Ministerial Travel

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (16:02): The Liberal Party supports ministerial travel, ministerial travel conducted on the basis of the need for official business and in which reasonable expenses are incurred on behalf of taxpayers. The recent controversy in the public, and the public anger towards travels by the Minister for Tourism, Mr Bignell, has been because members of the public, and indeed many of us, believe that a number of the minister's claims have not been reasonable claims.

It is my view that the minister has been a serial offender, involved and engaged in a systematic breach of government rules in relation to disclosure of travel expenses. It is not reasonable in my view to be spending $739 of taxpayers' money to go to the NRL grand final and to have the car waiting for you and your guest for 90 minutes. It is not reasonable to have a lunch for just one person at the exclusive Rockpool restaurant for $138 whilst you are enjoying a $70 bottle of Pannell shiraz. It is not reasonable to have lunch just for yourself as minister and your ministerial adviser, and no other business people, at a cost of $248 in Edinburgh whilst you enjoy a $100 bottle of Argentinian malbec. It is not reasonable to be claiming a hotel bill for accommodation in the central business district of Adelaide, even though you happen to live in Adelaide. It is not reasonable, when going overseas to Glasgow, ostensibly for the Commonwealth Games, that the minister and his ministerial adviser had a weekend stopover in Frankfurt.

It is not reasonable that the minister has, in my view, breached his own government's rules and guidelines for the disclosure of all of his travel expenses. There are many unanswered questions as to whether or not the minister has revealed all the expenses in relation to his overseas and national travel. For example, in May 2014, there are no accommodation invoices for the minister and his ministerial adviser for two nights that were spent in Cairns en route to China.

In July 2014, there is no invoice for accommodation for the minister or his adviser for two nights' accommodation in Glasgow. Nothing is revealed either on the minister's account or the ministerial adviser's account. In March 2015, for a trip to Hong Kong, for three nights' accommodation, there is no accommodation invoice revealed for either the minister or his chief of staff for that particular element of the trip.

There are a number of other examples where details of accommodation for one room have been made available but details of accommodation for any second room have not been made available either on the minister's disclosure account or the adviser's disclosure account. One of the many examples of that is in Edinburgh, whilst he was travelling there for the Commonwealth Games.

It is unsurprising that there is so much public anger at the minister's arrogance and behaviour. At a time when struggling South Australian families are being smashed with ever-increasing bills, such as the ESL that has been imposed on them in the last 12 months, struggling as a result of cuts to critical services such as the Repatriation Hospital and services to be provided from emergency departments, it is no wonder that people are furious at people like minister Bignell and others, whose arrogance has been apparent in trying to defend their spending of more than $150,000 in a single year on overseas and other travel. It is no wonder, as I said, that that has stunned almost everyone in the South Australian community.

As many in this chamber will know, it is not just members on the Liberal side of the chamber who are raising concerns about these issues. There have been many Labor members in the corridors of this house who have encouraged Liberal MPs to raise public concerns about the behaviour and expenditure of minister Bignell over the last year or two.