Federal ICAC now

Albanese repays cost of Comcars for travel to party fundraiser

Case for Federal ICAC
Dubious Travel Claims | Labor | QED
Labor Banner

Albanese repays cost of Comcars for travel to party fundraiser

October 2018

Labor Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese charged the cost of two government Comcars to he used to travel to a Labor party fundraiser in Brisbane against his parliamentary allowances. Guardian Australia lodged a Freedom of Information request for details of the journeys. A spokesman for Mr Albanese said the $126 cost had been repaid but would not say if the money was repaid before or after Guardian Australia lodged the FoI request.

Anthony Albanese charged the $126 cost of the Comcars he used to travel to a Labor party fundraiser in Brisbane against his parliamentary allowances. Billed as “An Evening with Albo”, the October 2018 get-together was organised by the Galloways Hill branch of Queensland ALP to raise funds for the 2019 re-election campaign of local Labor MP, Terri Butler. 

According to Guardian Australia, driver logs released under Freedom of Information show Albanese used the chauffeured government service to travel to and from the event in Hawthorne, which he charged against his parliamentary allowances. When contacted by Guardian Australia, a spokesman for Albanese said the $126 had been repaid “out of an abundance of caution to ensure there was no doubt there had been strict compliance with the guidelines”. The spokesman would not say if the money was repaid before or after Guardian Australia lodged the FoI request for details of the journeys.

Read more

The Case for a Federal ICAC

What's a rort?

Conflicts of Interest

Redirecting funding to pet hobbies; offering jobs to the boys without a proper tender process; secretly bankrolling candidates in elections; taking up private sector jobs in apparent breach of parliament’s code of ethics, the list goes on.

Deceptive Conduct

Claiming that greenhouse gas emissions have gone down when the facts clearly show otherwise; breaking the law on responding to FoI requests; reneging on promised legislation; claiming credit for legislation that doesn’t exist; accepting donations that breach rules. You get the drift of what behaviour this category captures.

Election Rorts

In the months before the last election, the Government spent hundreds of millions of dollars of Australian taxpayers’ money on grants for sports, community safety, rural development programs and more. Many of these grants were disproportionally awarded to marginal seats, with limited oversight and even less accountability.

Dubious Travel Claims

Ministerial business that just happens to coincide with a grand final or a concert; electorate business that must be conducted in prime tourist locations, or at the same time as party fundraisers. All above board, maybe, but does it really pass the pub test? Or does it just reinforce the fact that politicians take the public for mugs?

Pin It on Pinterest

Share This