THE huge cost to taxpayers of Barnaby Joyce carrying out his parliamentary business is laid bare in the local member’s most recent declaration of entitlements.
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The New England MP and federal Agriculture Minister lodged receipts totalling some $430,867 with the Department of Finance for the last six months of 2014.
The figures make Mr Joyce the sixth-highest-spending office holder, behind Prime Minister Tony Abbott ($1.05 million) and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop ($866,658).
Mr Joyce spent considerably more during the reporting period than Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss ($330,939) and under-fire speaker Bronwyn Bishop ($398,564).
The largest expense Mr Joyce incurred was for the rent and general running costs of his electorate office in Peel St, at $102,621.
That figure is expected to soar in subsequent reporting periods, when expenses associated with his new Armidale and Tenterfield offices are included.
At $75,807, Mr Joyce spent more than any other parliamentarian on charter flights, with Mr Truss coming in second ($67,117) and Queensland-based MP Bob Katter third ($52,580).
A spokesman for Mr Joyce said that, as a senior cabinet minister holding the agriculture portfolio, as well as serving a large electorate, Mr Joyce needed to travel frequently.
“As the Agriculture Minister, Mr Joyce is required to fly to places where there are no commercial (air) services, that’s why his charter flight (expenses) are so high,” he said.
Publicity over Bronwyn Bishop’s profligate spending of taxpayers’ money, including the so-called “choppergate” scandal, has sharpened the focus on MPs’ entitlements.
Mr Joyce’s office said he had only travelled by helicopter within the electorate three times in two years.
One occasion was when he went on an aerial tour of mobile phone blackspots, with the government later allocating funding to plug 104 gaps in the local network.
Despite the agriculture portfolio requiring him to build relationships with foreign trading partners, Mr Joyce spent relatively little on overseas travel ($33,344).
Among the ancillary items for which Mr Joyce claimed was the purchase of the books A First-Rate Madness: Uncovering the Links Between Leadership and Mental Illness for $18.17 and Can China Lead for $40.90.
The Department of Finance notes that not all costs contained in the six-month reporting period were actually incurred between July 1 and December 31, 2014.
