Two National Party MPs have racked up a combined bill of $200,000 chartering private flights to and from their electorates to attend sessions of Parliament in Canberra since the change of government.
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Spending on jet hire to Canberra for sitting weeks is filed by the Finance Department under the little-known expense category of "special minister of state-approved" flights.
NSW National Mark Coulton, who represents the sprawling north-western NSW electorate of Parkes and Darren Chester, whose Victorian seat of Gippsland is 10 times smaller, are the two MPs approved to charter flights for sitting weeks.
Department of Finance records show the pair have spent $198,000 between them since the Coalition took power in 2013.
Mr Coulton has charged $137,000 on charter flights between Warialda and Canberra in that time while Mr Chester, the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, has spent $61,000 on the parliamentary commute from Gippsland, east of Melbourne.
In total, since he entered parliament in 2008, Mr Chester has spent $407,000 on charter flights but that includes air travel within Gippsland and more recently flights for ministerial visits.
Mr Coulton and a spokeswoman for Mr Chester said sitting week charter flights had been approved since Labor's Gary Gray was special minister of state in 2010 under Julia Gillard.
Mr Gray confirmed this, saying regional MPs faced "logistical difficulties" like fog at both ends of the trip in the case of Gippsland.
"My overwhelming view was that the government should ensure that MPs, who have seven-day-a-week jobs, are able to do those jobs to the best of their abilities," he said.
As federal politicians prepare to fly to Canberra for the resumption of Parliament next week, Mr Coulton said he would be chartering a flight from his home base of Warialda.
Mr Coulton who maintains three electorate offices – Dubbo, Moree and Broken Hill – said the logistics of getting commercial flights back to the electorate can be too difficult, particularly when he might be leaving from Warialda but returning to Dubbo, for example.
"I have half of NSW in my electorate and the other 47 MPs share the other half, so it does have its problems," he said.
Mr Coulton said he flies on commercial airlines where possible.
According to Webjet, an 8.40am Qantas flight from Tamworth, a little over two hours' drive from Warialda, would have him in Canberra by 11.50am after a transfer in Sydney.
The cost of that flight is $591 on a flexi ticket compared to the $3545 cost of a charter flight from Warialda.
Mr Chester's flights to and from Lakes Entrance cost between $2100 and $3150, according to the latest expense records.
He regularly posts pictures on social media of the view of Gippsland from the air.
A spokesman for Special Minister of State Scott Ryan said: "The minister does not comment on individual parliamentarians' work expenses."
Following the expenses scandal and the resignation of former health minister Sussan Ley, all claims for charter flights will now be scrutinised by an independent compliance agency announced by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull this month.
Greens leader Richard Di Natale has backed the agency but used the latest furore over the use of flights to call for the establishment of a federal anti-corruption body.
