Jetsetting speaker Telmo Languiller racks up $50,000 travel bill

STATE Parliament’s jetsetting speaker has racked up a $50,000 travel bill, including two trips to his home country as millions are charged by pollies to the public purse.

Legislative Assembly speaker Telmo Languiller. Picture: AAP

THE jetsetting speaker in State Parliament has racked up a $50,000 international travel bill, even charging taxpayers for two trips to his home country.

Labor’s Telmo Languiller, who is in charge of the Legislative Assembly, visited Uruguay twice in the past year to meet political leaders at a cost of more than $17,000.

It was also revealed yesterday that the 88 members of the Legislative Assembly spent $3.4 million on travel in the past year, the equivalent of about $39,000 per politician.

Greens leader Greg Barber said it showed an independent person was needed to scrutinise spending and uphold parliamentary standards. “(Mr Languiller) is the bloke who is approving other people’s travel plans, I’m not sure who is approving his,” Mr Barber said.

Mr Languiller’s two South American trips included stops in Argentina, where he was exiled to after his involvement in Uruguayan union activist movements in the 1970s. He then migrated to Australia in 1974 and was elected to Victorian Parliament in 1999.

Mr Languiller’s first trip, from September 18 to October 2, cost $12,676 and involved meetings with Uruguay’s Vice President and official visits to the parliaments in Uruguay and Argentina.

In April, he spent $4755 on another 10-day trip to visit government and parliamentary officials in both countries.

Mr Languiller did not return calls from the Herald Sun yesterday.

He also spent $4499 on a trip to Sri Lanka, $9649 to visit Japan and Korea, and $15,172 to meet parliamentary officials in Cuba.

Taxpayers were billed another $3642 for flights that had to be altered when Mr Languiller was overseas and ill health prevented him from attending a conference in Canada.

Senior government minister Richard Wynne said MPs were transparent about their spending and taxpayers did get “good value for money”.

“We can learn from overseas experiences and bring that back and offer, I think, some of the leanings you get ... and apply them here in Melbourne,” Mr Wynne said.

Fellow senior minister Jaala Pulford said the public had a right to ask “absolutely legitimate questions ... about value for money” but MPs provided public reports about the value of their trips.

Legislative Council President Bruce Atkinson spent only $560.90 of the upper house department’s budget last year, claiming travel and accommodation costs while leading a delegation to strengthen sister-state arrangements in Japan and South Korea.

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