Senior Labor MP Tony Burke has repaid more than $8600 claimed from taxpayers for family flights in 2012.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
The call on the public pursecame to light during the expenses scandals in 2015 that ended former Speaker Bronwyn Bishop's career after she claimed $5000 to cover the cost of travelling from Melbourne to Geelong by helicopter to attend a Liberal Party fundraiser. Mr Burke led Labor's attacks on her.
At the time,Mr Burke came under fire for using the"family reunion"entitlements available to MPs to fly his family business class to Uluru,where he had been on ministerial duties,for a holiday. He acknowledged it was"beyond community expectations"but said it was"100 per cent within the rules"and he would not repay the money.
Also in 2015,he repaid $90 claimed in travel expenses to attend a Robbie Williams concert.
A spokesman for Mr Burke said on Thursday the family travel to central Australia"was in accordance with the rules,as later confirmed by the Department of Finance".
"However after further reflection he decided the costs associated with his family's travel did not meet community expectations so he repaid it,"the spokesman said.
The IPEA report shows that during the September quarter,Regional Health and Communications Minister Mark Coulton also repaid $329.91 relating to family travel from Sydney to Broken Hill in March 2019. Labor frontbencher Tanya Plibersek repaid $270 for family travel in February between Sydney and Lord Howe Island,which is part of her electorate.