WA Liberal pays back expenses
WA Federal Liberal MP Steve Irons was forced to repay almost $11,000 in wrongly claimed airfares and car transport fees this year.
Details of the repayments came as Prime Minister Tony Abbott admitted he was forced to repay taxpayer cash he claimed for travel to weddings of two coalition MPs in 2006, including to the nuptials of embattled former speaker Peter Slipper.
Documents obtained by The West Australian under Freedom of Information laws show Mr Irons repaid $10,863 in domestic flights and Cabcharge payments.
The West Australian revealed this year Mr Irons spent almost 130 nights in Melbourne and 20 nights in Adelaide over a two-year period, despite being a member for what was then the marginal seat of Swan.
Mr Irons, originally from Victoria, married the then Melbourne-based real estate agent Cheryle Street in Melbourne in 2011.
The register of parliamentary interests shows she moved to WA in April last year.
Travel records show one of the nights Mr Irons spent in Melbourne coincided with the debut AFL match of his son Jarrad for Port Adelaide in round one of the 2011 season.
Mr Irons said a small number of flights had been booked incorrectly "due to administrative error".
"These flights were identified during a self-audit and brought to the attention of the Department of Finance so a voluntary repayment could be arranged," he said.
Mr Irons has previously said he was forced to spend "an extended period of time" in Melbourne because of health issues with his mother and then-fiancee.
Speaking on the sidelines of APEC talks in Bali yesterday, Mr Abbott admitted he was recently forced to pay back $600 in entitlements he claimed to attend Mr Slipper's wedding.
Mr Slipper is facing charges over allegations he misused expenses allowances to travel to Canberra wineries.
On Sunday it was revealed Mr Abbott charged taxpayers $1094 for travel costs when he attended the 2006 wedding of recently defeated Liberal MP Sophie Mirabella in Victoria.
Mr Abbott said he had been leader of the House of Representatives at the time of the claim and believed it to be within entitlements.
"I was advised that the matter was unclear and, in order to put the thing beyond doubt, the money was repaid," he said.
But Mr Slipper, who lost his seat at the election, questioned why others had been allowed to repay money and he had been referred to police.
Labor MP and cycling enthusiast Bernie Ripoll confirmed he took in several stages of the Tour de France as part of a taxpayer-funded study tour to inspect that country's bicycle infrastructure.
