BOWMAN MP Andrew Laming has claimed more than $4000 for family travel on four trips to Cairns, including flights for his father-in-law.
The 2015 and 2016 expenditure is recorded in Finance Department and IPEA documents, going back to July 2008.
Mr Laming said all travel he claimed was work-related.
“Most other MPs, 80 per cent, (claim) far higher than me but don't have a young family,” he said.
“My family-related travel is less than 75 other federal MPs nationwide and over the last two years, only a third of the allocation has been claimed.”
The Cairns trips were taken in April and June of 2015 and twice late in 2016.
Mr Laming flew his father-in-law, wife and two daughters from Brisbane to Townsville return from Cairns in December 2016.
Tax payers were slugged about $1400 for his family’s flights alone.
It is understood Mr Laming’s father-in-law is not an Australian citizen but the Bowman MP would not confirm this.
When asked by Redland City Bulletin how his father-in-law's trip to northern Queensland related to his role as Bowman MP, Mr Laming said the tax payer-funded expenditure was within his entitlements.
“My family travel is for first degree relatives and strictly within the rules,” he said.
Mr Laming came to national attention earlier this month for claiming more than $13,500 in flights for his family’s trip to the Northern Territory and Western Australia mid-last year.
As previously reported by Redland City Bulletin, Mr Laming said his family's visit to Kununurra last July was exclusively work-related, labelling suggestions the trip was a holiday as "ridiculous".
The Bowman MP has spent about $105,000 of public funds on family travel since July 2009 but that included his three years as shadow parliamentary secretary for regional heath services and Indigenous health from September 2010.
He has also claimed about $1.1 million in printing and communications costs since then, with about $154,000 spent last year up until September.
Last year, Mr Laming became involved in state election machinations, offering a Mooloolaba holiday to social media users who could tell him the biggest thing Labor state MP Don Brown had accomplished in his three year’s as Capalaba MP.
Mr Laming would not disclose to Redland City Bulletin whether he had printed any state election-related materials last year.
“My printing is pre-approved and strictly within the rules,” he said.
Currently, printing and distribution costs can be shared by federal MPs with other Commonwealth or state parliamentarians.
Last financial year, taxpayers paid $516 million for ministerial and parliamentary services.
Mr Laming said it was a general rule that Parliament’s about 150 federal MPs and 76 senators each cost $1 million in departmental expenditure annually.
“The bottom line here is that everything I do follows the rules and everything I do is costing less than virtually any federal MP one can name,” he said.
“This data is so outstanding, I will now report my costs twice yearly.”
