Senator billed public to attend son’s wedding

Top Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie billed taxpayers for flights and accommodation to Tasmania before and after her son’s wedding in the Tamar Valley.

Parliamentary expenses records show McKenzie, the party’s Senate leader, used public money to partially fund her four-day trip to Tasmania at the end of summer in 2023.

After appearing at a Senate estimates hearing in Canberra on Thursday, February 16, 2023, McKenzie flew back to Melbourne – the nearest capital city to her home base at the time – and then immediately jumped on a plane to Launceston, billing taxpayers $328.99.

She then charged taxpayers $317 for one night’s accommodation in Launceston that night.

McKenzie’s son – who this masthead has chosen on not to name – was married at a vineyard in Sidmouth, on Saturday, February 18, 2023. The venue is located about 35 kilometres north-west of Launceston, which is the closest major airport.

McKenzie appeared in photos and a video which were posted on social media from the wedding.

The following Monday, the opposition transport and infrastructure spokeswoman charged taxpayers $207.53 to fly back to Melbourne, but that expense did not appear on her public expenditure record for more than a year after the wedding.

In total, the Victorian senator used $853.52 in public money to travel to Tasmania.

According to rules overseen by the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority, politicians may only claim the costs of their travel where the “dominant purpose” of the trip is parliamentary business. That can include committee work, legislative work, attending meetings or representing the government or Australia, with the approval of the prime minister.

In response to questions from this masthead, a spokesperson for McKenzie said her February 2023 flight and accommodation to Launceston was “undertaken in accordance with parliamentary rules as part of a multi-state campaign to expose Labor’s budget cuts to infrastructure”.

Asked who she discussed the cuts with, the spokesperson said McKenzie undertook “legitimate activity as shadow infrastructure minister” to expose cuts to Tasmanian road funding that had been disclosed during Senate estimates the week prior.

There are no public records of any parliamentary duties such as committee meetings or public events that McKenzie attended while in Tasmania except for an interview with a local newspaper, in which she called on the Labor Party to boost its investment in roads.

The spokesperson told The Age McKenzie’s work in Tasmania on the Friday included “coordinating a national media announcement and holding a press conference”.

A small resulting article said McKenzie visited Longford, 20 kilometres south of Launceston, on February 17 to discuss Labor’s “cuts and delays”. The 140-word article in The Examiner appeared under the headline “McKenzie slams Labor funding cuts”. In that piece, she claimed the federal government had delayed and cut hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for Tasmanian roads.

The Victorian senator also posted a photo to social media of a field in Longford saying she was “discussing cuts and delays to road funding”.

The expenses authority also sets out five obligations when MPs and senators claim expenses, requiring them to “act ethically and in good faith” when accounting for their travel expenses. It also requires them to be “personally responsible” for their travel expenses and “prepared to publicly justify their travel and any expenses claimed”.

“Taxpayers should not be expected to fund accommodation or travel for personal business and as a result, the senator paid for her own travel and accommodation while on personal business,” McKenzie’s spokesperson said.

“Senator McKenzie did not claim any funds from the taxpayer for the weekend for personal and private activities, which were appropriately paid for by the Senator personally.”

This masthead asked McKenzie’s office to provide a list of meetings, events or people – such as MPs and stakeholders – she may have met with while in Tasmania, but her office was unable to do so.

Her office also disputed the public expenditure report by the expenses authority, claiming the senator had repaid the Devonport to Melbourne trip following the wedding on February 20, 2023, which cost taxpayers $207.53.

McKenzie’s office also provided The Age with a copy of the senator’s personal bank statement to support the repayment, which showed she returned $261.27 to the company responsible for booking MP travel on February 21, 2023, however those details are yet to be updated on the expenses authority’s document.

According to Remuneration Tribunal records, federal MPs had a base salary of $217,060 in February 2023, with a 25 per cent bonus for a shadow minister taking McKenzie’s pre-tax salary to $264,062 a year.

In 2024, McKenzie apologised for failing to declare 16 undisclosed flight upgrades with Qantas, including on five personal flights to or from New Zealand between 2016 and 2018, when she was dating New Zealand politician David Bennett.

The disclosure came after McKenzie led the Coalition’s attack on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for his alleged upgrade requests from the former Qantas CEO Alan Joyce.

“Deficiencies in disclosing these matters do not meet the expectations of the Australian people and the Parliament and were an oversight on my part, and for this, I apologise,” McKenzie said at the time.

Previously, politicians have been forced to pay back money after using parliamentary expenses to travel to weddings.