MPs’ travel expenses still flying high

TRAVEL-addicted politicians took little notice of warnings, increasing the cost to taxpayers in the second half of last year.

Barnaby Joyce racked up $18,767.04 on travel, mainly on a Tamworth-­Sydney-Canberra route.

TRAVEL-addicted politicians took little notice of warnings that flying their families on the public purse no longer met community expectations by increasing the cost to taxpayers in the second half of last year.

The bill for the family travel system, which allows parliamentarians to fly partners and kids in business class, ballooned to more than $1.3 million last year, despite an expenses scandal that brought down former Speaker Bronwyn Bishop.

While Ms Bishop’s notorious helicopter trip from Melbourne to Geelong cost her a plum job, and eventually her career, a handful of prominent politicians enraged the public by flying their families around the country.

Government frontbenchers Peter Dutton, Christopher Pyne and former treasurer Joe Hockey all came under fire for flying their families interstate in business class while ­undertaking “official business”, while Labor MPs Tony Burke and Brendan O’Connor were also heavily criticised for splurging thousands on business-class family trips to Uluru and Cairns.

It led former prime minister Tony Abbott to admit while the trips had been “inside the rules”, they were “outside community expectations” as he commissioned a review to fix the entitlements system “once and for all”.

But MPs and senators seemingly ignored his concerns in August last year, with the family travel bill amounting to $691,306 for the second half of 2015 — up more than $40,000 on the previous six months.

Former Northern Territory Labor senator Nova Peris spent the most of any parliamentarian, racking up a family travel bill of more than $26,000 with flights from Darwin to Uluru, Gove, Alice Springs, Christmas Island, Canberra, Melbourne and Sydney and Perth for her family.

Tamworth-based Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce racked up a bill of $18,767.04 for his wife and daughter, but mainly on a Tamworth-­Sydney-Canberra route.

WA politicians Linda Reynolds ($13,367.30) and Gary Gray ($12,525.33) were also among the highest spenders.

An entitlements review in March made 36 recommendations, including limiting parliamentarians’ children under 18 to three economy return fares. It also called for the eligibility of interstate family reunion travel to be tightened.

Then special minister of state Mathias Cormann said the government backed all the recommendations but a new system is yet to be implemented.

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