Public foots $298,132 MPs’ bill
Annual report reveals taxpayer dollars spent by our state pollies
THE region’s politicians spent more than a quarter of a million dollars of taxpayer money running their offices in the past year, it can be revealed.
The annual report for electoral communication and allowances tabled in parliament last month detailed how Toowoomba South MP David Janetzki, Toowoomba North MP Trevor Watts, Warrego MP Ann Leahy and Condamine MP Pat Weir spent a combined total of $298,213 to run their electoral headquarters.
Mr Weir and Ms Leahy were in the top four of state parliament’s biggest spenders, spending $76,898 and $77,343 respectively.
Ms Leahy told The Chronicle a major expense in her electorate office came from posting letters. A total of $54,569 from her annual expenditure went on “production, publication and distribution services”.
“I have to send a lot of letters because the majority of my constituents are elderly,” she said.
“It’s a dollar per letter and when you live in an area with no internet access and very little phone service you rely on communication through post. There’s always scrutiny and discussion around expenses but it is there and entirely open transparent for anyone to see.”
Mr Weir said there was scope to look into the issue in the future.
“We can access postal addresses but we cannot access the emails of constituents due to privacy,” he said.
“If we could email them, we would save a lot of money instead of having to use post.”
The report also showed that it cost taxpayers $71,823 for David Janetzki to run his office. Mr Janetzki said much of his expenditure went towards communicating with “hundreds of constituents a month” and local community groups.
“The report details how carefully my office and I acquit every dollar we spend during the year,” he said.
“Every dollar is substantiated and the report is tabled annually in Parliament. It is an obligation I take most seriously.”
Trevor Watts, who spent $72,147 in the past 12 months, was not able to be reached for comment in time for print.