My old mum (who used to do Country Party leader Artie Fadden’s typing in the old Parliament House in the late 1940s and early 1950s) used to say, “Never get between a Labor politician and a good perk.”
The most recent example is ALP Minister for Communications Anika Wells spending $100,000 on a short trip to New York, which it seems could have been done just as easily via a video call. She spent $39,000 on her own travel. Even if she went first class, that’s hard to justify — a Qantas first-class return fare to New York is currently around $25,000. It makes my old mate Bronwyn Bishop’s $5,000 helicopter ride to attend a party event look like chicken feed by comparison. And Bronnie lost her speakership over it.
I must say, I’ve always found Labor to be quite hypocritical when it comes to using other people’s money on dubious lurks and perks. My old mum used to say she thought it was because, in the old days, many of them came from poor backgrounds and once they got into Parliament they were like kids in a candy shop.
The latest incident has reignited the issue of travel rorts. I should add that it’s certainly not confined to one side of politics. But members of any parliament need to be careful and mindful of that old adage: Would this pass the pub test?
In the ACT Legislative Assembly 25 years ago, we had a basic rule: if you, as a member or minister, were flying less than three hours, you were meant to go economy. Anything over three hours and you could fly business class. So, effectively, unless you were going to Darwin or Perth, you went economy. It would be interesting to see what the rules are today, and whether our esteemed Chief Minister, for example, follows them.
I recall that some MLAs would occasionally choose economy class even for journeys over three hours. For example, in 1999 independent MLA Dave Rugendyke and I flew cattle class to Port Moresby for a conference. It was Dave’s idea, by the way, and I went along with it. At least these days a member can’t earn frequent flyer points for official travel. (Credit where it’s due — the ALP’s Lindsay Tanner got rid of that rort in 2010.) On one earlier occasion in the 1990s, the infamous Labor senator Mal Colston once took a trip to Perth — business class, of course — purely to boost his frequent flyer tally. After a few hours in the Qantas lounge, he simply flew back to Canberra. Pathetic, really.
The only controversial issue over member travel that I recall was a study trip to Europe by two members to look at sexual slavery, and even then the concern was more about taking staff than the travel itself. By and large, our own little parliament has been pretty good in that regard. I can’t speak for the present Assembly, of course, and it’s probably about time the local media covering the Assembly took a closer look. It would be worth investigating and doing a story on how the current lot have been travelling — literally and figuratively.
Federally, though, it seems the entitlement mentality is alive and well. All politicians should remember that it is a privilege to represent your constituency — state or federal. It is not your money; it is the people’s money, and you have a duty to spend it wisely, not on yourself.
