Illawarra pollies' expenses revealed

The Parliamentary Expenses Authority (PEA) tracks how our pollies spend public money - including overseas trips, airline tickets, office costs and travel expenses for staff.

It also looks at car costs, which includes the use of Commonwealth cars (COMCARs) private vehicles and petrol.

The most recent data available on the PEA site covers the three-month periods in late 2022, July-September and October-December.

Across those two periods, the total expenses for Whitlam MP Stephen Jones, Cunningham's Alison Byrnes and Gilmore's Fiona Phillips was $792,775.

The expenses of Mr Jones, the only one of the three who has a ministerial portfolio, accounted for 42 per cent of that total - $340,033.

Ms Byrnes' six-monthly expenses bill was $291,042, with Ms Phillips' tallying $161,700.

Over that six-month period, Mr Jones tallied up $32,897 on 118 COMCAR trips, including a $1097 trip from Wollongong to Canberra on the day before parliament was sitting.

There were other COMCAR bills in that quarter, for $820, $813, $773 and $820.

The COMCAR use - which costs $2.10 for every minute of a trip - falls under the expense category of "other car costs", which also include petrol bills and private car leases.

In the July-September quarter, Mr Jones - the Finance Minister and Assistant Treasurer - had the second-highest expenses of all the country's MPs when it came to money spent on car costs.

In that quarter Mr Jones spent $24,967 on vehicle expenses - including $20,428 on COMCARS - outspent on car costs only by North Queensland MP Bob Katter with $28,405.

By comparison, in the second half of 2022 Ms Byrnes and Ms Phillips spent $795 and $244 respectively on COMCARs. The Cunningham MP stated she drove herself to Canberra when parliament was sitting.

The Mercury asked Mr Jones about the COMCAR use and how he used the time while someone else was driving.

In response, his office sent a one-response.

"Parliamentarians are able to access travel, including flights and COMCAR for their parliamentary business, in accordance with the relevant rules and guidelines," a spokesperson for the minister said.

A new federal MP in 2022, Ms Byrnes spent $133,542 on "office facilities", at a time when the office of the former member for Cunningham Sharon Bird was being upgraded.

The office expenses category included office rent, electricity bills, paper recycling service and general property repairs.

The procurement of these services were managed by the Ministerial and Parliamentary Services.

Ms Byrnes declined to comment directly on the $133,542 outlay.

By comparison, Mr Jones' bill for office facilities was $147,070 while Ms Phillips was $68,872.

As a minister Mr Jones was also the only one to log any international travel - to the tune of more than $20,000 in the back half of 2022 - for himself and an employee.

Those trips included the Pacific Islands Forum Economic Ministers Meeting in Vanuatu and to Singapore for the Annual International Forum for Economic Development.

Ms Phillips was also contacted for comment.