8 Jan 2013

Taxi chits may lay low an Australian politician

7:17 pm on 8 January 2013

Court documents show the former speaker of Australia's parliament, Peter Slipper, is about to be charged for misusing $A1000 worth of taxpayers' money visiting wineries.

The police issued Mr Slipper with a summons for the offences on Monday and he will be charged when he appears in court next month.

The documents relate to several trips made in 2010, the ABC reports.

In December a judge dismissed a sexual harassment case against Mr Slipper.

Mr Slipper is alleged to have used taxpayer-funded taxi vouchers to visit a string of Canberra wineries, according to documents filed in the Magistrates Court.

Documents released by the court show Mr Slipper allegedly spent $1,194 on taxi vouchers that were used in part to visit several Canberra wineries on three occasions during the first half of 2010.

The trips allegedly occurred before Mr Slipper was appointed to the speaker's chair and while he was still a Coalition backbencher.

On the first occasion in January 2010, Mr Slipper is said to have visited five wineries and a restaurant in the hills outside Canberra.

According to the AFP, Mr Slipper filled out four Cabcharge dockets instead of one, and used vague language such as travelling between "suburbs to suburbs".

"He deliberately did not fill in the actual details of the trip and deliberately did not fill in the actual fare of the trip of $337," AFP officer Michael Turner said in his sworn statement before the court.

"His intention in doing so was to hide from the Department of Finance and Administration the fact that he had used the Cabcharge card when he knew he was not entitled to do so."

Taxi chits

In April 2010, Mr Slipper is accused of using taxi vouchers in a similar way to visit three wineries and the same restaurant.

On June 27 that year, police say Mr Slipper used five Cabcharge dockets to pay for a number of trips, including to a winery outside Canberra, although he did not include those details when he filled out the dockets.

According to police, Mr Slipper knew his use of taxpayer-funded car transport was against the rules set down by the Remuneration Tribunal.

On a number of occasions in 2006 and 2007, the Department of Finance and Administration wrote to Mr Slipper asking that paper-based taxi vouchers stop being used in favour of an electronic Cabcharge card.

The court documents state that the department believed the card was a "more secure and accountable form of payment".

Mr Slipper has been summonsed to appear in the Canberra Magistrates Court on February 15.

The ABC said he had not responded a request for comment.

Mr Slipper stepped down from the speaker's chair in April after being accused of sexual harassment by his then staff member James Ashby.

The Federal Court threw out the case, although Mr Ashby's spokesman has said there will be an appeal.