Parliamentary expenses scandal puts all MPs on notice Federal Finance Minister Mathias Cormann responds to suggestions that two of his party members claimed $3000 in expenses to go to a friend's wedding. Prime Minister Tony Abbott has been engulfed by the first scandal of his term before Parliament has event resumed. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen Source: Supplied ON Tuesday morning, 35 freshly minted federal MPs jet into Canberra for a two-day "orientation" workshop, to be taught everything from using the Comcar service to the finer points of parliamentary procedure. And it's a safe bet the Class of 2013 will be super keen to learn about the generous parliamentary entitlements scheme - particularly in the wake of the expenses controversy that has flared in the past fortnight. Tony Abbott's hopes of a prime ministerial honeymoon have been dashed as his own expense claims have come under forensic scrutiny, as part of a scandal that threatens to engulf the entire parliament. While the scale of this homegrown controversy falls well short of the 2009 British scandal - which led to MPs being hauled off to jail - it is a near certainty that further dubious, possibly illegal, expense claims will come to light. Every one of our 226 federal parliamentarians are on notice. The public is sick and tired of a snouts-in-the-trough mentality, of sneaky increases in entitlements that are handed down in the shadows of an election. Just days before the September 7 poll, for instance, the Remuneration Tribunal quietly awarded every federal MP a yearly boost to entitlement worth $700. This was done by increasing the rate paid for Sunday night accommodation in Canberra by $8 to $268, adding $150,000 to the annual cost of running the parliament. Thank you Mr Tribunal! This small increase in travel allowance followed a pay rise in July of at least $4580 - the third pay rise in 16 months, taking the base pay for an MP to $195,130. Mr Abbott, who earns just over $500,000 per annum, is paid more than US President Barack Obama, and receives around $200,000 more than his political bestie, Canadian PM Stephen Harper. Australia's parliamentarians are well paid by global standards and yet the temptation to abuse an entitlements' scheme that is largely self-regulated appears seems as strong as ever. No wonder the public have had a gutful of their elected representatives. John Howard learned the pitfalls of parliamentary rorting the hard way when a raft of his ministers resigned in 1997 in what became known as the travel rorts scandal. It left a permanent scar on his first term as PM. Mr Abbott, then a junior MP, was not involved but he knows full well the dangers of claiming travel and other entitlements when they don't pass the famed "pub test." The PM has been forced to pay back thousands of dollars he claimed while promoting his book, Battlelines and has also refunded the public purse for travel claims he made to attend the weddings of former MPs Sophie Mirabella and Peter Slipper. Oh, the irony. For while the PM, his senior Coalition colleagues and Labor MPs can all expect greater scrutiny, the gold standard for Entitlement Abuser falls to Mr Slipper, the former speaker whose career is now at an end. Former MP Peter Slipper will face criminal charges in December relating to his use of entitlements. The former Liberal MP routinely abused his entitlements and was forced to repay tens of thousands of dollars during a lengthy political career that ended in disgrace. He is also the only federal MP in the past decade to face criminal charges for allegedly rorting entitlements. This matter is set down for hearing in the ACT Magistrates Court in December, and follows an Australian Federal Police investigation. Mr Slipper, who has pleaded not guilty, is alleged to have breached Commonwealth laws by dishonestly filling out taxi dockets - not once, not twice, but around a dozen times. Police claim these occurred during three separate visits in 2010 to wineries and restaurants scattered around the national capital, with Mr Slipper allegedly entering into cosy arrangements with hire car drivers in a bid to conceal the nature and extent of his winery travel. If convicted, he could be sent to jail or hit with a heavy fine - and he could also lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in superannuation payments. It would be a sorry end chapter to a controversial career punctuated by unsubstantiated allegations of sexual harassment by a former staffer (the Federal Court decision in favour of Mr Slipper is subject to a full bench appeal) and a history of taking the Australian taxpayer for a ride. A long and expensive ride. Yet every member of federal parliament cannot say they have not been warned. The system is more transparent than ever, and a number of rort-able entitlements - including overseas "study" trips and the infamous Gold Card - have been phased out. In 2011, the first comprehensive examination of entitlements in 35 years - the so-called Belcher review - made a series of recommendations to clean-up the system. Chaired by former public servant Barbara Belcher, the committee concluded the "existing arrangements are an extraordinarily complex plethora of entitlements containing myriad ambiguities." It recommended a series of reforms to provide a "simplified, transparent and accountable framework" that better reflected community standards. Professor Allan Fels says no entitlements scheme will ever work perfectly. Former competition tsar and current Mental Health Commission chairman Allan Fels was a member of the Belcher panel. He believes that while improvements have been made, the system is "not perfect and never will be - because there are always issues of judgment regarding entitlements." Two years on, does he believe it's time to have another look at what entitlements MPs can, and can't, claim? I think the present system can be given more time to work. We've not had problems on the English scale," Fels tells News Corp. But he adds, pointedly, that the "events of the past two weeks will mean that members of parliament will be very very cautious about claiming travel entitlements." We will see. Habitual rorters are unlikely to be deterred by a system that is largely self-regulating, with under-resourced Finance officials only occasionally raising serious questions of impropriety. Certainly MPs and Senators should be on notice that a dubious claim to attend a mate's wedding, or an interstate sporting event, or one of Canberra's better wineries, will land them in hot water. Perhaps the new Special Minister of State, Michael Ronaldson, should take advice of some of his colleagues who believe there should be even stricter policing and greater transparency to restore public trust in a system that costs well over $100 million a year. Over to you, Mr Abbott.