Anthony Albanese spent $4m on VIP flights in just over a year, parliamentary expenses show
Anthony Albanese’s VIP flight tally doesn’t include his mammoth travel blitz in October and November this year.
Anthony Albanese spent nearly $4m on VIP flights in just over a year, even before his mammoth travel blitz this year when he visited China, the Cook Islands and the US twice within a month.
The new data released by the Department of Defence on Wednesday showed the Prime Minister spent more than his Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles, who came under pressure earlier this year over the number and cost of VIP flights he had taken.
Since April 2022, Mr Marles’ flights cost $2.6m.
The Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority also published new figures on Wednesday for the first time since the last federal election covering MPs’ expenses between July and September 2022.
It showed Mr Albanese spent more than any other MP in the third quarter of last year on parliamentary expenses, racking up a bill of almost $700,000 after taking on the country’s top job.
Current and former MPs were critical of IPEA’s reporting, noting there was duplication of expenses, a lack of clarity over what some expenses meant and less detailed information about the expenses available to the public.
The VIP flights and parliamentary expenses were also often released as aggregate totals rather than itemised spending, and the government no longer includes the date a special purpose flight was taken or its departure and arrival locations.
The reduction in transparency was slammed by public integrity experts, the opposition and the Greens.
Centre for Public Integrity director Geoffrey Watson said: “What we’ve got is a change of format so we don’t get the breakdown, so we are not permitted to see why money was being spent, where money was being spent, whether there was waste, where there was excessive spending or where there was an absence of necessity.
“I didn’t think it was possible but this is a worse example of an absence of transparency than even under the last Coalition government.”
Greens justice spokesman David Shoebridge said Labor was not acting in the public interest, warning bland expenditure totals stripped of details did little to inform Australians or do justice to the great majority of public officials who use public funds carefully and respectfully.
“From inside the system it is incredibly frustrating that days and days of form filing and clunky compliance is not producing the information the public expect and deserve on parliamentary expenses,” he said.
Manager of Opposition Business Paul Fletcher said the Albanese government’s time in office had “been characterised by less scrutiny and less transparency”.
The Albanese government has previously claimed that details about VIP flights for ministers could not be published for national security reasons.
Leader of the House Tony Burke was the second highest spending parliamentarian in last year’s third quarter (more than $398,000), followed by Peter Dutton (more than $363,000), Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek (more than $326,000) and Resources Minister Madeleine King (over $319,000).
Special Minister of State Don Farrell said there would be a fast-tracked schedule of IPEA reporting until all expenses were up to date, declaring the parliamentary expenditure management system had been “severely mismanaged” under the Morrison government.
“This should never have happened,” he said.
“This system has never functioned as intended, and complaints across the parliament have been consistent since its commencement in 2018. From opposition we raised hundreds of questions, over successive years, including repeated questioning at Senate estimates – all of which fell on deaf ears.”
More on 2022 Q3 parliamentary expenses
Mr Albanese charged Australians nearly $83,000 on overseas trips between July and September 2022 and more than $10,000 on car services.
Mr Albanese’s family travel totalled more than $2600 while 61 staff members racked up more than $512,000 on trips. Mr Albanese’s travel included $95,000 for a two-week trip to Spain and France for the NATO summit in July, $6.5k for a two-day trip to Fiji and over $4000 for travel to Indonesia in June.
Mr Burke, who is also Workplace Relations Minister, spent over $46,000 on airfares for a two-day trip to the United States last July to attend the 30th Australian-American Leadership Dialogue. He spent almost $7000 on domestic flights.
The Opposition Leader spent more than $29,500 on domestic flights and more than $9000 on accommodation across 25 nights.
His 31 staff members charged nearly $196,000 in travel expenses, compared to $5000 in travel costs for his family members.
By comparison, Deputy Liberal Leader Sussan Ley spent just over $13,500 in domestic flights and did not charge for any travel for family members.
Ms Plibersek spent nearly $162,000 on her office in just three months making her the top spender on office facilities across all parliamentarians. This was followed by Ms Ley (over $160,000) and independent MP Kylea Tink ($158,000).
Ms Plibersek also spent nearly $6000 across two international trips overseas including a week in Portugal and nearly $2000 for four days in Indonesia.
Coalition backbencher Darren Chester spent the third most of all parliamentarians on international travel, above Assistant Trade Minister Tim Ayers, with the two men recording $26,460 and $25,800 respectively.
Mr Chester’s travel consisted of just one trip to the US as part of a delegation to the 77th United Nations General Assembly, with his accommodation and meals totalling almost $20,000 and “incidentals” coming up to almost $6,400.
Mr Marles was the fourth highest spender on car expenses across all parliamentarians spending over $22,000 in just three months.
Communications Minister Michelle Rowland racked up more than $17,000 in car expenses in just three months for her commonwealth car and private-plated vehicle.
Bob Katter spent more than any other MP on car expenses at $29,000 – $20,000 of which was spent on Comcars.
New Labor MP Tania Lawrence, who represents the Perth seat of Hasluck, spent the most of all MPs on family travel, forking out more than $15,500 on flights between Perth, Canberra and Melbourne and three Comcar trips.
The top five MPs with the highest family travel expenses are from WA and the Labor Party – Lawrence, Fatima Payman, Zaneta Mascarenhas, Patrick Gorman and Madeleine King.
Former Liberal defector Craig Kelly, who joined the United Australia Party, repaid $40,729.30 in printing and communications costs after he went over his budget for postage.
Former treasurer Josh Frydenberg repaid $8782 for office facilities while other ex-MPs reported basic errors and duplication of figures in the expenditure statements.
They said there had been bizarre outcomes, like the impression several MPs had to repay large amounts of money for their office facilities when they apparently repaid nothing.
Liberal senator Dave Sharma, who was not a sitting MP in the third quarter of last year, had about $59k in office expenses credited back to his account, presumably because rent for his office had been paid in advance but eventually debited to his successor, Allegra Spender.
Andrew Laming, who was involved in multiple scandals during his time in parliament and has already been asked to repay $10,000 for earlier trips, had to hand back $5446.36 for four airfares for himself and his family on April 10, 2022.
A number of Cabcharges were also recovered between April 5 and April 10 that year.
“I have appealed the entire IPEA decision, which was a disgraceful finding for legitimate parliamentary travel to address a conference,” Mr Laming said.
“I planned on paying prior to appeal earlier this year, but after one payment was then advised it wasn’t necessary. I (will) haul IPEA into the Federal Court as a self-represented applicant next year).”
Of all the teal Independents, North Sydney MP Kylea Tink spent the most, with her expenditure coming up to more than $185,200, followed by Zali Steggall who recorded $129,000.
The majority of Ms Tink’s expenditure came down to what was spent on “office facilities”, which includes rent and totalled almost $160,000 alone thanks to the Independent occupying the office space of former treasurer Joe Hockey.
Curtin MP Kate Chaney spent more than $127,000 of which $18,000 was on travel for her four employees, while Allegra Spender spent more than $117,500 overall.
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