FOI reveals Jacinta Price's dispute with ex-staffer over ineligible travel expenses

Emails and WhatsApp messages released by the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority (IPEA) reveal a drawn-out dispute between Price and a former staffer over a rental car booking. In the end, the IPEA accepted Price's version of events and billed the staffer.

Sean Johnson19 December 2025

Photo by Obi

Coalition senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price told the IPEA that an ex-staffer booked an Avis rental car from Darwin airport in 2023 without approval, but the former employee has rejected this, pointing to text messages he says show that an employee in her office with the power to authorise bookings expected him to make it.

Documents obtained by Open Politics from an FOI request to the IPEA show that in December 2024 the authority emailed Senator Price seeking further information about the eligibility of her $307 expenses claim for a self-drive hire car used by her staff in Darwin for two days in July 2023.

IPEA rules do not permit the use of self-drive hire cars by staff for journeys within the same city or town where their employing parliamentarian’s office is located. Price’s principal office is Jingili, a suburb of Darwin.

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