Members, Accommodation Allowances

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens) (14:57): Mr Speaker, my question is to you. If the Minister for Transport and Infrastructure is not responsible to the house for claiming the country members' travel allowance, who is?

The SPEAKER (14:57): What I might do is to take this opportunity to talk a little bit about the practice of processing these claims and how that works. In respect of the member for West Torrens' query regarding this, because I think this is useful to members, to the public and also to our friends in the media, I am advised that the Clerk or the delegated officers of the house, if you like, on receipt of a claim form, will check the form to confirm that the number of days claimed are correct, that the number does not exceed the maximum number of days that can be claimed for the financial year or that the amount that is claimed per day is not exceeded.

No doubt members are familiar with the content of the country members' claim form, which requires the member making the claim to, if you like, certify that their usual place of residence is where it is and they have incurred the expenses claimed. If officers of the house then have any concerns regarding the detail included on the claim form, the officer will confirm the details with the member. Upon confirmation of the details set out in the claim form, the officer will approve the payment and the claim will be processed for payment.

The Clerk certainly cannot approve a payment, if you like, for claims that are known to him or her to be invalid or unlawful. Any such claim would be usually returned to the member unless there was a view that the claim is irregular, in which case the claim would be forwarded to the Speaker for necessary action. So I don't directly get involved with the processing of claims, if you like. The Clerk has delegated authority, and then he also delegates that authority on to staff in the parliament.

I hope that goes a long way to explaining a little bit more about the claim situation. Ultimately, the allowance is administered by the house and, for example, some of these questions may be better asked, perhaps, during the estimates. I hope that gives the member some update as to the background into these claims.