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Concerns have been raised in the government partyroom about restrictions on politicians' entitlements, including the abolition of the lucrative gold pass and fines for MPs who wrongly claim taxpayer dollars.
The Prime Minister announced in the May budget that the gold pass travel scheme, which was closed down for new MPs by former Labor prime minister Julia Gillard in 2011, would be limited for some MPs and cut off completely for others.
Fairfax Media understands three veteran Liberal MPs raised concerns about the precedent of docking entitlements to past MPs.
The debate was led by Victorian MP Russell Broadbent and backed by Queensland LNP senators Warren Entsch and Ian Macdonald. Sources said Mr Broadbent said the government should be cautious about removing entitlements that have already been awarded.
Concerns were also raised that MPs could be unfairly punished under proposed new rules aimed at stopping MPs wrongly claiming taxpayer funds for travel and accommodation because of departmental errors. The government announced plans to fine MPs 25 per cent of whatever they claimed plus the full repayment of their travel if they were found to have wrongly billed the taxpayer.
The Treasurer's Parliamentary Secretary Steve Ciobo told his colleagues that when problems had been raised with his travel entitlements in the past, specifically claiming the lesser cost of parking his car at the airport instead of choosing the more expensive option of Com Car travel, it had been the fault of the department.
NSW Liberal Paul Fletcher argued in favour of getting rid of the gold pass. His Sydney colleague, Alex Hawke called for a US-style global allowance which would allow MPs to administer their own spending within a set budget and would fully discloseable to prevent constant wrangling over small amounts of expenditure.
Special Minister of State Michael Ronaldson said in a statement that taxpayers expect the system to be "robust" and money "well spent".
The gold pass is available to parliamentarians who were in Parliament before March 6, 2012, and served the required amount of time.
Under budget changes, gold pass travel for backbenchers will be limited to either three or six years, when some had previously used it for 40 years.
