Bridget McKenzie’s $2,200 Sydney awards night jaunt
February 2017
The then Nationals deputy leader charged taxpayers thousands of dollars to attend an awards night for shooting in Sydney, claiming the trip as “electorate business” even though she was a Victorian backbencher.
She then tried to justify the travel because of her role as chair of the Parliamentary Friends of Shooting group – but these informal bodies do not come with any public spending entitlements.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the senator charged taxpayers $2,279.67 for the overnight trip from Melbourne to Sydney for the Shooting Australia Awards of Excellence in February 2017.
Senator McKenzie charged $1,611.12 for business class flights, $268.55 for official cars and $400 for her overnight travel allowance. On her publicly available travel expense paperwork, she classed the trip as “electorate business”.
While Senator McKenzie is an avid shooter, she was a backbencher at the time of the trip so had no portfolio responsibilities for anything shooting-related.
A 30-year veteran of the mainstream media, Liz was the editor of MWMuntil June 2021. Liz began her career in journalism in 1990 and worked at The Age newspaper for two 10-year stints. She also worked at The Guardian newspaper in London for more than seven years. A former professional tennis player who represented Australia in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, Liz has a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Letters (Hons).