The former Speaker Bronwyn Bishop claimed official car expenses on the same day she attended a New Year’s Eve party at the Sydney Opera House.
Bishop made the claim of $91 for a Comcar on 31 December 2014. On the same date, according to her pecuniary interests register, she had complimentary tickets to Opera Australia’s New Year’s Eve celebrations.
The claim is among the latest six months of politicians’ entitlements published on Thursday by the Department of Finance.
Bishop has previously defended the use of taxpayer-funded entitlements to attend the theatre. “It’s quite proper,” a spokesman told the Sydney Morning Herald in July. “Members of both sides use entitlements for [such] events.
“They get invited because of the position that they hold. She would not have been invited otherwise. It’s not like she bought a ticket herself.”
It is not known whether Bishop had any official engagements in Sydney on New Year’s Eve – or whether the event would be considered an official engagement – and the MP has not responded to questions on the subject.
The MP also spent $4,100 on a charter flight to Port Macquarie, where she spoke at the Hastings Heroine awards, an International Women’s Day event.
Bishop resigned from the Speaker position after controversy surrounding her use of entitlements, including the use of charter flights to attend party fundraisers.
Also revealed in the statements is the fact that the agriculture minister Barnaby Joyce’s decision to move his ministerial office to the northern New South Wales town of Armidale has resulted in the most expensive fit-out claimed by a politician for at least five years.
This contributed to make Joyce’s overall expenses of $1,073,991 the highest amount of any politician in the period, followed by Michael Keenan, Julie Bishop, Sussan Ley and Adam Bandt:
For a full breakdown of the latest politician’s expenses, see Guardian Australia’s searchable database here.
