Federal Labor MP Michael Danby has once again been caught up in in controversy, this time for using taxpayer dollars to fund trips to Queensland with his wife, during which he conducted no parliamentary business.
Danby has put the use of taxpayer money down to “administrative errors”.
Over several years, Danby charged taxpayers almost $15,000 for six trips to Queensland with his wife, and for expenses related to those trips such as limousine rides, Fairfax Media reported on Thursday. On three of those trips, he claimed expenses despite conducting no parliamentary business.
In a statement, Danby told Guardian Australia that reports he had misused taxpayer money were “misleading”.
“All of my personal travel I have paid for myself,” he said.
“Over the last decade in parliament there have been instances where administrative errors have been made, either by the parliamentary travel agent or by my office. On each occasion, these errors have been identified by our internal audits and rectified long before the Fairfax attack.”
Fairfax reported that on three of the trips to the Gold Coast, Danby did conduct official business and attended union functions and meetings. Those trips lasted four to six days, and while he paid for his own accommodation and meals, taxpayers paid for his wife to accompany him. A spokesman for Danby told Fairfax this was in accordance with parliamentary rules.
The spokesman also said Danby had since repaid expenses related to two other Gold Coast trips, including a week in Cairns in 2012 that cost taxpayers $3363.96, and a $2,000 trip in 2015. Danby performed no parliamentary duties on those trips.
It is the latest in a series of headaches for Danby. In October, he rejected reports that senior Labor figures were planning to dump him in the preselection process before the next election because of continuing concerns about his behaviour. The Labor leader, Bill Shorten, was reportedly “deeply unimpressed” after Danby used taxpayer money to fund an advertisement in the Australian Jewish News criticising ABC Middle East correspondent Sophie McNeill of being biased in her reporting of the Israel-Palestine conflict.
In the 2016 election, Danby suffered a 2.18% swing against him in his inner-city marginal seat of Melbourne Ports. It was later revealed that he took a trip to Israel shortly after the election while claiming medical leave.
