Have we reached the bottom of the barrel when it comes to expenses rorts and MPs? Probably not, but it isn’t for a lack of trying. Over the weekend Fairfax papers carried the headline “Two MPs run up $200,000 tab on private flights to work in Canberra”. The MPs in question are the Nationals’ Darren Chester and Mark Coulton. Chester, who represents the seat of Gippsland with an office in far east Victorian town Lakes Entrance, lives four hours drive from Melbourne airport (without traffic), which is then an hour flight from Canberra. If he were to do the drive, then take a commercial flight, it would take the same amount of time as driving directly to Canberra from Lakes Entrance — a five-hour trip.
Former senator Ricky Muir, who was based in Bairnsdale during his short-lived stint in Parliament, used to drive to sitting weeks with his wife at the wheel — but not everyone is a motoring enthusiast. The calculations in the story show that it would take Coulton six hours of combined road and air travel to get to Canberra by commercial flights if he weren’t using a charter plane to get to sitting weeks. Charter flights aren’t always an unnecessary luxury.
Get your first 12 weeks of Crikey for $12.
Without subscribers, Crikey can’t do what it does. Fortunately, our support base is growing.
Every day, Crikey aims to bring new and challenging insights into politics, business, national affairs, media and society. We lift up the rocks that other news media largely ignore. Without your support, more of those rocks – and the secrets beneath them — will remain lodged in the dirt.
Join today and get your first 12 weeks of Crikey for just $12.
Peter Fray
Editor-in-chief of Crikey
Leave a comment
Depends on who is paying. Presumably Ricky Muir had to pay for his himself.
Ricky muir was careful with how he spent public money and the records show he was frugal with his expenses claims
As if. Muir would’ve claimed an allowance. Personally I’d prefer the MP to fly – more productive hours in the electorate than on the road commuting to Canberra.
There’s no issue with MPs in the bush with big electorates chartering flights. I read that article and one of the named MPs covers most of NSW – from the SA border in the west to the north east of the state and down to the south-west. Totally unreasonable to expect an MP to cover that electorate on the ground.
It’s not the 1950s – air travel is just another mode of transport, like a bus, car or train, only faster.