MPs’ family travel to be limited to economy class after expenses saga

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has recommended that MPs’ taxpayer-funded family travel be limited to economy class flights and restricted to either Canberra or their electorates as he moves to clamp down on entitlements after a furore over political expenses engulfed his government.

The saga was sparked by revelations about entitlements used by Sport and Communications Minister Anika Wells, before scrutiny on MPs’ spending spread to the use of family travel entitlements. Wells’ office confirmed to this masthead she would not be at this year’s Boxing Day Test despite having attended the fixture and charging taxpayers for her husband to be there in previous years.

Albanese said on Tuesday that he received advice from the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority about 10 days ago regarding how MPs’ travel entitlements could better match community expectations.

He has referred the recommendations to the independent Remuneration Tribunal, which will consider his letter and report back to the government in January.

The prime minister initially defended his ministers when revelations about Communications Minister Anika Wells’ flight costs for a work trip to New York snowballed this month into a broader examination of political entitlements for family trips.

Albanese first deflected from the issue by saying he didn’t make the rules, but went on to ask for IPEA’s recommendations on the multi-million dollar scheme when continuous revelations distracted from the government’s agenda.

Sydney-based Attorney-General Michelle Rowland on Tuesday said she had repaid about $10,000 from $16,050 that she claimed for family flights on a week-long trip to Western Australia in 2023.

But Albanese did not suggest that either Wells nor Trade Minister Don Farrell, who was Labor’s biggest user of family travel allowance, would be made to pay money back.

The Coalition said the government had a trend of seeking “to avoid any blame or wrongdoing until they are forced, kicking and screaming, to make changes following sustained pressure”.

“Let’s not forget that the prime minister told us this was not his responsibility,” said opposition shadow ministers James McGrath and James Paterson in a statement.

“[His] changes to the family travel allowance is a tacit admission that he, Anika Wells and Michelle Rowland presided over a rotten culture of entitlement and arrogance.”

They did not give their immediate support to the proposal, saying: “We will examine the detail when it is actually provided”.

Under current family reunion rules, federal MPs are allowed three return business class flights a year for family members flying between their home base and a city other than Canberra, and the value of nine business class flights to Canberra. There is also an allowance of three return economy flights per child to Canberra, and senior office holders get unlimited travel perks for their partners.

But several examples that surfaced of politicians bringing their family members to locations outside Canberra, often in business class, raised questions about whether the rules were being applied too generously for community expectations.

Farrell, for example, charged $2094 for a family flight between Adelaide and Uluru, where he had tickets to a free sunset dinner.

Wells billed taxpayers $10,000 to fly her husband to Melbourne for the AFL grand final three times, for the Boxing Day Test two times, and to a cricket event at Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s Sydney residence, often making the return trip to Brisbane in the same day. She also brought her partner and children to Thredbo for a ski trip while she was there for a Paralympics event.

Albanese said the business class flights would be subject to a crackdown. “We have recommended a number of changes as a result of the consideration by the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority and those would be firstly, that all family reunion travel must be booked in economy class,” Albanese said.

“Secondly, to remove access to Australia-wide family reunion travel, and restrict [it] to Canberra and within a parliamentarians local area or electorate. In a senator’s case, of course, that’s a state.”

But given the Australia-wide travel remit would be taken away, Albanese said there would be some exceptions for senior parliamentarians when they were performing work duties.

He said dozens of senior officeholders – who include ministers, the Senate president, House speaker, the opposition leader and their deputy in each house – would still be able to use taxpayer-funded allowances for their spouses or partners to fly to locations outside Canberra when it met two criteria.

First, if the spouse or partner had an invitation to an event as part of the official invitation given to the senior officeholder. Second, the event had to be linked to their parliamentary responsibilities or ministerial portfolios.

“That is, if you’re an environment minister, it’s connected to the environment,” Albanese said.

He also asked the Remuneration Tribunal to make sure the rules wouldn’t disadvantage parents or children.

“We want a parliament that reflects Australia in all its diversity, and that includes the fact that this parliament looks very different from what it did when I came here in 1996 , [and] that’s a good thing.”

If they’re enacted, the rules would probably still allow a sports minister, such as Wells, to claim allowances for their partner’s travel to official sports events outside Canberra. However, the partner would not be able to fly business class.

Other questions about the expenses rules that were raised by Wells’ claims – such as her spending almost $1000 to keep a government Comcar waiting while she attended a sports game, or charging taxpayers for flights on weekends she attended birthdays – were not addressed in the advice.

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