Melton MP Don Nardella told parliamentary auditors he lived in an Ocean Grove caravan park instead of his second residence in St Kilda because the latter was “not spacious enough”.
Pressure is mounting on Premier Daniel Andrews to persuade Mr Nardella to pay back more than $174,000 claimed as a second resdidence allowance and to quit Parliament.
And Victoria Police could investigate Mr Nardella over allegations he rorted taxpayer-funded allowances, with a spokeswoman confirming the matter would be allocated to an investigator.
A report by auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers, tabled in Parliament last week, revealed Mr Nardella had been claiming a second residence allowance since 2010 while living in the Ballarat suburb of Lake Wendouree.
The total of his claims is $174, 836.
Mr Nardella told the auditors that following a relationship breakdown in 2014 he entered into an informal arrangement with family members to live at an Ocean Grove caravan park, where he would make fortnightly payments of $200. But Mr Nardella has been accused of not being able to provide enough evidence to support his claims that Ocean Grove was his principal place of residence.
The former deputy speaker, who now sits as an independent crossbencher, failed to show auditors banking and health insurance correspondence or provide tax returns, a postal address and utility bills as evidence.
He did provide a driver’s licence, vehicle registration details, electoral roll records and receipts for minor capital works.
“The member advised that there was no separately metered electricity at the caravan park,” the auditor’s report stated. “The member advised that utility costs were incorporated into the fortnightly payment.”
But the auditors slammed Mr Nardella’s living arrangements as “non-prudent, non-arm’s length, potentially non-commercial (low “rent”), and arguably opportunistic, designed to ensure continued enjoyment of the second residence allowance”.
“The member already had a second residence in Melbourne so that, at the time, a simpler option might have been to relocate to the second residence in Melbourne or his Melton constituency,” the auditor’s report stated.
“The member stated that the accommodation in St Kilda [second residence at the time] was not spacious enough.
“Viewed from the perspective of an average person on the street, and objective observer, a position could be taken that the arrangement in this period with the member’s close family may have been entered into to ensure that the member would continue to receive the second residence allowance.”
Mr Nardella has so far refused to pay back the money and has since moved out of the Ocean Grove residence.
He declined to comment.
