Katharine Murphy, deputy political editor
theguardian.com, Thursday 10 October 2013
'You don't want members of parliament to be prisoners of their offices,' says prime minister as he resists call for an inquiry
'We've got to be able to move freely amongst the people of Australia,' says Tony Abbott. Photograph: Paul Miller/EPA
Tony Abbott has resisted Labor's call for an inquiry into the parliamentary entitlements scheme, saying he has no plans to change the system.
The prime minister told reporters travelling with him at the East Asian summit in Brunei there would always be quibbles with the system at the margins, but parliamentarians needed to be able to conduct their business.
"I'm not proposing to change the system," Abbott said on Thursday. "If people want to make suggestions, they're welcome to make suggestions, but I'm not proposing to change the system."
Abbott's overseas business this week at Apec and the East Asian summit has been dogged by questions about his use of parliamentary entitlements. Questions about his expenses claims for weddings, for sporting events and for his annual charity bike ride, the pollie pedal, have followed him first to Bali, and now to Brunei.
The prime minister repaid $1,700 in expenses he claimed for attending the 2006 weddings of former Liberal frontbencher Sophie Mirabella and former House of Representatives speaker Peter Slipper.
But he has dug in to defend claims worth thousands of dollars more. He has also rebuffed an overture by Labor to hold an inquiry to achieve more clarity about what can be claimed and what cannot be claimed.
In Brunei on Thursday, Abbott said parliamentarians needed to be able to travel. "I think it is important that members of parliament, ministers, prime ministers, opposition leaders, be able to travel pretty freely around our country in order to do their job," he said.
"You don't want members of parliament to be prisoners of their offices. You don't want members of parliament to be shut up in Canberra.
"If we are going to do our job of representing the people of Australia, we've got to be able to move freely amongst the people of Australia."
