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Mark Dreyfus repays claim for ski chalet

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Mark Dreyfus repays claim for ski chalet

August 2011

Hours after demanding an investigation into Coalition travel expenses, Labor frontbencher and former Attorney General Mark Dreyfus admitted to billing taxpayers for a ski trip to Perisher.

Dreyfus has repaid $466 that he claimed for two nights’ accommodation in Canberra when he was instead skiing at Perisher Valley – two hours’ drive away.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Mr Dreyfus said his staff were not aware he had left Canberra for those two nights. He spent the weekend between two parliamentary sitting weeks at Perisher.

Just two hours earlier Mr Dreyfus told Fairfax Media there was a “pattern of behaviour by Coalition MPs” who were claiming inappropriate entitlements such as weddings.

At the time, Mr Dreyfus said he did not agree with a suggestion from the Greens to appoint an independent National Integrity Commissioner to oversee entitlements and parliamentary corruption.

“I’m not convinced that there is a need for yet another integrity officer. The Auditor General is already able to look at entitlement claims.”

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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?

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