Opposition Leader Liza Harvey has admitted her Upper House MPs should not have used taxpayer funds to pay for boozy dinners, but insisted she and the Liberal Party had no idea about ex-MP Phil Edman's alleged rorting of allowances.
In an end-of-year interview with the ABC, Ms Harvey denied there was a problem with the party's scrutiny of its own candidates after the shocking Corruption and Crime Commission (CCC) findings into Mr Edman.
The MP, who served in the Upper House for nearly a decade and was preselected by the Liberals five times, has been accused by the CCC of using taxpayer-funded allowances to pay for interstate sex trips, strip club visits, speeding fines and yacht expenses.
It also emerged that boozy dinners involving a group of Upper House Liberals colloquially known as the Black Hand Gang had been billed to the taxpayer through the electorate allowance.
Allowance abuses 'never highlighted'
Ms Harvey agreed many of the expenses highlighted by the CCC should not have been claimed through Parliament's expenses process.
"Should they have paid for it from their own income? Absolutely," she said.
"I do not think they will be doing that again."
But she dismissed suggestions the issues with Mr Edman should have been identified earlier by the party, insisting her and other Liberals were unaware of the problems identified by the CCC.
"It was never highlighted with us," she said.
"I was never made aware of it and if I had been, I would have taken the steps that I took when I was made aware.
"Sometimes people get through the scrutiny processes."
Mr Edman resigned from the party after it began the process to expel him in the wake of the damning report.
Harvey holds policy cards close to chest
Ms Harvey was coy on her plans for key policy areas over which the party has faced scrutiny, including public sector pay rises and shopping hours.
After taking on the leadership in June, Ms Harvey drew the ire of the business community by saying she didn't "think we need to go any further with" shopping hour reforms at the moment.
She also suggested the public sector deserved larger pay rises than the Government's $1,000 per year cap.
But she said Liberal policies would not be finalised until much closer to the election in March 2021.
"We will announce all of our policies as we get towards the second half of next year," she said.
"All of our policy commitments will be fully costed so that we can let the community know whether they will be funded from reprioritisation of existing expenditure or from savings."
Ms Harvey has previously confirmed a government led by her would not sell Western Power, while committing to pressing ahead with the contentious extension of Roe Highway.
