Travel budgets
Key messages
IPEA administers travel expense budgets (11 types) each financial year for parliamentarians.
Parliamentarians are personally responsible for budgets and must pay the Commonwealth for any overspends.
Parliamentarian offices should monitor their budgets to ensure budgets are not exceeded.
IPEA recommends each office keep their own records of expenditure and use information in PEMS to confirm their records.
All travel budgets can be tracked and monitored in PEMS, except international budgets.
Types of travel budgets
There are 11 types of travel budgets IPEA administers:
The ESB is based on the Staff Travel and Relief Staff Arrangements Determination 2023-10. The ESB comprises of:
an electorate staff travel component
a relief staff component – managed separately by Ministerial and Parliamentary Services (MaPS). For more information, refer to: Electorate support budget | Ministerial and Parliamentary Services (finance.gov.au).
Schedule A, section 4 of the Staff Travel and Relief Staff Arrangements Determination 2023-10 provides electorate employees to travel as directed within Australia up to the limit of the ESB. Further to this, Schedule A, section 5 of this Determination allows parliamentarians to nominate one electorate employee to travel without debit to the ESB. This nomination can be changed up to 3 times within a financial year.
Example 1
A parliamentarian changes their nominated electorate officer from Susan to Dave whilst Susan takes long service leave for 8 weeks. When Susan returns from long service leave, the parliamentarian changes the nominated electorate officer from Dave back to Susan. This means the nomination has been changed twice for the parliamentarian’s office and the office only has the option for 1 more possible change during this financial year.
i. Calculation of the travel component
The travel component of the ESB is based on the usual route of travel to Canberra. We calculate this on travel from your primary electorate office to the nearest airport to Canberra and return. Below are the calculated amounts that make up this component depending upon your location.
Parliamentarians whose primary electorate office is located within 150km of Canberra:
The value of motor vehicle allowance payable for 20 return motor vehicle trips between the primary electorate office and Canberra
110 nights of travelling allowance in Canberra
Other travel component, as set out in item 40(d) of the Staff Travel and Relief Staff Arrangements Determination 2023-10.
Member for Bean and Senators for the Australian Capital Territory:
3 return airfares between Canberra and Norfolk Island
8 nights travelling allowance in Norfolk Island
$2,000 for other travel.
Parliamentarians in the following electorates:
Member for Canberra – $2,000
Member for Fenner – $2,000
Member for Eden-Monaro – $5,000
Senator whose electorate office is in Queanbeyan – $5,000.
All other parliamentarians:
40 taxi trips between Electorate office and local airport
20 return flights to Canberra
40 taxi trips between Canberra Airport and Parliament House
110 nights travelling allowance in Canberra
Other travel component, as set out in item 40(d) of the Staff Travel and Relief Staff Arrangements Determination 2023-10.
ii. Calculation of the relief staff component
The relief staff component of the ESB is calculated based on the following:
150 days’ salary at the base salary point of the Electorate Officer B classification, and
an additional 50 days’ salary at the base salary point of the Electorate Officer B classification where a Parliamentarian is allocated an additional position for a second official electorate office, and
an additional 50 days’ salary at the base salary point of the Electorate Officer B classification where a Parliamentarian is allocated an additional position for a third official electorate office.
For more information about the relief staff component of the ESB:
refer to MaPS, Department of Finance website: Electorate support budget
email: mpshelp@finance.gov.au
phone: 02 6215 3333.
A parliamentarian’s TILE budget is set out in Section 14 ‘Large Electorates’ of the Parliamentary Business Resources Regulations 2017. The cost of unscheduled commercial transport (e.g. charter flights, hire cars, taxis, regulated rideshares) undertaken for the dominant purpose of conducting electorate duties is debited from this budget.
Where there are funds available from the previous financial year, an amount may be carried forward to the current financial year. The carry-over portion of the TILE budget will be calculated based on the lower amount of either: the balance of the previous financial year’s TILE budget, or, up to 20% of the original Remuneration Tribunal figure (not including any carryover) from the previous financial year’s limit. The carry-over portion will be added to the TILE budgets around October each year, which allows IPEA sufficient time to receive and process any outstanding TILE claims.
Limits are based on section 16 of the Parliamentary Business Resources Regulations 2017. The purpose of family reunion travel is to facilitate family life. The provisions enable your nominated family members to accompany or join you while you are travelling to Canberra or within your electorate for the dominant purpose of parliamentary business.
This budget is expressed as a dollar value and the cost of flights for your nominated family members will be deducted from this budget. Travel can be between either your nominated family member’s home base, or your home base and Canberra or a location within the state or territory of your electorate.
The ‘family reunion travel to Canberra and within local area’ budget is calculated based on:
9 return business class trips for your spouse, de facto or nominee, and
3 return fully flexible economy class trips for each dependent listed on your family nomination.
Please note, whilst the budget is calculated on these airfares it is expressed as a dollar amount. Family members can choose to travel at either business or economy class, up to the limit of the budget.
Limits are based on section 17 of the Parliamentary Business Resources Regulations 2017. Provisions enable your nominated family members to accompany or join you, while you are travelling to locations in Australia for the dominant purpose of parliamentary business, to facilitate family life.
Family reunion travel is a trip-count budget and is expressed as the number of trips allowed each financial year. The ‘Australia-wide family reunion travel’ is limited to 3 return trips in total for the family nominated (not 3 trips per person). Flights to locations within Australia, other than Canberra or within the state or territory of your electorate, will be deducted from this trip count budget.
A trip includes travel to one location and return (or 0.5 of a trip for each travel leg). Thus, each traveller in a family uses one trip each time they travel a return journey.
Example 2
A family of 3 (spouse and 2 children) travelling from their home base in Adelaide to Sydney (return) to join the parliamentarian, for the dominant purpose of conducting parliamentary duties, would use up the 3 return trips for the financial year.
Alternatively, a family of 3 (spouse and 2 children) travelling from their home base in Adelaide to Sydney on day 1, then to Melbourne on day 2 and returning home to Adelaide on day 3 would use 1.5 trips per person, therefore a total of 4.5 trips causing the budget to overspend by 1.5 trips.
It is important to keep your family information up to date and advise IPEA of any changes to ensure our records are accurate.
Note: For most domestic travel, children up to 23-months old will not be charged a fare if they sit on the lap of their parent / carer. Please check infant details with CTM upon booking your travel.
IPEA recommends seeking personal advice before accessing family reunion travel to ensure that it meets all the requirements, as parliamentarians will be personally responsible for any travel that occurs outside of the limits of the framework. Often there is confusion around weekends when the parliamentarian has completed their parliamentary business – so contact IPEA if you have any questions.
For more information about family reunion travel, including nominating family members to travel and age limits for dependent travellers, refer to: Family reunion travel.
Section 10 of the Parliamentary Business Resources Regulations 2017 applies a combined limit of 10 nights travel allowance you may claim each financial year for the following purposes:
conducting your party-political duties at a location other than Canberra, and
conducting your electorate duties outside of your electorate.
Personal staff and the nominated electorate employee (that is, staff who do not impact the ESB) may travel on official business anywhere in Australia. Their travel is limited to claiming a maximum of 120 nights of travel allowance in Canberra per financial year, for those staff not based in Canberra. Where a personal staff member or nominated employee has a non-standard work base, the 120 nights includes travel allowance claims to the parliamentarian’s office location and Canberra. 120 nights is allocated per person, not by position. This means if a staff member changes office, they carry their 120-night limit with them.
Example 3
Benjamin changes office in January, working for a new parliamentarian. Since the commencement of the financial year, Benjamin has already used 60 nights of his 120-night limit as personal staff. When Benjamin starts in his new office, Benjamin only has 60 nights remaining for the financial year as a personal staff member.
Example 4
A parliamentarian changes their nominated electorate employee from Wade to Michelle. Wade has already used 20 out of his 120-night limit. Michelle commences her 120-night limit as the newly engaged nominated employee. However, after 8-months into the financial year, the parliamentarian switches his nominated employee back to Wade. Wade only has 100 nights remaining of his 120-night limit.
Schedule A, section 22 of the Staff Travel and Relief Staff Arrangements Determination 2023-10 provides parliamentarians whose electorate office is outside the greater metropolitan area of the capital city, with additional trips per financial year for electorate staff to travel to the nearest capital city to attend training:
under the Professional Development Program, or
approved ad hoc training and professional development opportunities, or
IT training, or
training for Work Health and Safety roles – including Health and Safety Representatives (HSR) to attend accredited HSR training.
IPEA process payments for travel associated with staff training that has been prior approved by PWSS.
Travel by an electorate employee to attend IPEA education sessions in a capital city can be allocated to an available trip for training as already approved ad hoc training.
For more information about staff training:
refer to the PWSS website: Travelling for training guidance
email: training@pwss.gov.au
phone: 1800 747 977 (option 4).
International travel expenses prescribed by Division 4, Subdivision D section 50 of the Parliamentary Business Resources Regulations 2017, are limited to the value of 4 first class round-the-world airfares per financial year. The travel expenses of one accompanying staff member are not debited from the budget.
International travel expenses prescribed by Division 4, Subdivision E section 54 of the Parliamentary Business Resources Regulations 2017, are limited to the value of one first class round-the-world airfare per financial year. The travel expenses of one accompanying staff member are not debited from the budget.
International travel expenses prescribed by Division 4, Subdivision B section 41 of the Parliamentary Business Resources Regulations 2017, are limited to $250,000 per financial year. This applies to the office of the presiding officer, not the individual who holds the position at a particular time. When international travel by a presiding officer is approved by the Prime Minister, there is no budget impact.
IPEA also administers budgets for Former Prime Minister’s travel; Former Prime Minister personal employee travel; Travel for Spouse of Former Prime Ministers; and Former Prime Minister Widow Travel in accordance with section 10 of the Parliamentary Retirement Travel Act 2002 and the Parliamentary Business Resources (former Prime Ministers) Determination 2017.
Please contact IPEA if you require further information about Former Prime Minister travel budgets.
Travel budgets in PEMS
Parliamentarians and staff provided with the 'View Senator or Member budgets' authorisation by their parliamentarian [refer to page 3 of the Help Guide - Manage Authorisations.pdf (finance.gov.au)] can access their budgets through the Parliamentary Expenses Management System (PEMS). All travel budgets are available in PEMS, except international budgets. Please contact IPEA if you require further information about international budgets.
Once your office certifies a claim, or data is received from a third-party supplier (such as Cabcharge or Corporate Travel Management) the expense/s will debit your budget in PEMS. However, relief staff budget information on the ESB report is updated overnight. If you see any anomalies with your travel expenses in PEMS, please contact IPEA.
For more information about accessing budgets in PEMS, refer to View and manage budgets.
Budget notifications
PEMS notifications
For ESB and TILE, when lodging a travel expense claim in PEMS, if your budget has expended 80% or greater you will receive a warning message in PEMS to alert that your office has consumed 80% or more of your budget. Your office can continue to lodge claims in PEMS. However, if you have exceeded your budget – you will receive a PEMS warning message to indicate that your office has overcommitted the budget. In this instance, you can still submit and certify claims (in PEMS or by paper) but IPEA will not verify and pay any claims until funds become available. If you have any questions about overspends, please contact IPEA.
Email notifications
For all budgets that IPEA administers, IPEA will email parliamentarians where they have expended 80% or more of their budget/s. IPEA will email impacted parliamentarians fortnightly when there is change and/or increase to their expenditure – with a particular focus on 80%, 90%, 95%, 100% and where budgets have exceeded expenditure.
Costs exceeding the budget are a debt owed to the Commonwealth and must be repaid by the parliamentarian. Knowingly overspending your budget and accruing a debt to the Commonwealth is inconsistent with the Framework and your legal obligations.
IPEA will contact impacted parliamentarians each September to advise of any budget overspends for previous financial year/s. This allows sufficient time for all travel expenses to be processed for the previous financial year (1 July to 30 June).
For more information
If you require additional information regarding your office travel limits or budgets, please contact IPEA:
email enquiries@ipea.gov.au
phone 02 6215 3000.
