‘Rather drive myself’: Anthony Albanese responds to $3.8m expenses bill
Anthony Albanese insists he is doing everything possible to minimise prime ministerial costs after reports his staff, travel and office expenses reached $3.8 million for a year.
The Prime Minister was frustrated with the reports, based on the most recent independent parliamentary expenses authority data, saying they came out “like clockwork”.
“I believe that we should wherever possible, of course, minimise expenditure,” he told reporters in Darlington, east of Perth.
Sign up to The Nightly's newsletters.
Get the first look at the digital newspaper, curated daily stories and breaking headlines delivered to your inbox.
By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.The analysis by News Corp showed that in the year to the end of June, the Prime Minister’s expenses included $102,000 for Comcars, $253,000 for printing and communications, $896,000 for international travel and $2.5 million for staff travel.
“One of the things that I’ve seen from the front (page) is cars — if they think that the Prime Minister of Australia should drive themselves around, they should say that,” Mr Albanese said.
“I’d rather do that frankly, to be honest, I’d rather do that. In today’s world, we need security, and we need these things to happen.”
He pointed out the Opposition had been complaining he had not done enough travel this year, with shadow ministers having previously queried why he did not personally attend the NATO summit in Washington or the Ukraine peace summit in Switzerland.
The analysis shows Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s expenses ran to $2.8 million for the same 12-month period.
