Crackdown on international travel allowance for MPs after backbench backlash
New rules to limit overseas travel by Victorian MPs have sparked a backlash among backbenchers, with some pollies fighting back against the crackdown.
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Victorian MPs are fighting back against new rules which prevent some of them taking taxpayer-funded overseas junkets.
The Sunday Herald Sun can reveal the independent pollie pay tribunal’s crackdown on international travel is now being reviewed amid a backlash from backbench MPs.
After years of questionable overseas trips, the cost of which did not have to be declared, the tribunal introduced new rules three months ago to clean up the system.
It established a $10,000 international travel allowance for “parliamentary business” by office holders including ministers, committee chairs and presiding officers.
That upset backbench MPs who say they can no longer get taxpayers to cover the cost of trips to visit sister cities or investigate policies they think are relevant to their Victorian electorates.
Special Minister of State Gavin Jennings was forced to intervene, telling the tribunal its ruling meant “some MPs, especially MPs that do not hold a parliamentary office, may no longer have a mechanism to claim expenses for travel outside of Australia”.
The clerks of both houses of parliament also asked the tribunal to reverse its decision, saying MPs could no longer claim the cost of study tours and parliamentary friendship group trips.
The tribunal is now reviewing the matter and “seeking feedback from interested parties”.
In his letter, Mr Jennings said “a number of my colleagues have approached me seeking clarification of matters for implementation”.
He also called for a clearer definition of “parliamentary business” to include shadow ministers, and changes to which MPs could claim a separate commercial transport allowance in Victoria.
It is understood some MPs have already delayed or scrapped plans for overseas travel that would no longer be covered by the new international allowance.
The tribunal was set up by the Andrews Government to overhaul pollie pay and perks after ex-Labor MPs Don Nardella and Telmo Languiller used allowances meant for regional MPs.
The Sunday Herald Sun revealed Mr Nardella later spent thousands of dollars of taxpayers’ money on a junket to France just months before he retired from parliament.
Prior to the rules, introduced in September, jetsetting MPs had taken a string of overseas jaunts this year.
Liberal MP Craig Ondarchie visited Manchester to compare its issues to the Northern Metropolitan region he represents.
He spent three days with soccer giant Manchester City, owned by City Football Group, which also owns Melbourne City — which counts Mr Ondarchie as an ambassador.
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Liberal MP Bev McArthur spent three weeks in the UK and Scandinavia, although her travel report only listed 11 days of work, during which she visited energy-to-waste plants as part of her work on a committee investigating recycling.
Labor MP Frank McGuire joined the European Australian Business Council’s 2019 mission and met Denmark’s Crown Princess Mary.
From next year, parliament must publish quarterly reports detailing allowances claimed MPs.