Top Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie billed taxpayers for flights and accommodation to Tasmania before and after her son’s wedding in the Tamar Valley, using public money for part of a four-day trip that overlapped with the family event.
Parliamentary expenses records show McKenzie claimed $853.52 in total for the trip, including $328.99 for a flight from Melbourne to Launceston after a Senate estimates hearing in Canberra on Thursday, February 16, 2023, and $317 for one night’s accommodation in Launceston that night. On the Monday after the wedding, she also charged taxpayers $207.53 to fly back to Melbourne, an expense that did not appear on her public record for more than a year.
The wedding was held on Saturday, February 18, 2023, at a vineyard in Sidmouth, about 35 kilometres north-west of Launceston. McKenzie appeared in photos and a video posted on social media from the celebration. Her office has said the travel was part of a wider political push, not a private trip, but the dates show the public costs covered the lead-up to and aftermath of her son’s wedding.
Under rules overseen by the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority, politicians can claim travel only when the dominant purpose of the trip is parliamentary business. The authority also says MPs and senators must act ethically, in good faith and be personally responsible for their travel expenses. That standard is at the centre of the question around McKenzie’s Tasmania claims.
A spokesperson for McKenzie said the February 2023 flight and accommodation to Launceston were “undertaken in accordance with parliamentary rules as part of a multi-state campaign to expose Labor’s budget cuts to infrastructure.” The spokesperson described it as “legitimate activity as shadow infrastructure minister” and said McKenzie was there to expose cuts to Tasmanian road funding disclosed during Senate estimates the week prior.
There are no public records of parliamentary duties such as committee meetings or public events in Tasmania, apart from an interview with a local newspaper. In that interview, McKenzie called on Labor to boost its investment in roads. Her office also said her work in Tasmania on the Friday included “coordinating a national media announcement and holding a press conference.”
A 140-word article in The Examiner appeared under the headline McKenzie slams Labor funding cuts and said she visited Longford on February 17 to discuss Labor’s cuts and delays. In the piece, McKenzie said the federal government had delayed and cut hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for Tasmanian roads. She also posted a photo to social media of a field in Longford saying she was “discussing cuts and delays to road funding.”
What makes the claim contentious is the overlap. The public money covered travel into Tasmania before the wedding, a night in Launceston near the venue, and the return flight after the ceremony, while the only documented official activity in the state was a brief media interview and a small local article. That gap leaves the spending to stand or fall on McKenzie’s argument that the trip’s dominant purpose was parliamentary business rather than a family milestone.
