Pollies and staffers to declare expenses each month under Territory Alliance policy

GOVERNMENT ministers and their staffers would be forced to divulge how much they’ve spent on official travel, credit cards and mobile phones under a Territory Alliance policy to ramp up accountability

GOVERNMENT ministers and their staffers would be forced to divulge how much they’ve spent on official travel, credit cards and mobile phones at the end of each month under a Territory Alliance policy to ramp up accountability.

The measures, part of a gamut of transparency measures expected to be released by the party in the lead-up to the election, would apply also to the Opposition leader and Speaker’s office.

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Ministers and staffers would publish online at the end of each month how much they’ve spent on overseas and interstate travel, how much they’ve put on the official work credit card and their mobile phone costs.

In the NT, quarterly reports on overseas travel are supposed to be published each quarter, although this hasn’t been done since June 2019. Fuel transactions of each MLA are also published each quarter.

Comparatively in Queensland, quarterly reports are published for overseas travel, how much is spent on catering for “minor meetings”, how much each minister has spent, what gifts they received and each month ministers publish a diary of meetings and events they attended.

Territory Alliance's Terry Mills and Araluen MLA and Territory Alliance deputy Robyn Lambley. Picture Katrina Bridgeford.

The electoral donation log in Queensland is also in real-time, with political outfits to disclose monetary gifts within a week of receiving them and within a day if the gift is received seven days before an election.

The NT’s Independent Commissioner against Corruption, in its recent investigation into Speaker Kezia Purick, found how MLAs spend their electoral allowances was “far from transparent”.

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Each MLA has an effective slush fund worth between $60,500 and $118,500 to be used at their own discretion.

The ICAC report stated this lack of oversight “increases the risk that members will misuse government resources”.

Territory Alliance leader Terry Mills said ministers had “too often in the past’ misused taxpayer funds for “lavish overseas trips” of dubious value to Territorians.