Greens senator claimed $4000 taxpayer-funded whale watching trip in Great Australian Bight
South Australian Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young has defended her use of taxpayer dollars to go on a whale-watching trip in the Great Australian Bight.
Ms Hanson Young took her daughter on the overnight tour in September last year at a cost of almost $4000.
She says she wasn't breaking any rules, claiming the purpose of the tour was to meet community members to discuss BP's plans to drill for oil in the Bight.
The senator said her daughter came along for the trip because she was sick and could not be left home alone from school.
It follows revelations from last month the senator claimed over $2400 in taxpayer expenses to travel to Byron Bay on the weekend of last year's Splendour in the Grass festival.
A total of $1032 in "electorate business" travel allowance for the period July 21-24 was revealed in a new Finance Department report on parliamentary entitlements claimed over the period from July to December 2016.
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As well, the senator claimed a $65.50 Comcar to the Adelaide airport, a domestic airfare of $646 to fly from Adelaide to Sydney and Sydney to Coolangatta on July 21, car costs of $135 between July 21 and 25, and a $545 flight from Coolangatta to Sydney on July 25.
Comment has been sought from Senator Hanson-Young, who did not immediately respond.
However a check of the senator's Twitter feed showed she spoke at a forum about the film Chasing Asylum alongside the film's director Eva Orner.
She also took part in an ABC Q&A program which was webcast.
Neither Labor MP Terri Butler nor Liberal MP Andrew Laming who were also on the program, but hail from Queensland, claimed expenses.
But Ms Butler said it was not uncommon for MPs to claim Q&A attendance as "electorate business".
Under the rules, members of parliament can legitimately claim taxpayer-funded allowances - up to a maximum of 10 overnight stays - for travel outside their electorates on "electorate business" such as meetings and conferences.
Senator Hanson-Young also claimed "electorate business" travel allowance for visits to Sydney and Perth, totalling $1593.
A review of entitlements, which led to a new system being put in place, questioned the inconsistency of the term "electorate business",
"There is no consistent eligibility test (or terminology within those tests) applying to all work expenses," the report concluded, recommending a new system of "work expenses" and an independent body to monitor it.
Newsbreak - July 3
