This decision,based on what the government says was official security advice,was made during a period in which Marles was sometimes spending more on private domestic travel than the prime minister.
And separately,a full breakdown of Marles’ or any other politician’s travel expenses is unlikely to be published until next year,with Labor blaming an IT bungle. MPs’ expenses were last published in 2022.
Greens senator David Shoebridge hopes to win bipartisan support in parliament next week to use the power of the Senate to force Labor to reveal flight information,which had been publicly available for decades until the recent reversal.
“When Labor was in opposition,it quite rightly demanded transparency in the use of these extremely expensive VIP flights,” Shoebridge said. “Now they are in government and very actively using these flights,Labor’s love of transparency has turned decidedly cold.”
“As the Greens’ defence spokesperson,I will be pressing to produce these details to the Senate next week. We will see if we can rekindle Labor’s commitment to open government and also look to the opposition to help shine a light on this mess.”
Travel booked for Marles and his guests – which may include other MPs,senior Defence figures or other associates – totalled about $3.6 million since April last year,according to documents obtained by Shoebridge that were first reported bynews.com.au.