Daniel Andrews orders review after rorting of MPs’ second-residence allowance

Victorian MPs will face tough new expenses restrictions after the fall of the state’s Speaker and Deputy Speaker.

Former Victorian Speaker Telmo Languiller will repay nearly $40,000 he claimed. Picture: Tim Carrafa

Victorian MPs will face tough new restrictions to their expenses after a horror weekend for the government saw the fall of both the state’s Speaker and Deputy Speaker.

Labor Premier Daniel Andrews will meet the cabinet today to block city MPs from accessing a second-residence allowance, with a review under way to look at Victoria’s entitlements system more broadly.

Former Speaker Telmo Languiller and deputy Don Nardella quit on Saturday after they were found to be living outside their outer-suburbs electorates in beachside homes supported by the second-residence allowance.

The Premier said Special Minister of State Gavin Jennings would lead a review to clear up who could and could not access funds for a second residence outside their electorate. “No room for interpretation, no room for what has occurred here to ever occur again,” he said.

The review will cover a range of other entitlements available to state MPs.

The expenses scandals have been a distraction for a Labor government which has recently struggled on several policy fronts, including law and order.

Mr Andrews refused to say whether he would force Labor’s city MPs to actually live in their electorates. “There will be many people living in many different circumstances,” he said.

Mr Languiller has said he will pay back nearly $40,000 he claimed for a home in Queens­cliff, despite representing the western-suburbs electorate of Tarneit, nearly 70km away. Mr Nardella is yet to reveal whether he will pay back more than $100,000 he claimed for his Ocean Grove home, nearly 90km from his seat of Melton.

The Premier said he would wait for a forensic audit of both men’s expenses to wrap up before he made a judgment on how and when they should pay.

“The most important thing now is to let the audit committee deal with these matters and I have confidence that both gentlemen will co-operate with the audit committee,” he said.

The MPs have said they will not resign from Victoria’s lower house, saving the government from two potentially embarrassing by-elections, but Mr Andrews refused to back them for next year’s election.
“There will be a preselection round later on in this term and, again, whether they’re candidates or not will be entirely a matter for them,” he said.

Opposition Leader Matthew Guy said second-residence allowance rules were already clear and demanded the Premier force Mr Nardella to pay back the allowance he claimed.