MARK RILEY: Why Albanese’s claim travel expenses are nothing to do with him is a cop-out

There are many things average voters don’t understand about politics.

There are many more they really don’t care about.

And fair enough.

But there is one thing they do get.

Average voters know a rort when they see one.

And they see a big one in MPs’ travel expenses.

The slipping and sliding over the past week from politicians trying to justify the gobsmacking amount they charge taxpayers to fly their families around the country and overseas — mostly up near the pointy end of the plane — has turned voters white hot with rage.

They see Anika Wells’ $95,000 for three return business class flights to New York and ask how on earth anyone could justify paying that much?

But what really gets people angry is the $2800 for a visit to Thredbo that became a family ski holiday, the $3600 to Adelaide that coincided with a friend’s birthday party and the $1000 for a government Comcar to wait for seven hours while she watched the Australian Open tennis final and $1200 for another to wait for 10 hours at the NRL grand final.

The viewer text line on Seven’s Sunrise went off like a frog in a sock.

“That Comcar bill for $1000 to wait eight, 10 hours — that’s my weekly wage!” said one viewer.

“I’m a pensioner. I can’t afford heating and cooling and I’m looking at these politicians and it’s disgusting!” said another.

But Anika Wells is far from the biggest user of the family travel entitlements benefit.

That title goes to the man who administers the program as Special Minister of State, Don Farrell.

He has claimed $90,000 since 2022 to fly his wife and other family members with him on more than 200 occasions. The Australian calculated yesterday that the distance they have travelled roughly equates to flying halfway to the moon.

Then there is Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young. She has charged almost $50,000 to fly her husband to and from Canberra, where he works as a political lobbyist.

Not all of them are milking the system. But those who are seem to be running it dry.

It is a scandal almost as old as politics itself. Harold Holt was pinged for overusing VIP jets and pocketing unused travellers cheques issued to cover official costs.

John Howard lost seven ministers to travel rorts in his first term. Kevin Rudd became infamously known as “Kevin 747”.

Tony Abbott was forced to repay flights to a colleague’s wedding. He later sacked speaker Bronwyn Bishop over the “Choppergate” scandal. And on it goes.

The other thing that makes average voters angry is when politicians obfuscate and mislead when they are caught doing something they shouldn’t.

There’s been plenty of that over the past two weeks.

All MPs say their spending is “within the rules” and absolve themselves by declaring “they don’t make the rules”, the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority does.

But that’s rubbish.

The rules are set by politicians in the Parliamentary Business Resources Act of 2017. It establishes the legal framework for what travel politicians can claim for themselves and their families and the need for those costs to be publicly justified and to represent value for money.

That act was passed by all sides of Parliament when Malcolm Turnbull established the IPEA in response to another travel expenses scandal.

His health minister had been forced to stand down after charging taxpayers for flights to the Gold Coast to buy an investment property.

That minister was current Opposition Leader Sussan Ley, which explains why we haven’t seen her jumping up and down about Labor’s expenses this week.

The important point is that the rules can be easily changed by the politicians themselves.

They just don’t want to.

Tasmanian independent Andrew Wilkie put the most sensible view this week.

He has only used the family travel benefit five times in 15 years to fly family members to Canberra for parliamentary openings or in the middle of long sitting periods.

Wilkie suggests the benefit could be restricted so MPs can only fly family members sparingly and only to Canberra.

Even that would be generous.

Average workers don’t get benefits like that. Many struggle to put fuel in their cars. There is a cost-of-living crisis. You don’t have to be interested in politics to know that. But the actions of many MPs suggests they don’t.

Mark Riley is the Seven Network’s political editor