Bob Katter biggest buyer of Aussie flags of all federal politicians

WHICH Far Northern politician charged taxpayers more than $10,000 to buy Australian flags in just six months?

Bob Katter is a fan of flying the Australian flag. The Member for Kennedy has spent $11,000 on flags in the last financial year.

BOB Katter can lay claim to being the most patriotic politician in Australia after spending more than $11,000 on flags in just six months.

The latest parliamentary expense reports show the Member for Kennedy is still one of the biggest spenders when it comes to individual MP travel costs.

Bob Katter is a fan of flying the Australian flag. The Member for Kennedy has spent $11,000 on flags in the last financial year.

For the period January 1 to June 30, the independent politician charged taxpayers more than $62,000 in car costs, $53,513.37 in chartered flights, $46,180.27 in domestic flights and $106,325.75 in office administration costs.

Among some of the highest expenses accrued by Mr Katter was a total $11,238.94 spent on flags — the highest of any Federal politician. In comparison, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull did not claim any expenses on patriotic materials, while Leichhardt MP Warren Entsch spent $3401.01 and Dawson MP George Christensen spent $2262.50.

Bob Katter is a fan of flying the Australian flag. The Member for Kennedy has spent $11,000 on flags in the last financial year.

Mr Katter was pleased to learn he pipped the Bennelong electorate in flag distribution this year.

Bennelong MP John Alexander earned the title as Australia’s most patriotic pollie in July last year after it was revealed he spent $17,949 on flags, followed by Mr Katter on $13,320 and Maranoa MP Bruce Scott on $12,236.

Liberal Bennelong MP John Alexander. Photo: Adam Ward

“The more Australian flags flying, the better as far as far as I’m concerned,” Mr Katter said. In response to his high travel and admin costs, he said: “I hope as always that my telephone and charter bills are the highest in Australia.”

Mr Entsch made no apologies for spending taxpayers’ money on flags.

“The flags flying down at the (Cairns) RSL – there’s six of them,” he said. “Whenever they start to fade, I send six new ones ... sometimes I carry them in my glovebox, when I’m travelling up the bush.

“When I see schools that don’t have them, or councils, community groups — that’s what they’re for.”

Leichhardt MP Warren Entsch.

HIGH NEWS COST

WARREN Entsch charged taxpayers nearly $110,000 on office administration costs, which he says was mainly due to keeping his vast number of constituents informed about parliamentary business.

The new figures for the first six months of 2016 show Mr Entsch spent $237,461.95 on parliamentary expenses from January 1 to June 30, with more than $51,000 spent on travel.

A majority of this expenditure for the period was costs relating to printing and communications, totalling $90,947.55.

Mr Entsch said much of this would have included distributing electoral information to his constituents ahead of the July election; his regular newsletter that was distributed to about 90,000 households; community calendars; school leavers kits; and publishing other community information.

“I’ve got 110,000 voters,” he said.

“If I was to send each one of those one letter, there’s $110,000 just in stamps.”

The finance report shows Mr Entsch charged taxpayers $17.26 for a single copy of Dr Karl Kruszelnicki’s Biggest Book of Science Stuff (and Nonsense).

He said the book was purchased as a prize for Hugo Lawler, 8, of Freshwater Christian College, who received the National Association for Testing Authorities Young Scientist of the Year award for his experiment on burning paper with sunlight and magnifying glasses.

“I’m always getting requests from schools for books for awards,” he said.

“I do certificates, and they ask for books as prizes for a particular achievement.”

Originally published as Bob Katter biggest buyer of Aussie flags of all federal politicians