Lenore Taylor and Shalailah Medhora Friday 31 July 2015
The claims, amounting to $3,723, cover three separate inquiries of the standing committee on families and human services
Bronwyn Bishop claimed $3,723 in travel allowances as chair of a committee for times and places when records indicate the committee was not conducting hearings. Photograph: Alan Porritt/AAPIMAGE
Bronwyn Bishop claimed travel allowances as the chair of a parliamentary committee on 15 separate occasions for times and places when records indicate the committee was not conducting hearings, a review of historic travel claims reveals.
Tony Abbott signals further tightening of parliamentary entitlements rules
Following revelations about Speaker Bronwyn Bishop’s misuse of public money, the prime minister warns MPs ‘you cannot get away with exploiting the rules’
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The claims, amounting to $3,723, cover three separate inquiries of the standing committee on families and human services, and are listed here.
Inquiry into adoption of children from overseas
- 25 July 2005 Brisbane $255
- 13 August 2005 Gold Coast $212
- 19 August 2005 Townsville $178
- 24 August 2005 Brisbane $255
- 20 October 2005 Brisbane $263
Inquiry into balancing work and family
- 22 February 2006 in Whyalla $186
- 26 March 2006 in Melbourne $280
- 7 June 2006 Adelaide $263
- 24 August 2006 Melbourne $280
- 31 August 2006 Gold Coast $228
- 1 September 2006 Brisbane $288
- 10 December 2006 Brisbane $285
Inquiry into impact of illicit drug use on families
- 15 April 2007 Brisbane $$288
- 11 May 2007 Adelaide $268
- 24 August 2007 Bathurst $194
Tony Abbott has indicated he could consider further changes to the rules governing parliamentary entitlements following the controversy over the Speaker’s use of chartered helicopter and her travel claims.
“I think if there is one lesson that every single politician must have had reinforced by all of this, it is that you cannot get away with exploiting the rules,” the prime minister said.
“We have already significantly tightened up the rules. We banned politicians travelling overseas first class, we’ve heavily limited family travel inside Australia and overseas, we’ve banned immediate family employment,” he said on Sydney radio on Friday.
As for Bronny, she’s repaid the money with penalties.
Tony Abbott
“As for Bronny, she’s repaid the money with penalties. She is obviously deeply remorseful, anyone who saw her on television yesterday would know that this is a very, very chastened person indeed.”
Bishop, who is under increasing pressure to stand aside as Speaker over the travel claim controversy, said on Thursday she would repay travel allowance and airfare claims made on some of the dates, which she has said were justified because of secret meetings with unnamed sources associated with her committee work, but which also coincided with the interstate weddings of two Liberal colleagues.
She has said the claims were “technically within the guidelines” but “didn’t look right” and revealed she had asked the finance department to review all her travel claims.
After three weeks of refusing to apologise, Bishop said on Thursday she was “sorry” for “letting the Australian people down” over the travel claims and controversial helicopter flight.
Labor has questioned whether it is in fact “within the guidelines” for committee chairs to claim travel allowances or flights to conduct solo meetings that are not part of properly constituted committee hearings or meetings.
Bronwyn Bishop expenses row: historic claims reveal another 15 trips
With the Speaker under increasing pressure to stand aside, further claims reveal that as a committee chair she claimed travel benefits even when the committee was not conducting hearings
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But the rules appear unclear. A remuneration tribunal determination on allowances from 2006 states “the chair of a parliamentary committee shall be paid travelling allowance in respect of each overnight stay in a place other than his or her home base when travelling on parliamentary committee business”. Parliamentary committee business is not defined.
The Department of Finance is reviewing all of Bishop’s expense claims over the past decade. Abbott said while his government had already tightened the rules, there may be more changes to come.
“Let’s see what else might emerge out of the review that’s going on now,” he said.
One Liberal backbencher, Brett Whiteley, has written to the Speaker expressing the concerns of his Tasmanian electorate about the expenses revelations.
“The community is understandably angry about this issue. Everyone makes mistakes, including members of parliament, and I am pleased to hear the Speaker’s genuine apology on commercial radio,” he told the Hobart Mercury on Thursday. “I have written to the Speaker to inform her directly of the views of my electorate, and both their and my disappointment in the serious entitlement misjudgement.”
Labor’s spokesman on waste, Pat Conroy, has written to the special minister of state, Michael Ronaldson, asking him to direct the Department of Finance to release the findings of its investigation into Bishop’s expenses.
“While I accept that confidentiality may be appropriate in routine cases, given the extraordinary circumstances, and the extraordinary public interest, I ask that you direct your department to make the findings of its investigation public in this particular instance,” Conroy wrote.
“Publication of the investigation’s findings would also help reassure the public that the investigation has not been compromised, nor that the government has sought to cover up this matter in any way.”
The opposition leader, Bill Shorten, described Bishop’s apology as “too little, too late”.
“The job is more serious than the way Ms Bishop has been treating it,” he told reporters on Friday. “There is a born-to-rule mentality in parts of Mr Abbott’s Liberals which show how out of touch they are with the expectation of Australians.”
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