeaway Sunday meals.

Ms Mihailuk insisted all the spending was within council rules.

Council receipts, obtained by The Daily Telegraph under freedom of information laws, also reveal that Ms Mihailuk spent $468.35 on a single cab ride from “suburbs to Bankstown” in March 2009.

The massive fare was among about $8000 Ms Mihailuk charged back to the ratepayer in cab fares between 2007 and 2009 according to the receipts.

Expense reimbursement forms, obtained by the Telegraph, show when Ms Mihailuk was on Bankstown council she would routinely claim back costs for food and alcohol, including for takeaway meals over the weekend.

One Nation candidate Tania Mihailuk with leader Mark Latham. Picture: Alexi Demetriadi

That included meals for her children when they accompanied her to council events.

The expense claims only included numbered receipts to justify the expenses; no explanation was provided for the spending.

Ms Mihailuk joined One Nation after quitting the Labor Party over Khal Asfour’s preselection Picture: Alexi Demetriadi

Ms Mihailuk claimed back the cost of cartons of Pure Blonde, James Squire, and Crown Lager. She charged ratepayers for bottles Baileys, vodka, Johnny Walker scotch and Tia Maria.

Among the food spending was $45 at a Bankstown restaurant for a takeaway Sunday meal.

On September 25, 2009 – a Friday evening – she bought a Pepsi max, an orange juice, an apple juice and two Corona beers at Bankstown sports club Piazza bar, before spending $67 on pizza and then another $11.50 on chocolate mousse and ice cream.

Ms Mihailuk was on Bankstown council before being elected to parliament. Picture: Tim Hunter.

A register of gifts purchased by the council also revealed that the council paid for flowers to mark the birth of Ms Mihailuk’s child, and for floral arrangements for something described as “Tania Mihailuk christening”.

The gifts were purchased by council’s executive services branch, not Ms Mihailuk herself.

It comes after Canterbury-Bankstown Mayor Khal Asfour was dumped from Labor’s upper house ticket over the Telegraph’s revelations that he claimed back thousands for luxury clothes and $121 for a massage in Tokyo. The expenses claims and receipts were released under a freedom of information request before being sought by a parliamentary inquiry. Mr Asfour blamed his decision to withdraw from the election on a “smear campaign” and insisted his own spending was also within council rules.

Khal Asfour withdrew from the election after The Daily Telegraph revealed his council spending. Photo Jeremy Piper

Mr Asfour last week used parliamentary privilege to claim Ms Mihailuk used council funds to pay for “takeaway Chinese meals for her family … and the occasional late-night fine-dining experience”.

When the Telegraph revealed Mr Asfour’s spending was revealed last month, One Nation Leader Mark Latham slammed the Canterbury-Bankstown mayor for “largesse”.

Quizzed on her own spending in January, Ms Mihailuk said all her spending while on council was within the rules.

“There were medical reasons as to why I was relying on taxis, which was completely supported by the general manager at the time,” Ms Mihailuk said in January.

She said she claimed money for alcohol used as gifts for “local people who were providing services, like volunteers or veterans, which was council policy”.

Ms Mihailuk declined to comment.

Mr Latham said Ms Mihailuk had “answered all these points three weeks ago at our press conference in Bankstown”.