EXCLUSIVE: Labor backbencher Dheran Young charged taxpayers thousands of dollars for a personal holiday home to NSW for Christmas, just days after Labor Speaker Mark Monaghan made secret “clarifications” to permit politicians to use their government fuel cards for interstate personal travel, a government report shows.

The NT Independent revealed on Thursday that Mr Monaghan issued an internal “Speaker’s Determination” that interpreted the entitlement rules to allow all MLAs with a government-issued vehicle to use government fuel cards for personal travel interstate, including Attorney General Chansey Paech who racked up more than $800 in charges on his fuel card to travel to Adelaide and SA wine country over the Christmas holidays.

The entitlement is not specifically referenced in the rules governing politicians’ salaries and entitlements, while the NT Independent understands it may have been provided many years ago, but not since the early 2000s.

According to the quarterly fuel expense report tabled in Parliament this week, Mr Young charged taxpayers more than $2,600 on his fuel card for a massive roadtrip from Eliot beginning on December 18, to his hometown of Wooloweyah in NSW over the Christmas period and back again.

Mr Young makes nearly $200,000 a year as Labor’s Deputy Speaker and as the Member for Daly.

His government fuel card was used in Camooweal, Winton, Blackall, Roma, Chinderah and Yamba, which also appears to have included purchases other than fuel. Mr Young also made a trip to Queensland resort town Noosa during his holiday with fuel paid for by taxpayers.

In one transaction in Camooweal, the Member for Daly charged taxpayers $202 for 85 litres of fuel and on the way back, stopped again at the Puma Camooweal Roadhouse where he charged taxpayers $68.53 for 30 litres of fuel, despite purchasing 95 litres of fuel earlier the same day, 200 kms away in Mt Isa. In another transaction, he purchased 121 litres of fuel near his hometown in NSW for $270 on January 3.

Questions have also been raised over the legitimacy of the charges and if it was all on fuel as declared.

Speaker Monaghan’s determination – dated December 14, four days before Mr Young’s trip – rules that politicians with government cars can now use their fuel cards for personal interstate travel, despite the entitlement never being claimed in recent memory.

While Legislative Assembly Clerk Mathew Bates said the determination did not create the entitlement for interstate travel costs, merely “clarified” it, there is no mention of using fuel cards for interstate travel in the independent Remuneration Tribunal Determination 2022, governing MLA entitlements for the year.

Fuel reports dating back to 2019 show no other MLA in that time had used their fuel card for interstate travel before Mr Young and Mr Paech did late last year, following Mr Monaghan’s ruling that they could.

Both Mr Paech and Mr Young refused to comment when asked if they would pay taxpayers back for the charges.

They also would not say if they had asked the Speaker to permit them to charge taxpayers for their personal holidays interstate.

Mr Bates insisted that Mr Monaghan’s determination was done in accordance with proper procedure and at the request of Department of Legislative Assembly staff. He also said that Mr Young and Mr Paech refuelling their government vehicles interstate at taxpayer expense “had no connection to the Speaker’s Determination, as the entitlement has existed in the RTD for many years”.

However, it was not explained why the determination was needed if politicians could always claim personal interstate travel, or why it appears to never have been articulated in the rules governing politicians’ entitlements.

Other MLAs with government vehicles and fuel cards, including Joel Bowden, Steve Edgington, Yingiya Guyula and Lia Finocchiaro have not claimed any interstate travel expenses, the reports show. Reports dating back to 2019 also show no apparent claims for interstate travel by any MLAs in any quarter since then.

Young dropped out of uni, worked at boarding school before becoming Labor ‘senior adviser’

Mr Young was preselected as Labor’s candidate for the 2021 Daly by-election six months after the party was forced to publicly condemn his actions as an “adviser” for threatening a CLP MLA outside Parliament House late at night, with Selena Uibo telling Parliament Mr Young’s actions “in no way reflects the values of our Labor government”.

He told a rural newspaper near his hometown after being elected as the Member for Daly in 2021 that he had quit university while studying to be a teacher and found being an MLA in the Northern Territory “a bit surreal”.

Mr Young worked as a “community engagement officer” for former chief minister Michael Gunner before becoming a “senior adviser” with former attorney general Selena Uibo, after previously “doing some youth work” at a boarding school.

He was also criticised last May for travelling overseas on an unspecified trip while the community of Wadeye in his electorate was under siege. Mr Young’s unexplained overseas disappearance also caused havoc for Budget Estimates hearings planning.