Federal parliamentarians will get a pay rise of 2% from next week at the same time as a tax cut for high-income earners kicks in with the abolition of the deficit levy.
The remuneration tribunal said on Thursday it had made a determination to boost remuneration by 2% for public offices in its jurisdiction with effect from 1 July 2017. The ruling, which will be controversial during a time of low wages growth, follows a 2.4% increase granted in July 2013 and a further 2% in January 2016.
The tribunal noted given public service office holders “serve for the public good”, it set pay rates below those of the private sector. But it pointed to “a notable increase in submissions to the tribunal seeking higher remuneration for offices and individual office holders based at least in part on private sector remuneration” over the past 12 months.
Confirmation of a pay boost for federal parliamentarians follows the publication of travel expenses from former and current politicians from July to December 2016.
The records show Malcolm Turnbull spent more than $500,000 on overseas travel, followed by the holders of the foreign affairs and trade portfolios. The trade minister, Steve Ciobo, spent $417,000 and Julie Bishop, the foreign affairs minister, spent $300,000.
The One Nation leader, Pauline Hanson, travelled to Norfolk Island in October last year with her chief adviser, James Ashby. A month later, she told the Senate she travelled there at her own expense.
However, expenses records show Hanson charged taxpayers $1,274.62 for flights from Brisbane to Norfolk Island on 18 October 2016, and from Norfolk Island to Sydney on 21 October 2016.
Taxpayers were then charged $164.75 for a flight from Sydney back to Brisbane. Taxpayers were also charged $50.76 for parking between 18 and 21 October.
Guardian Australia asked Ashby for clarification. He said Hanson and he thought the trip could be claimed as a parliamentary expense because it was done for “parliamentary purposes” but they were later told they weren’t entitled to claim the trip.
He said the only politicians who can claim trips to Norfolk Island are senators from Canberra, or government ministers.
“So we had to repay that money,” he said. “We were notified within a very short period after we got back and I know that we asked for invoices to be provided so a payment could be made.”
He said One Nation’s party office ended up paying for the flights and accommodation, and he would provide the documents as soon as possible.
He said the payment would have been made before Hanson told the Senate that she had travelled at her own expense.
The big users of charter flights in the reporting period include the Nationals MP Mark Coulton, who spent $63,324, the Indigenous affairs minister, Nigel Scullion, who spent $79,000, and the former health minister and now backbencher Sussan Ley, who spent $51,683.
The deputy prime minister, Barnaby Joyce, spent $61,000 on charters.
The Australian Conservatives senator Cory Bernardi spent $76,637 on overseas travel.
Former Labor minister Nick Bolkus topped the list of gold pass spenders, with a bill of $14,142, and the former Nationals leader Warren Truss came in second on $11,421.
