MINISTERIAL FAMILY
ACCOMMODATION COSTS — GUIDELINES
168. Hon MICHAEL MISCHIN to the Leader of the House
representing the Premier:
I refer to the Premier's
answer to question without notice 146, asked on Wednesday, 13 March 2019, and
the Premier's refusal to table the guidelines referred to in his brief
ministerial statement made to the Legislative Assembly on 12 March.
(1) Will the
Premier table the guidelines he referred to in his ministerial statement and to
which he says he had regard; and, if not, why not?
(2) What is the
title of those guidelines?
(3) Are those
guidelines publicly available?
(4) When were the
guidelines last updated and who approved the last update?
(5) To the extent
that the guidelines were unclear to him, did he seek advice regarding them, and
when and from whom; and, if he did not, why not?
(6) If the
Premier refuses to table the guidelines, will he provide some written notice of
the decision to both houses of Parliament and the Auditor General in accordance
with section 82 of the Financial Management Act 2006; and, if not, why not?
Hon SUE
ELLERY replied:
I thank the honourable member for
some notice of the question.
(1)–(6)
The guidelines for travel—travel provisions for ministers—are
unchanged since the time of the previous government, of which the member was a senior
cabinet member. He would be well aware that the guidelines for the use of
government aircraft by family members are —
Travel by Family Members
If a Minister is satisfied that
travel by the Minister's family members is warranted and that the
charter does not involve any additional cost to government, then family members
may travel on chartered aircraft free of cost.
Where a Member of Parliament
accompanies a Minister on a government charter as part of an official party,
the Member's spouse and/or dependant children may travel on the
aircraft on the same cost basis as any other non-government passenger, provided
vacant seats are available and such travel does not increase charter costs.
In such circumstances where the
spouse and/or dependants have an Electorate Air Travel entitlement, the Member can elect for the spouse and/or dependants to
forfeit an entitlement in lieu of paying their proportion of the charter
costs. This would be on the basis that the spouse and/or dependants are
travelling within the Member's electorate or between the electorate and
Perth.