Nick Xenophon: We must clean up pollies’ perks ... and we must do it now

ENOUGH is enough. The latest pollies’ expenses scandal shows what a shemozzle the current system is, says independent senator Nick Xenophon.

ENOUGH is enough. No wonder so many Australians can’t stand politicians, and in the process lose trust in our democratic institutions.

No wonder so many Australians feel they are being played for mugs.

The latest pollies’ expenses scandal — triggered by stood-down Health Minister Sussan Ley and her “impulse” buy of a luxury Gold Coast apartment while claiming parliamentary travel expenses — shows what a shemozzle the current system is.

And maybe it tells us a deeper truth about how out of touch the political class can be.

How can pollies be trusted to fix the nation’s problems when we can’t even get our own house in order?

It doesn’t have to be like this.

Minister for Health and Aged Care Sussan Ley. Picture: AAP

Pollies do need to travel to do their jobs. But the current system is as clear as mud, and too often (like now) the mud that’s thrown seems to be sticking to all politicians.

I’ve found Sussan Ley personable and decent to deal with as Health Minister, and she claims “I have nothing to hide — I have not broken any of the rules”.

The problem is, the rules are broken, and with them the public’s trust — there being no fewer than four independent reviews into pollies’ perks in the past five years, including an auditor-general’s investigation 2015.

The most recent review, whose findings were released in February 2016, was triggered by the Bronwyn Bishop Choppergate scandal in 2015.

Remember that? Bronwyn Bishop had billed taxpayers $5227.27 for an 80km helicopter flight from Melbourne to a golf course in Geelong to attend a Liberal Party function.

At the time, then PM Tony Abbott said he wanted the system overhauled with a “root and branch” review to make the rules clearer and easier to understand. Channelling Mick Jagger’s song The Last Time, Abbott said of the scandal “I hope it’s the last time” to an Adelaide radio station.

But the root and branch review, ­instead of being a big stick to reform the system, has, by government inaction, turned into a twig.

With its 36 recommendations, it called for increased transparency and made the quaint point that some parliamentary travel had been “inside ­entitlement, but outside community expectations” — which, translated into proper English, means they failed the pub test.

Increasingly, it seems a lot of travel claims will be laughed out of the pub before they can even be tested.

Back in September 2015 I introduced legislation into the Senate that would have established an independent watchdog for pollies’ expenses, required monthly reporting online for all to see, given long-suffering taxpayers the right to make complaints to the watchdog, and significantly increased penalties for noncompliance.

Currently an MP caught out on a dodgy claim only has to pay back the amount of the claim with a 25 per cent penalty. It needs to be at least double the original amount — and four times as much for repeat offenders.

There’s nothing like pinching an MP’s hip-pocket nerve to make them think twice and change their ways.

Back then the major parties said my bill wasn’t necessary because of the Abbott-instigated review. A lame excuse given that the review — and three others like it — have been ­ignored by the political class.

Next month, I will reintroduce the bill and my warning to my colleagues is: ignore it at your peril.

This latest entitlements scandal is as corrosive to trust in our elected ­representatives as an acid bath.

It’s time we drained it.

Winston Churchill said “we should never let a good crisis go to waste”.

Because if we don’t restore confidence with real reforms, real soon, these words of Mick Jagger will come back to haunt all pollies: ‘Well I told you once and I told you twice, someone will have to pay the price.”

Nick Xenophon is an independent senator