Ms Robertson was one of a number of NSW politicians named by a Sunday newspaper who are undertaking taxpayer-funded study tours. Another MP named in the article was the House Speaker and Member for Northern Tablelands Richard Torbay who will travel to Malaysia for the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association conference.

Ms Robertson said the reason for the delayed trip was due to being involved in a serious car accident near Tingha in 2004, while travelling with Country Labor colleague and Tamworth regional councillor Diane Carter.

The trip will be to study first hand methods used to rehabilitate prisoners and parolees from the English correctional system.

She said she would be meeting with the English alternative to Australia’s Justice Action organisation, “to see what they have to say”.

Ms Robertson will also be hoping to speak with the English counterpart of the Law Society to gain points of view from the legal profession on the best ways to approach offender

rehabilitation.

She said the scrutiny of politicians’ study trips was a welcome one so that the public knew what their elected officials were doing and vice versa.

Ms Robertson flew to Sydney yesterday for two Parliamentary committee meetings and will spend the remainder of the week contacting organisations in England to plan her itinerary.

Mr Torbay said the “tab” for his trip would be picked up by the CPA and not the NSW taxpayer.

He said he was looking forward to the trip that begins at the end of July and will have him out of the country for about seven days.

“NSW plays a strong role in politics and democracy in the Commonwealth and there is a fair bit of interest in the role of an independent Speaker,” he said.

“A lot of Commonwealth countries attend the conference and there are more reasons than ever now to be working with the other countries.”

The Member for Tamworth, Peter Draper, has just returned from a trip to America where he represented the Ombudsman and Police Integrity Commission (PIC) Review Committee’s inquiry into Early Intervention Systems for At Risk and Vulnerable Law Enforcement Officers.

He said as part of its Trends in Police Corruption report, the committee recommended that the NSW Ombudsman, the PIC, plus NSW Police, all consider implementing a system that would identify officers vulnerable to corruption.