One Nation’s newest senator for New South Wales, Sean Bell, continued to live and work in Queensland in his first four months in the role – while also billing taxpayers more than $6,000 for chauffeured cars in Brisbane.
After Bell was selected to take the casual vacancy left by One Nation’s elected senator Warwick Stacey in September, the party said that the former adviser to Pauline Hanson was “currently in the process of moving to NSW”.
But parliamentary expense records released on Wednesday night show that Bell continued to call Tivoli, a suburb of Ipswich, his home base for the final quarter of 2025, with travel claims showing he commuted from Brisbane for last year’s parliamentary sitting days.
The data shows he claimed travel allowance to spend a total of 14 days in the state he now represents.
It is unclear whether Bell has since relocated to NSW, however a party spokesman said in late February that “all One Nation Senators are residents of the state in which they represent”.
The party declined to say when Bell had relocated when contacted on Wednesday.
Property records show Bell still owns a house in Tivoli, while his register of interests lodged with the Senate states he owns residential property in both Queensland and the NSW Central Coast.
While there is no constitutional requirement for a senator to live in the state that they are representing, Bell’s selection as the party’s replacement sparked criticism in the NSW parliament.
The independent parliamentary expenses authority records show the new senator claimed $6,600 for chauffeured vehicles in Brisbane across 30 separate car rides in the three months from October to December.
In addition, Bell claimed almost $5,000 in airfares for himself and his family to travel between Brisbane and Canberra for parliamentary sitting days in the second half of the year.
The senator, who worked for Hanson for nine years as a “trusted adviser” before being chosen by the party to fill the Senate vacancy, has also used travel entitlements to familiarise himself with his new NSW constituents.
Bell spent eight days in regional NSW, visiting Albury, Coffs Harbour, Cessnock, Gerringong, Maitland and Tamworth. He also spent six nights in Sydney, claiming $499 a night in travel allowance to stay in the city.
The Guardian reported last month that One Nation had employed Hanson’s daughter, who is the lead Senate candidate in Tasmania, as a senior adviser to Bell.
Hanson is under growing pressure over her use of taxpayer-funded resources.
The Guardian revealed on Wednesday that she had claimed almost $9,000 in taxpayer funds to charter a private plane to an event in Geelong last October at the invitation of Australia’s richest person, Gina Rinehart. The party claimed the charter flight was the cheapest option available in the absence of a commercial flight between Tamworth and Geelong.
Hanson subsequently took a flight on Rinehart’s private jet from Melbourne to Sydney, but failed to declare it in line with parliamentary rules until after it was revealed by The Guardian.
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