First Class Rorting

Australia, we need to talk about politicians' entitlements. 

Yes, I know we've been talking of little else for weeks, but entitled politicians behaving like bored orangutans flinging mud at eachother does not constitute civilised debate or useful discourse. 

The delightfully bizarre bipartisan defence of the family travel allowances when Anthony Albanese and Christopher Pyne defended Tony Burke's use of the entitlement is, well, a bit special, but it brought us no closer to understanding what it really costs to fund the work of a member of parliament.

The reality is that being a member of parliament costs money...a lot of money. MPs travel a lot, particularly if they are ministers or shadow ministers, and if their electorates are far away from Canberra. Equally, voters are skeptical about the spending habits of their politicians, because let's face it: most of us will not be in that income bracket in our lifetimes. 

That's the environment in which entitlements must be reviewed.

The Story that Won't Stop

What started with #Choppergate has taken it's first, and perhaps most profligate victim, with Bronwyn Bishop's forced resignation from the coveted position of Speaker. Her demotion to the back benches will cost her around $150,000 per year in lost salary, on top of the entitlements to which she will no longer have access, and the loss of prestige and reputation, which may be the harshest penalty for the proud Mrs Bishop. 

This week's target of choice was Tony Burke, head of Opposition Business in the house. It wasn't a wise choice to fly his family from their Sydney base to Uluru in business class. Having said that, Mr Burke does not appear in the list of top ten Family Travel spending MPs. Who is more wasteful? The various MPs who have spent over $20,000 on economy fares for family, or Mr Burke, who spent less, but chose business class when economy would've been less expensive. 

It's impossible to answer that question.

It's been been revealed that Mr Burke's opposite number, Christopher Pyne, flew his family from their home base in Adelaide to Canberra in Business Class, which explains why last week, he asked Liberal colleagues to go easy on Burke. This morning, we've learned that Treasurer Joe Hockey used the family travel allowance to fly his family from Sydney to Perth, in Business Class. No wonder they're all defending the practice; they're all doing it.

But that's just the headline acts of the past few weeks. There's still Joe Hockey renting his wife's apartment at taxpayers' expense, and his conspicuously frequent flights to Cairns, which is the nearest major airport to his Malanda farm. There was even that pesky air charter in Tasmania that he was forced to take when the roads were closed...except that a Sydney journalist drove the same "closed" route at the time Joe was on his charter. Oops.

There's still a question mark over Prime Minister Tony Abbott's trips to various swimming and athletic meetings where he competed, plus his expenses claims relating to his own Pollie Pedal charity, and now, the extremely dubious claims related to a campaign trip to the Tamworth Country Music Festival in 2012. Somehow, he totted up almost $10,000 in expenses in Tamworth, but didn't stay there for even a single night. Another urgent and unavoidable charter flight?

Media is Entitled to Report

Whether or not any of these so-called 'rorts' pass the sniff test depends on who is sniffing. Conservative commentator Chris Kenny has tweeted yesterday

All the gallery and twitter outrage against Bronwyn has fallen silent about Burke. #hypocrisy #youknowitmakessense

Not just politicians out of step with community standards it seems. Gallery screamed for Bronwyn's head but avert their eyes from Burke.

There is a noteworthy lack of outrage at Tony Burke, Christopher Pyne, Joe Hockey and Tony Abbott in comparison to the universal outrage following the revelations about Bronwyn Bishop's extravagances. While taxpayer-funded business class airfares for MPs' families fail the infamous pub test, the dollar amounts are relatively small, the expenditure was declared, and there is no regulation that expressly forbids it. Most Australians are fair minded  and can see that spending thousands on helicopters and limousines when ComCars are available is blatantly wrong. 

ABC Insiders host Barrie Cassidy commented via Twitter:

Pollies away from their families by necessity entitled to negotiate modest family friendly work arrangements. Let's not get too hysterical.

The government's spectacular mishandling of the entitlements crisis during the long winter parliamentary recess has allowed media figures and bloggers to devote time to understanding the many issues. The area of parliamentary entitlements is a mess of deliberate rorting, poor administration and fuzzy guidelines that leave standards open to interpretation. Lack of oversight has made rorting, both deliberate and accidental, too easy.

The Review

Prime Minister Abbott has announced a comprehensive "root and branch" review of entitlements, the fifth such review in seven years. If the review is to include recommendations on bringing entitlements into line with the expectations of average Australians, it must include average Aussies as part of the review, and within the group that has oversight of the process.

As someone with experience in assessing and developing new systems and processes, and framing new business rules, I have some ideas around what might be acceptable as new regulations for entitlements. Before sharing my recommendations, it's helpful to clarify a few things.

1. Politicians are well paid, and they need to be. They have huge responsibilities, long days; they make frequent family sacrifices and live their lives in the public spotlight. Few members - Malcolm Turnbull, Kevin Rudd, Joe Hockey and Clive Palmer excepted - are well financed outside of politics.

2. The requirements of the Prime Minister, in that he travels more, both domestically and internationally are entirely different and should not be subject to standard MP entitlements rules. While cheaper, commercial flights are often available, the Prime Minister of the day must have access to appropriate security and communications facilitates at all times. For this reason, the PM of the day should always have access to a VIP RAAF jet.

3. Technology allows all expenses to be uploaded quickly and be visible to all via the internet. There should be no secrets and no surprises.

4. The "root and branch" review of entitlements is sadly lacking any input from the electorate; everyone on the five-member review panel has a background as a senior politician or senior corporate officer, and are well used to six-figure incomes. They will struggle to form an entitlements framework which is aligned with 'middle Australia'.

Suggested Business Rules for Entitlements

Domestic Travel: Ministers/Shadow Ministers, Speaker: Business Class

Others: Flights over 4 hours may be Business Class; flights under 4 hours should be Economy Class

International Travel: All international flights to be Business Class

Road Transport: All travel to be via private plated vehicle or by ComCar

Travel for purposes unrelated to Parliamentary or Portfolio Business are to be via  private plated vehicle only.

    

When a ComCar is required and is unavailable, and private vehicle is inappropriate, a hire car / driver may be used, with prior approval from authorising travel manager

Charters:  Charters are permissible only with prior approval from the travel manager, when no other options are available, and when travel is essential. 

Family Travel: A family travel allowance, based on the distance of the member's electorate from Canberra, will be made available. This allowance may only be used to allow family members to accompany the Member when the Member is conducting Parliamentary business, or to visit the Member in Canberra. 

The Family Travel Allowance will be capped. The usual restrictions regarding class of travel apply to the travelling Member and any family members also travelling. 

Travel Arrangements for Staff accompanying Members: Staff will be expected to travel in the same cabin as the Member.

Office Fitout: A specialist design/fitout company should be selected for use by Members, who will have the opportunity to work with the designer to upgrade and/refit electorate office space to the value of $X, if required. Members offices and suites within APH will be subject to the same guidelines.

Party Functions, Fundraisers and Conferences: Costs incurred in attending party conferences are not considered a Parliamentary entitlement. 

In the case of travel to a destination where both Parliamentary and Party business is included in the itinerary, the duration of each will be calculated and the Member may claim pro rata for the Parliamentary Business only.

Balancing Act

Any process for assessing and processing entitlements will be a complex knot of regulations, guidelines, loopholes, names and numbers. It won't be fast, and it's never easy. We can only hope that when our "expectations" of what is reasonable are incorporated into the latest rule book, the demands of functionality and the rewards of status are balanced against similar standards in the private sector.

And this is a starting point for the many conversations that need to follow.