Embattled Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie billed taxpayers to fly to Tasmania on the weekend of her son's engagement party, 10 months before she claimed taxpayer-funded flights to attend his wedding. Parliamentary expenses records show McKenzie charged taxpayers for flights in the days surrounding her son's engagement party in Devonport in April 2022. At the time, McKenzie was a senior cabinet minister in the Morrison government.
According to expenditure records seen by the Sydney Morning Herald, McKenzie listed an April 29 flight, with no price disclosed, from Melbourne to Devonport, where her son lives. She later appeared that evening at the launch of Liberal MP Gavin Pearce's federal election campaign in nearby Latrobe. The following night, she attended her son's engagement party before billing taxpayers $259.40 for a flight from Devonport to Melbourne on May 1.
The revelations come just one day after it was revealed the Nationals senator charged taxpayers nearly $1,000 for a four-day trip to Tasmania in February 2023, which coincided with her son's wedding. McKenzie used a total of $853.52 in public funds for the trip, including flights and accommodation. Though her office later claimed the senator had repaid a $207 flight from Devonport to Melbourne following the wedding.
In response to questions about the 2022 engagement party claims, a spokesperson for McKenzie told the Herald the senator did not use taxpayer funds for personal activities. 'Senator McKenzie undertook legitimate activities while working in Tasmania, when she was a senior government minister,' the spokesperson said. They also described the revelation as a 'baseless smear by the Labor Party.'
In 2024, McKenzie also apologised for failing to declare 16 undisclosed flight upgrades with Qantas, including on five personal flights to or from New Zealand between 2016 and 2018. She also billed taxpayers nearly $30,000 for accommodation, flights and chauffeur services to attend 21 sporting events, despite losing the sports portfolio in 2019.
According to Remuneration Tribunal records, federal MPs had a base salary of $217,060 in February 2023, with a 25 per cent bonus for shadow ministers taking McKenzie's pre-tax salary to $264,062 a year. On Monday, there was a mixed response from McKenzie's Coalition colleagues, with some suggesting it was not a good look for voters.
Shadow treasurer Tim Wilson said he wasn't sure McKenzie's expenses passed the pub test. 'The focus always has to be to make sure we're spending public money appropriately and doing it consistent with the rules,' Wilson told the Today show. 'But the difference between the rules and the pub tests, there'll always be a gap, and I think that this clearly fits within that.'
Liberal senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price said she expects McKenzie will have to speak to these 'issues' in the future. 'I'm sure the Australian public deserve to understand that their representatives are spending taxpayers' dollars in the appropriate forms,' she said. 'I'm sure that Senator McKenzie will be dealing with those issues moving forward and will have to speak to those issues herself.'
However, Nationals leader Matt Canavan said McKenzie had acted appropriately and was 'highlighting cuts to infrastructure' when she travelled to Tasmania in 2023 around the dates of the wedding. It comes just months after McKenzie called for Communications Minister Anika Wells to step down, slamming her as 'very arrogant' amid a furore over her travel expenses, which saw Wells' team rack up around $90,000 on a trip to the United Nations.
