Senator the Hon Don Farrell

The Albanese Government is delivering on its commitment to restore transparency and integrity to the Parliamentary Expenditure Management System (PEMS), which was severely mismanaged under the former Government.

From today, parliamentary expenses will again be published, starting with the July-September 2022 reporting period. This will be followed by a fast-tracked schedule of reporting, until all parliamentary expenses are up to date. 

Parliamentary expenditure reports will be published on the IPEA website, and as is usual practice, Parliamentarians and their staff have been given the opportunity to check and certify reports before they are made public.

Let me be clear, this should never have happened. 

This system has never functioned as intended, and complaints across the Parliament have been consistent since its commencement in 2018. From Opposition we raised hundreds of questions, over successive years, including repeated questioning at Senate Estimates– all of which, fell on deaf ears.

In coming to office, we not only commenced work to fix the system, but proactively referred the project to the Australian National Audit Office for review. We expect the outcomes of that review in the new year