Gabrielle Chan and Daniel Hurst
theguardian.com, Thursday 12 December 2013
Finance department report on spending habits of federal MPs reveals millions spent on overseas travel and office fitouts
In his downtime Tony Abbott reads Quadrant, Spectator, the Daily Telegraph, the Economist and Policy by the Centre for Independent Studies. Photograph: AAP Image
Tony Abbott is often noted as one of the most successful opposition leaders of all time, mostly for his work in the 43rd parliament. Now we know his inspirations.
On the eve of parliament rising for the year, the finance department released the spending habits of our politicians for the first half of 2013.
It contains salient points such as travel allowance, office costs and family travel, right down to printer consumables and photocopying paper.
Granted, the prime minister-in-waiting, as he was then, had a lot on his plate. He was making hay while the sun shone, with two of the three Labor leadership crises in the first six months.
In his downtime though, we learn from his declaration that he only had five publications for which he regularly claimed - Policy by the Centre for Independent Study, Quadrant, Spectator, the Daily Telegraph and the Economist.
His attorney general, George Brandis, already known for his reading habits and his $7,000 taxpayer-funded office bookshelves, continues his broad reading habits.
During the period in question – January to June 2013 – he claimed reimbursement for a range of publications, including Waiting For Godot: A Tragicomedy in Two Acts by Samuel Beckett; The Lucky Culture and the Rise of an Australian Ruling Class by the Australian’s columnist Nick Cater; Three Crooked Kings by Matthew Condon; and Great Operas: A Guide to Twenty Five of the World's Finest Musical Experiences.
Across the main, there were some spectacular costs listed, including some wonderful travel bills.
Former Labor foreign minister Bob Carr racked up $388,620 for overseas travel, though his publication list was just the usual range of newspapers. His total costs were $566,310, placing him as the third highest entitlement spender.
The Senate president John Hogg spent nearly $33,000 on an 11-day trip to Spain, Portugal and the UK to consider parliamentary procedures, including "management of entitlements".
The Labor MP's study tour report outlined a range of meetings with Spanish and Portuguese parliamentary figures, including a discussion with Pío García-Escudero, president of the Spanish senate, about "the role of the media with parliament and how they tend to focus on sensationalism".
South Australian senator Anne Ruston topped the list with total costs of $649,417, pushed up by a $438,829 office fitout to relocate to her home town of Renmark as per an election promise. It seems it turned into a renovation nightmare to rival The Block, with asbestos and crumbling walls.
“Unfortunately, due to a lack of suitable premises being available it was necessary to extensively renovate a dilapidated building in Renmark in order for the new electorate office to meet government standards and regulations, resulting in a significant fit-out cost,” she said.
“This included the need to remove asbestos. The move to Renmark has resulted in an annual saving to taxpayers of more than $50,000 per year in terms of rent, as the office I was previously assigned in the Adelaide CBD was much more expensive to lease.”
The Greens senator Larissa Waters was second on the totals with $579,287 spent, including $414,638 for an office fitout.
Julia Gillard, prime minister for most of the six months, spent a total of $556,377.59 and Tony Abbott spent $474,707. Kevin Rudd did not make the top 15.
