Liberal senator and assistant minister Amanda Stoker charged taxpayers $2,600 for “personal travel” with her family through the Whitsunday region in the weeks before Christmas 2020, documents seen by Guardian Australia show.
The freedom of information documents reveal Stoker took a four-day trip with her family in December 2020, charging taxpayers for flights and the use of a hire car.
Expenses watchdog the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority (Ipea) began probing the trip in July last year following a routine check of MP claims for family travel and trips around “desirable locations”.
Stoker flew with her three children from Brisbane to Townsville on 12 December, hiring a car and staying the night. The assistant minister had legitimate parliamentary business in Townsville, Cape Cleveland and Ayr on the first two days of the trip, including meeting with a state MP and local residents, small businesses and graziers, and a visit to the Australia Institute of Marine Science.
But the senator and her family then continued travelling through the Whitsunday region, staying in Gumlu and Bowen, before travelling to Proserpine.
Stoker billed taxpayers for the ongoing costs of the hire car as they travelled through the Whitsunday region, and for return flights from Proserpine to Brisbane on 15 December.
The rules state that claims for the travel expenses of family, referred to as “family reunion travel”, must only be made where a politician is travelling chiefly for parliamentary business and their family is travelling to accompany or join them. The relatives’ travel must principally be to help facilitate family life.
Ipea wrote to Stoker in August 2021 seeking an explanation of her travel through the Whitsundays. The senator responded with evidence showing the first two days of the trip had involved parliamentary business.
But she conceded the remainder of the trip was “personal” in nature.
“The senator confirmed travel from 13 December to 15 December 2020 was personal travel,” Ipea’s internal report said. “The senator asked to be invoiced for the cost of the hire car and returning flights.”
The watchdog billed Stoker $2,620 for the claims, which included return flights and car hire costs, and added a 25% penalty. Stoker paid the invoice almost two months later in October.
No further action was taken.
Stoker’s office told the Guardian it would be wrong to suggest the trip was a “holiday” or that she had visited the Whitsundays themselves.
“Following the conclusion of her parliamentary business, Senator Stoker drove to Bowen and then Proserpine airport for her return flight to Brisbane. She did not visit the Whitsundays,” a spokesperson said.
“The dominant purpose of travel was parliamentary business – Senator Stoker worked on all four days and it is inaccurate to claim this was a holiday. The senator did not claim travel allowance for the 13 and 14 of December as this portion of the trip involved some aspect of personal travel.”
Earlier this week, Ipea released a separate audit of the travel of Liberal MP Andrew Laming, who claimed expenses for family reunion travel involving his wife.
The audit, launched following reporting in the Guardian, found Laming had wrongly billed taxpayers more than $8,000 and at times “obfuscated, provided inconsistent answers or ignored [questions]” during its investigation.
The audit examined Laming’s travel in a single month and found he had wrongly claimed 21 expenses – all relating to his or his family’s travel between Hobart, Melbourne and Brisbane in June 2019 – totalling $8,288.04 and told him to pay back $10,360, including a 25% loading.
Laming has strongly refuted the report, saying he disputed “every syllable” and describing the investigation as a “witch-hunt”.
“Ipea’s finding that the travel was not ‘parliamentary enough’ is false,” he said. “For this reason I categorically reject the report’s conclusions and view the process as a ‘witch-hunt’.
“I won’t be repaying legitimate parliamentary travel, and no MP ever should.”
Ipea said it gives MPs 30 days to pay back wrongly claimed expenses. A spokesperson said Ipea then “actively pursues amounts owing to it in accordance with our obligations”.
