EXCLUSIVE
Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and a high-profile Liberal senator raised a taxpayer-funded bill of $21,084 for two private flights to discuss the cost of living crisis.
Senator Price and Senator Jane Hume took a chartered plane for the short 300-kilometre trip from Adelaide to Port Augusta in South Australia on August 21 for a series of committee hearings on the cost of living.
The total cost of that single 55-minute flight was $10,542, according to figures released by the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority (IPEA).
The next day, August 22, they left on a private charter plane from Port Augusta to Alice Springs, at a cost of another $10,542.
The flights were organised by the Cost of Living Committee Secretariat, which is a government initiative that is supposed to seek ways to reduce cost of living pressures in Australia.
Daily Mail Australia understands the committee, chaired by Senator Hume, decided private flights were the best and most cost-effective way to transport senators and staff to the hearings, even though the former was a short drive away.
Qantaslink one-way flights from Adelaide to Port Augusta start at around $165, while several commercial airlines operate between Port Augusta and Alice Springs, with non-stop flights starting at around $300.
Jane Hume (left) is pictured with Jacinta Nampijinpa Price (centre) and Kerrynne Liddle (right) at the Cost of Living Committee hearing in Port Augusta on August 22.
The $10,542 cost of the private jet was split three ways, between Ms Price, Ms Hume and the Senate Department at a cost of $3,514 each, with taxpayers ultimately footing the full bill.
They racked up an identical bill of $10,542 for the second leg of the trip from Port Augusta to Alice Springs, which was also shared equally, according to IPEA data.
At the end of the trip, Ms Price and Ms Hume took to social media to talk about the cost of living committee and how locals are struggling financially.
In an Instagram video on August 23, Ms Hume said: ‘We have just completed three days of hearings at the cost of living committee in Adelaide, in Port Augusta and here in Alice Springs.
“We have been talking to communities, business groups and local people about how the rising cost of living is affecting them.”
Ms Price said she had enjoyed the opportunity to be part of the cost of living committee, particularly in her hometown of Alice Springs.
“The kinds of things that are impacting our community include the devastation of family breakdowns, domestic violence, crime – those kinds of things, and the cost of living is really contributing to that,” he said.
“It’s fantastic for community members who have come to share their personal stories, as well as stories involving their organizations and how they fight to support vulnerable members of our community.”
They then appeared on local Alice Springs radio and spoke about the cost of living crisis.
Jane Hume (left) is pictured with Jacinta Nampijinpa Price (centre) and Kerrynne Liddle in the audience.
Pictured: Senator Hume (left) and Senator Price (right) speaking on local radio in Alice Springs.
The committee has published a series of reports with recommendations on the cost of living, but it is unclear whether those recommendations will be implemented.
The Select Committee on Cost of Living referred all queries on flights to Senator Hume as chair of the committee.
Spokesmen for Hume and Price said the flights complied with relevant rules and “constituted a sensible use of public money and had therefore been reasonably incurred”.
About a month earlier, on July 6, Ms Price had spent another $5,900 when she chartered a private jet from Alice Springs to Uluru.
The trip was intended to carry out parliamentary duties during NAIDOC week, in line with her roles as Shadow Minister for Indigenous Australians and Senator for the Northern Territory.
Senator Hume took the trip in August, but claimed the $7,028 portion of the bill in the October-December 2023 quarter. During the same quarter, she spent $39,728 on domestic travel for seven staff members.
Jacinta Nampijinpa Price (pictured) is the Shadow Minister for Aboriginal Australians and Senator for the Northern Territory.
Last week, the Daily Mail Australia revealed that Opposition Leader Peter Dutton charged taxpayers $63,015 for three private jet flights during a two-day trip to regional cities on a cut-price basis.
Dutton has previously been criticised for claiming $23,000 in travel expenses after booking a private jet from Canberra to Tamworth to speak at a News Corp event and, again, for criticising the cost of living crisis under Labor.
During the same three-month reporting period, Anthony Albanese charged Australian taxpayers $1 million for everything from international travel to office supplies, including $298,899 for trips to Asia, the UK, the Middle East and Europe.
Climate change minister Chris Bowen also spent $30,564 of taxpayers’ money on flights to three international environmental conferences in less than six months, all while urging Australians to cut emissions.
