Nationals MP George Christensen misused his travel expenses by linking taxpayer-funded domestic travel to a month-long personal holiday that included visits to the Middle East and the Philippines.
Mr Christensen, who has been under fire for spending almost 300 days in the Philippines over a four-year period, has paid back more than $2100 in taxpayer funds after an audit by the independent expenses watchdog found he wrongly charged taxpayers for a domestic flight and a government chauffeur.
Nationals MP George Christensen paid back more than $2100 in taxpayer funds after an audit by the independent expenses watchdog found he wrongly charged taxpayers for a domestic flight and a government chauffeur. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
Instead of returning to his home base in north Queensland after Parliament finished sitting in the nation's capital in March 2018, he claimed $125.40 for a Comcar to Canberra Airport and $136.42 for a domestic flight to Sydney before linking up with the overseas holiday that he paid for personally.
The audit by the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority (IPEA), released on Monday, found Mr Christensen breached expenses rules for charging taxpayers for the travel on March 30 that year, which was not used for the "dominant purpose" of parliamentary business.
He used the travel to link up with an overseas trip during which he visited Rome and Israel before arriving in the Philippines on April 23, 2018, according to Coalition sources who declined to be named. The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age have confirmed Mr Christensen flew from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to Manila on April 23 on Flight SV862.
The Queensland MP returned to Australia on April 30, spending a little over a month in the country before jetting back to Manila on June 2 of that year.
Mr Christensen was forced to pay back $327.28 for the trip, which included a penalty for misusing his expenses. The MP, nicknamed "the member for Manila" by colleagues, also decided to voluntarily repay an additional $1843.16 for other trips scrutinised by the audit.
Labor senator Murray Watt said the government needed to make sure Mr Christensen abided by the expenses rules in future.
Mr Christensen self-referred his expenses to the IPEA at the height of last year's election campaign amid allegations he charged taxpayers more than $3000 by linking his personal trips to the Philippines with domestic travel. At the time, the outspoken MP said he was "absolutely confident that the travel was undertaken within the rules".
The Morrison government declined to comment on IPEA's findings.
When the matter was referred to the expenses watchdog, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said: "It'll be assessed and then I have no doubt George will abide by the ruling that is handed down."
The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age last month revealed claims from a staff member at an adult entertainment bar in the Philippines that he was a regular at the venue.