My guess is that Communications and Sport Minister, Anika Wells, was not entirely unhappy that the massacre at Bondi Beach moved the media’s attention away from her highly questionable use of expense entitlements.

It had been quite a week or so, with the pressure building on the entitled minister and her dubious use of expenses – all within the guidelines, of course.  A few other parliamentarians were caught up in the scandal, including the Attorney-General, Michelle Rowland, and Sarah Hyphen-Hyphen (aka Hansen-Young) of the Australian Greens.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese must think we came down with the last shower if he thinks we don’t understand what’s been going on with the misuse of parliamentarians’ travel entitlements.

Have a friend’s party you want go to?  Just organise a few important official meetings at the time, and Bob’s your uncle.  The taxpayer will pick up the tab for the trip.

Want to attend a sporting event, particularly if free tickets are on offer?  Again, just organise a few important official meetings on the day before, and Bob’s your uncle again. Or, better still, claim that attending the sporting event is work.

Have a husband who works in Canberra?  Claim family-reunion benefits, and regular commutes to the capital can be reimbursed by the taxpayer rather than the business.  Uncle Bob is looking very generous.

Organise a family holiday in Western Australia and get the taxpayer to pay most of the costs, including business class airfares for partner and children. How good is that, even if you must pay a few dollars back?

Organise a lucrative fund-raising event at a particular locale to top up the party’s coffers.  Schedule a brief cabinet meeting and have all the ministers attend on the taxpayers’ dime. Close the meeting, and the ministers can head off to the knees-up with all travel expenses picked up by the long-suffering taxpayer.

Now, all these examples fit within the official guidelines that are administered by bureaucrats whose jobs are basically to tick off on these claims.  Let’s face it, it would hardly be career-enhancing to regularly query the requests of parliamentarians for airfares and travel allowances. My guess is that AI could be doing the job in many cases and this is a case where the computer rarely says ‘no’.

Albanese’s reaction to the exposure of these examples of the shameful waste of precious taxpayer money was entirely predictable.  Downplay, excuse and repeat that spending was according to the guidelines.  He even brought up the treacherous excuse of the presence of more women in parliament, including those with young children.  (Because young women with young children don’t work in other settings and are not entitled to the same perks?)

One of Albanese’s main motivations was his unwillingness to concede a political win to the Opposition – by sacking or demoting one of the avaricious ministers, for example. Taking the sport portfolio away from Wells looked too obvious.  For a man who eats, breathes and sleeps politics – as opposed to principle-based policy – this was a bridge too far.

He even added the fact that the guidelines had been modified by the Coalition, so that should be the end of it. This was something of a pork pie, because Labor had tweaked the guidelines more recently to make election-time travel more easily compensable for parliamentarians.  But given that the silly season was in full swing, who was going to check?

Even though the prime minister has been committed full-time to striking the right empathetic note to the tragedy at Bondi (and wedging the opposition by declaring the solution is tighter gun laws – as if), he has still managed to sneak through a few changes to the guidelines.

Let’s be clear, the changes are entirely superficial – economy class fares for partners and children, family reunion travel to Canberra only – but Albo will claim he has improved the sacrosanct guidelines. The fact that Wells will be able to continue her indulgent funded travels is a point that Albo hopes will be overlooked.  Ditto Sarah Hyphen-Hyphen, although hubby may have to fly at the back of the plane.

As for the action of Wells and Rowland to refer their expenses to the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority, please note that this is only in respect of family reunion expenses, not their expenses more generally.  Anika’s party-related trip to Adelaide is not up for scrutiny, for example.  Given that the report will take a year or so to complete, it’s effectively the last we will hear of the matter.

The broader point here is that people in power who use other people’s money will always show much less respect for the value of the spending than those who use their own money.  Milton Friedman pointed out this truism over half a century ago.  Tweaking the guidelines from time to time does nothing to alter this universal truth.

So, here’s my suggestion. Parliamentarians’ travel entitlements should be cashed out, at least for domestic travel, so individual members of parliament can decide how to use this money efficiently and effectively. Tax deductions for legitimate travel would be part of the deal.

The rate of the cash reimbursement could take several factors into account, including the seniority of the parliamentarian – cabinet ministers would receive a higher allowance – as well as where the parliamentarian lives. It is obviously more expensive for those living a great distance from Canberra.

Records of past use of travel entitlements could be used as a basis for arriving at the dollar figures. Each year, every parliamentarian would receive a payment up-front to cover required trips to Canberra as well as other necessary trips. There could even be some money to cover family reunions.

It would then be up to the parliamentarians to decide on truly necessary travel and that would attract tax-deductibility. Only work that is strictly required to perform the function of the parliamentarian would be given the tick by the Australian Tax Office.

This change would have the added advantage of largely eliminating the need for the bureaucracy attached to administering parliamentary travel entitlements.  Enhancing the public’s opinion of the ethical standing of our elected representatives could be another benefit.

Of course, I won’t be holding my breath that any real reform will happen on this front – or on any other front, for that matter. Call me cynical, but the fact that Treasurer Jim Chalmers pressed on with the release of the Mid-year Economic and Fiscal Outlook in the week after the Bondi killings tells you a lot.  Ditto, the release by B1 (Chris Bowen) of the proposed gas reservation scheme in the same week.

It’s hardly surprising that most voters think of Canberra as being full of self-entitled incompetents spending other people’s money as if there were no tomorrow.