MPs flying flag on costs
Far North pollies rack up remote-style bills
AUSTRALIA’S most patriotic politician has spent big on flags while another Far North Queensland MP claimed more than $100,000 in office costs.
Parliamentarians’ expenditure lodged in the July-September reporting period have revealed the federal political sphere’s biggest spenders.
Leichhardt MP Warren Entsch and Member for Kennedy Bob Katter both claimed similar total entitlements of about $250,000 over the three- month reporting period. Mr Entsch’s $116,000 claim for office administration costs was the fifth highest of any of the 150 federal politicians and included an outlay of more than $4000 on flags.
He credited accounting practices for the steep rise from $12,936 for January-March and $69,529 for April-June.
“Firstly, the $116,270 figure is in fact expenses incurred over two separate financial years, 2017-18 and 2018-19, and were reported in the current reporting period of July to September 2018,” he said.
“One of the largest expenses in the past 11 months was when the media thought it would be funny to tell people to contact their federal MP and request a set of flags and a portrait of the Queen.
“I was required to provide these to the people who requested them at taxpayers’ expense.”
National pride was running hot through Mr Katter’s veins, with a reported spend of more than $10,000 on flags as well as $152 for “national symbols”.
Mr Katter claimed about a quarter of the office costs as his Leichhardt counterpart, but notched up the second-highest unscheduled transport bill of the parliament.
His $31,662.46 claim was behind only Darwin-based Senator Nigel Scullion.
He also had one of the biggest phone bills, racking up $7258.95 in charges.
Mr Entsch reported spending about $39,000 on employee travel costs, compared to more than $66,000 for the Kennedy MP.
Mr Entsch said he underspent his allocated office budget by $31,000 in 2017-18. telecommunications
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