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Ex-MPs to probe entitlements

Retired labor Speaker Harry Jenkins and former liberal party leader Brendan Nelson will place federal MP expenses under the microscope.

The two retired MPs will join a panel established by Prime Minister Tony Abbott and chaired by former finance department secretary David Tune and head of the remuneration tribunal John Conde.

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The ‘root and branch’ review will provide its report in the first part of next year.

“The committee has the right mix of corporate knowledge, public sector administration and experience of the requirements and needs of elected representatives,” Special Minister of State Michael Ronaldson said in a statement on Friday.

Businesswoman Linda Nicholls will also be on the panel.

“I want this round of controversies to be not just the latest but the last,” Mr Abbott told reporters in Tasmania.

Labor frontbencher Tony Burke is the latest MP to fall under the expenses spotlight since revelations emerged former Speaker Bronwyn Bishop used taxpayer funds to charter a helicopter to a liberal party fundraiser.

Reports this week claimed Mr Burke charged taxpayers $48,951 for a six-day ministerial trip to Europe in 2009 while agriculture minister.

The trip in first class reportedly included tickets for his partner and senior advisor.

– with AAP 

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