Emma Husar’s Comcars raise more questions

Labor MP Emma Husar appears to have continued her use of taxpayer-funded Comcars for recent trips around Sydney.

Emma Husar in parliament yesterday. Picture: Kym Smith

Federal Labor MP Emma Husar appears to have continued her use of taxpayer-funded Comcars for trips around Sydney in recent months, despite rules saying backbenchers should use their private-plated cars and claim petrol expenses for business travel in their home cities.

Ms Husar’s latest expenditure report shows she used chauffeur-driven Comcar limousines at least six times for day trips around Sydney in the June quarter.

The hometown Comcar usage, costing almost $1200, is likely to be added to thousands of dollars of other limousine spending already under review by the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority, after the Labor MP was forced to refer herself for an audit.

Ms Husar announced last month she would not recontest her seat at the federal election following a scandal over her alleged bullying of staff. She vehemently denies the allegations.

She faces a political battle on another front over claims she may have misused her parliamentary entitlements, including a reliance on taxpayer-funded Comcars in Sydney “as a taxi service for functions and personal appointments”.

Under IPEA rules, backbench MPs are entitled to use Comcars for transport in Canberra and interstate, including related trips to and from airports, providing the travel follows defined guidelines on parliamentary business.

The rules state Comcars are “not available” when MPs could reasonably use private-plated ­vehicles that are publicly funded for self-drive in their home cities.

Ms Husar agreed to refer herself to the IPEA for an audit of her parliamentary expenditure early last month following controversy over reports she spent more than $2000 in taxpayer funds on ­Comcars last year to attend events involving no interstate flights or other travel.

The Sydney events included a women’s shelter reception and an NDIS committee meeting.

In her latest IPEA expenditure report for the June quarter, Ms Husar lists 28 occasions on which she used Comcars. Of these, the majority involved trips to Canberra, Perth, Melbourne and Brisbane that took her away from her Lindsay electorate in Sydney’s west for days or weeks at a time.

 

But six of the claimed Comcar expenses appear to be day trips in Sydney, with no corresponding flights or travel allowance to indicate she left the city for parliamentary business.

Ms Husar used Comcars in Sydney twice on April 5, twice on April 12 and twice on May 17.

The Australian yesterday asked Ms Husar, who has returned to parliament in Canberra after stress-related leave related to the bullying allegations, if she could confirm what were official matters justifying the six uses of Comcars in Sydney in April and May. She did not respond.

One senior Labor source said it was possible Ms Husar had been representing Bill Shorten or a shadow minister at a Sydney event, and might argue a Comcar was justified for official business.

IPEA provisions make no such exceptions for backbenchers, with a car and petrol provided in their home cities to represent leaders or frontbenchers.

Ms Husar defended her use of Comcars in Sydney two months ago when allegations surfaced.

Through a spokesman from Mr Shorten’s office, she said then that there were “extenuating circumstances” requiring travel from her western Sydney electorate to local events such as a lack of parking that would have ruled out the use of her own private-plated car.