Coalition MPs Peter Dutton, George Brandis and Mitch Fifield reportedly claimed flights and Comcars to attend Turnbull’s 2015 New Year’s Eve party

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

The Greens and senator Nick Xenophon have vowed to push for reforms of parliamentary expenses after the Coalition’s travel controversies widened with revelations four ministers billed taxpayers to attend a New Year’s function hosted by Malcolm Turnbull.

Sussan Ley, who stood stood aside as health minister on Monday, will also face further questions after a report she inspected a Gold Coast property in September 2014 on a taxpayer-funded trip.

The Greens have called for a national anti-corruption body with a function to audit and advise on parliamentary expenses, while Xenophon has talked up increasing disclosure and penalties.

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On Monday, SBS reported that the immigration minister, Peter Dutton, the attorney general, George Brandis, and the communications minister, Mitch Fifield, claimed flights and Comcar costs to attend Malcolm Turnbull’s 2015 New Year’s Eve party.

Guardian Australia has confirmed from finance department records that the expenses were charged to taxpayers.

Dutton also incurred a $438 travel allowance to attend. The education minister, Simon Birmingham, claimed a $62.53 Cabcharge on 31 December 2015 but no other expenses.

A spokesman for Brandis said the costs were within the rules as they were to attend an official function, an account the other three ministers have backed.

A spokesman for Birmingham said he attended the official function at Kirribilli House with the prime minister while on a privately funded trip to Sydney.

“The minister claimed a single cab charge for travel to a meeting during the afternoon of 31 December but all other aspects of the trip were self-funded by the minister.”

The other 18 ministers who attended the event did not charge taxpayers.

On Monday, Ley stood aside as health minister pending an investigation into her travel, after the revelation she had charged taxpayers for a trip to the Gold Coast during which she bought a $795,000 apartment as an investment property.

On Tuesday the Herald Sun reported that Ley had twice inspected a different Gold Coast property in August and September 2014 and billed taxpayers for a trip to do so from 5 to 8 September.

Retired couple Adrienne and Stewart McEachran told the newspaper that Ley and her partner, Graham Johnston, inspected their home in Advancetown, in the Gold Coast hinterland before unsuccessfully bidding to buy it.

Finance department documents confirm that Ley billed taxpayers more than $2,000 in travel costs for a long weekend on the Gold Coast from 5 to 8 September, 2014.

The costs included $720 for two nights of travel allowance, more than $1,000 in flights to and from Coolangatta, and $271 for a hire car. The trip was listed as for “official business”.

On Tuesday the Greens leader, Richard Di Natale, told Radio National that scandals over many years, including those that engulfed Ley, Labor’s Sam Dastyari and the Coalition’s Stuart Robert, showed the need for a national anti-corruption watchdog.

He said the body should include “an independent parliamentary adviser to provide advice and audit entitlement claims to determine when they are outside the rules”.

Di Natale said parliamentarians encountered “grey areas” when they conducted both official business and met people outside their portfolio on the same trip, but the Department of Finance is not able to give definitive advice about whether expenses are within the rules.

The Greens leader said he “feared for the future of the country” because expenses scandals undermined faith in democracy.

Xenophon told ABC’s AM he would reintroduce a bill for an independent watchdog, to give the public a right to make a complaint, mandate real-time disclosure of claims, and “hefty penalties” if politician make a wrongful claim.

Asked about the four ministers charging to attend Turnbull’s New Year’s event at Kirribilli, Xenophon said it “miserably fails the pub test”.



“This is why so many Australians hate so many politicians, because they don’t seem to be subject to what is colloquially known as the pub test.”

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Xenophon said the travel to the New Year’s function “may well be within the rules” but the rules needed to change.

Di Natale said he suspected some politicians arranged meetings to justify charging taxpayers to travel to attend events like the Australian Open and Melbourne Cup, but that was “absolutely not” how the system was designed to work.

He said rules needed to be overhauled so that politicians cannot claim expenses “if the primary purpose of their travel is not work”.

Guardian Australia revealed Ley twice travelled at taxpayer expense to the Gold Coast on New Year’s Eve to attend events with Sarina Russo, one of Australia’s richest women, whose companies won multimillion dollar contracts under the Abbott government.

A spokesman for Ley said her travel to the Gold Coast “is part of two independent reviews by the departments of prime minister and cabinet and finance”.

“Given that these reviews are underway it would be inappropriate to make any comment. We will await the findings of the reviews.”