Chief Minister Michael Gunner has refused to answer written questions from an independent MLA about when he became aware his brother-in-law and former deputy chief of staff approved the use of taxpayer money for Labor’s 2020 election campaign travel, in contravention of rules meant to protect against the misuse of public funds.

Independent MLA Robyn Lambley filed four questions to Mr Gunner through a parliamentary process, seeking information about the total costs to taxpayers for travel undertaken by all Labor ministers, MLAs and staff during the 2020 general election caretaker period – including when Mr Gunner first became aware that public money was being used on his election campaign – but the questions were brushed off.

Under caretaker conventions, elected officials, including ministers, are not permitted to charge taxpayers for travel for “party political” purposes during an election campaign.

An NT Independent investigation revealed last November that Mr Gunner’s brother-in-law Ryan Neve approved tens of thousands of taxpayer funds for Mr Gunner to travel to remote communities in marginal seats during the 2020 election that Labor was hoping to win on the same day remote polling was occurring in those communities, in direct contravention of caretaker provisions established to prevent the misappropriation of public funds.

The documents were obtained by the NT Independent through Freedom of Information laws and also showed Mr Gunner and Mr Neve claimed the trips were “ministerial travel” despite no record of meetings taking place. One trip to Timber Creek was clearly a campaign photo-op which would also fall under “party political” purposes.

The approvals also appear to violate the rules by failing to adhere to requirements that all ministerial travel during an election campaign period must be approved by bureaucrats in the Department of Chief Minister. Mr Neve worked in the Chief Minister’s Office at the time of the trips, not the department, although he was later promoted to an executive level position in the department after the election.

Instead of answering Ms Lambley’s questions about the approvals process, the total expenditure and when he first became aware that public money was being used for his campaign trips, Mr Gunner responded by stating that “details on travel for this period have been reported in previous written questions”.

He provided no links to that information, or reference numbers, and a search of written questions specific to caretaker travel on the NT Parliament’s website returned no results. However, MLA travel approved by the Department of Chief Minister was released in the back of a department answer to other questions in April 2021 that included the trips, but did not provide the specific approvals and other details Ms Lambley had sought.

The veracity of those numbers are also suspect, after they were listed as being approved by the department, while the internal records showed Mr Neve approved the funding while in the Office of the Chief Minister. Travel undertaken by the different offices was previously documented separately.

Ms Lambley said Mr Gunner’s refusal to properly answer the written questions was “unacceptable”.

“The Gunner Government clearly has something to hide,” she said.

“Mr Gunner has an obligation to answer questions about multiple taxpayer-funded ministerial trips made by him and his political staff during the 2020 election caretaker period. The bottom line is, Territorians should not be footing the bill for political campaigning.

“Ignoring legitimate questions about any government expenditure is unacceptable.”

Mr Gunner’s refusal to provide proper answers may also violate the MLA Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards Act which states that Members of Parliament are “accountable to the Assembly, their constituents and the public generally”, further stating that “accountability fosters integrity and probity in official decision-making, good governance, and the prevention and detection of corruption”.

Ms Lambley referred the caretaker travel matter to the Office of the Independent Commissioner Against Corruption for investigation last month.

The CLP Opposition grilled Mr Gunner about the alleged misuse of taxpayer funds in Parliament in December, where he also did not answer direct questions but did not deny that taxpayer money had been used for his election travel, approved by his brother-in-law.

The entire Labor caucus and head public servant Jodie Ryan last month refused to answer the NT Independent’s questions about when they first became aware that public money was being used by the Chief Minister’s office to fund campaign travel during the 2020 general election.