Opposition Leader accuses disgraced Melton MP of $250k rort

OPPOSITION Leader Matthew Guy has accused disgraced Melton MP Don Nardella of claiming up to $250,000 from a controversial taxpayer-funded allowance to live outside his electorate.

Victorian opposition leader Matthew Guy. Picture: AAP/Alex Murray

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OPPOSITION Leader Matthew Guy has accused disgraced Melton MP Don Nardella of claiming up to $250,000 from a controversial taxpayer-funded allowance to live outside his electorate.

Mr Nardella was forced to quit the parliamentary Labor Party because he refused to pay back more than $100,000 he claimed to live in Ocean Grove while maintaining ­another home in Mordialloc.

Mr Guy grilled Premier Daniel Andrews in Question Time on Thursday about whether Mr Nardella was also claiming the allowance while living in Ballarat, before he moved to the seaside town in early 2014 because of a difficult breakup.

Mr Guy said the Melton MP had lived in Ballarat “for years” and asked Mr Andrews: “Is it not a fact that the member for Melton’s total rort is not $113,000 ... it’s closer to $250,000?”

Don Nardella votes in parliament. Picture: Nicole Garmston

Mr Andrews said he had asked Mr Nardella to repay the money he claimed but said he was “not in a position to confirm any of the matters raised” by the Opposition Leader.

“The entitlements paid to each member of parliament ... are not administered by the premier or the government of the day,” Mr Andrews said. “I am unable to provide information I simply do not have.”

Deputy Opposition Leader Peter Walsh accused the Premier of imitating the 1960s TV character Sgt Schultz from Hogan’s Heroes.

“Not knowing anything and not seeing anything,” Mr Walsh said.

Mr Andrews said he was confident a parliamentary audit committee would properly investigate the matter.

For a third day in a row, Coalition MPs yelled “rorter” across the chamber at deflated government MPs.

Mr Nardella — who told reporters to “f--k off” this week — appeared unmoved as he ­focused on his phone while sitting on the crossbench.

The Opposition later brought a caravan to parliament in a stunt designed to pressure the government to reveal whether Mr Nardella was in fact claiming a caravan as his home in Ocean Grove.

Matthew Guy after the Opposition brought a caravan to parliament. Picture: Nicole Garmston

“This, a caravan, at a block of land in Ocean Grove does not constitute a principal place of residence of a member of parliament who owns two homes,” Mr Guy said.

“This must now become a police investigation.”

The Herald Sun revealed on Thursday that Mr Nardella had owned two rental properties in his Melton electorate.

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