Liberal senator Eric Abetz justified billing taxpayers $2,000 to travel to a lavish farewell gala dinner for Tony Abbott by saying the former prime minister implemented “pro-Tasmania” policies, making his attendance relevant to his home state.
The explanation, which was cleared by the expenses watchdog, was used as the basis for charging taxpayers $2,196 to fly to Sydney and back to Hobart, using government cars to get to the party.
Abbott’s farewell was held in the grand ballroom of the Miramare Gardens in the Sydney suburb of Terrey Hills on 7 November 2019, with a guest list of 1,000 attenders and Alan Jones as its master of ceremonies.
Documents released under freedom of information laws show the watchdog, the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority (Ipea), began probing seven Liberal MPs who claimed travel expenses to Sydney on dates coinciding with the party, following a story in the New Daily.
Other MPs, including Peter Dutton, Josh Frydenberg, Ben Morton, Greg Hunt and Llew O’Brien said they had been in Sydney principally for other parliamentary business, and did not bill taxpayers for Comcar travel to and from the party itself. None of the five MPs told Ipea they thought the party was parliamentary business.
“None of this group accessed work resources to travel within Sydney to the tribute dinner, or advised that they considered the tribute dinner a parliamentary business purpose of their travel to Sydney,” Ipea said in its internal report.
Another MP, Kevin Andrews, claimed the cost of government Comcars to the party, but said he considered it to be parliamentary business. Andrews, though, told Ipea he also had a range of other parliamentary business in Sydney, separate to the party.
In his submission to the watchdog, Abetz told Ipea that “the dominant, indeed only, purpose of my attendance at Terrey Hills was in furtherance of my electoral and parliamentary duties”. He raised no other parliamentary business that he had in Sydney to justify the trip.
He said he was at the party to “represent Tasmania (at the head table) … to honour the service of former prime minister Tony Abbott, whose specific pro-Tasmania policies helped to transform the Tasmanian economy from recession to Australia’s stand out state economy and thus transform the personal fortunes of my fellow Tasmanians”.
Abetz said “numerous stakeholders” had approached him prior to the party, asking about his attendance, and attempting to organise quick meetings while there.
“Many such contacts were had before, during, and after the function.”
He said that meant his travel was “clearly, fully, and unambiguously covered by” the rules around MP travel, which allow politicians to bill taxpayers if they are meeting with stakeholders and hearing representations from constituents.
Ipea accepted all seven MPs’ explanation and cleared them of any wrongdoing.
“Senator Abetz has met the ‘but for’ test in that he does not indicate attendance at the event was incidental to some other parliamentary business, rather he asserts that attendance at the event was the parliamentary business,” the watchdog said in its report.
“Given the wide definition of parliamentary business the definition is satisfied.”
The Guardian approached Abetz’s office for further comment.
His office did not respond to questions, but pointed to a section of the report, which said:
“After analysis of the records held by and available to Ipea, and the responses to the questions Ipea put to the parliamentarians, Ipea is of the view that the travel and travel-related resources used by [redacted] Senator Abetz and [redacted] met the dominant purpose test set out in section 26 of the PBR Act.”
