FEDERAL member for Wannon Dan Tehan spent on average $439 every day for two years on administrative costs.
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Department of Finance figures show the south-west MP clocked up $321,000 of legitimate government entitlements from January 2011 to December 2012.
The Department of Finance defines office administration costs as payments made for office requisites, office equipment, publications and printing and communications.
Former Corangamite MP Darren Cheeseman spent $288,000 over the same period and Ballarat MP Catherine King spent $347,000 from January 2011 to December 2012.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who was opposition leader at the time, spent $440,000 on office administration costs for the same period.
Outgoing member for Mallee John Forrest was one of the more thrifty politicians spending $116,000 over the same period.
Mr Tehan said the report provided data in a fully transparent manner, accounting for all the expenditure of his parliamentary entitlements. He said the data included the costs for running his offices in Warrnambool and Hamilton and it was issued on a six-monthly basis.
Mr Tehan said the data varied depending on when invoices were received, paid and reported by the department and whether entitlements were fully expended or not for that period.
“The information is freely available on the Department of Finance website,” he said.
In the calendar year of 2011 Mr Tehan spent $187,000 on office administration costs and in 2012 he spent $134,000.
Politicians on both sides have been caught out using taxpayers’ money for travel and accommodation with Mr Abbott refunding taxpayers after he attended the weddings of former Coalition MP Sophie Mirabella and former speaker Peter Slipper.
He also used $1000 of taxpayer money for travel and accommodation costs to compete in the Port Macquarie Ironman in 2011.
The public purse also paid for Attorney-General George Brandis to attend Sydney radio host Michael Smith’s wedding, which he later repaid.
Coalition MPs Julie Bishop, Teresa Gambaro and Barnaby Joyce together claimed more than $12,000 in overseas study payments to return from an Indian wedding they attended as guests of billionaire Gina Rinehart.
With THE AGE
