Anthony Albanese refuses to say if travel rules should change for Federal politicians as outrage grows

Anthony Albanese has refused to say whether the rules for politicians’ travel expenses should be reviewed or changed amid growing scrutiny of the use of taxpayer funds to ferry around family members.

The Prime Minister used a personal story to defend the importance of allowing people to bring their family to work with them, saying when his son Nathan was a baby, he regularly joined Mr Albanese in Canberra.

“He turned 25 on Monday. I used to bring him down to Parliament when Parliament sat. That made it possible for me to do my job when he was a bub, so the travel included (allowances for) that to occur before he started school,” he said.

The use of taxpayer money to pay for travel has come under scrutiny after revelations about multiple MPs racking up bills worth tens of thousands of dollars for family travel.

The West revealed this week that Sports and Communications Minister Anika Wells has clocked at least $62,000 worth of travel to more than 60 sporting events she’d been gifted tickets to, including travelling with her husband to cricket test matches and football grand finals.

Veteran Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young charged taxpayers almost $50,000 to fly her lobbyist husband Ben Oquist between Adelaide and Canberra, while Nationals MP Andrew Willcox racked up almost $123,400 in flights for his wife to join him in Canberra to work voluntarily in his office every sitting week, The Australian reported.

Mr Albanese said that while community expectations were important, there had been a huge change in the composition of parliament with more women and people with young families elected.

“For 83 years, our Parliament elected what were largely older, male – all male, every seat, Labor, Liberal, Country Party, UAP, Protectionist – every single electorate in New South Wales elected a bloke,” he said.

Pressed multiple times on whether the rules should change or be reviewed, Mr Albanese said only that they were set by the previous government.

“They’ve been in place for some time, and we haven’t changed the rules. We haven’t added to any entitlements,” he said.

“We have, of course, IPEA, an independent parliamentary expenses authority, that was established in the wake of Susan Ley’s multiple visits to the Gold Coast and the purchase of property on the Gold Coast.”

Rules for travel expenses are set by the independent Remuneration Tribunal, then turned into law via ministerial regulation. IPEA oversees the system and offers advice to politicians wanting to check their entitlements.

Family travel entitlements allow for the equivalent of nine business-class return flights between an MP’s home base and Canberra, and three business-class flights to other locations each year.

The Remuneration Tribunal is required by law to review travel expense settings annually, but the minister can also ask it to make other inquiries.

However, it’s understood the Government is unlikely to request any re-examination of the rules and whether they meet community expectations before an audit of Ms Wells’ expenses is complete.