By Brendan Rees
Casey councillors have racked up a whopping $142,692 in training, education, travel, carer and IT bills – which were all claimed as expense entitlements.
Former mayor Sam Aziz topped his claim of $30,984 during 2016-’17 with $35,627 last financial year, according to council’s latest annual report.
This included more than $19,000 on travel, nearly $6,500 on IT and communications, and about $9,000 on training and education.
When contacted by Stat News, Cr Aziz conceded “we have nothing to hide.”
“I don’t even know what the expenses are, so it’s exactly as they are in the published accounts in the annual report,” he said.
Cr Aziz defended his travelling claim saying: “We’ve spent peanuts in relative terms to make tens of millions of benefit for the ratepayers.”
“If it means councillors travelling overseas to China and spending $20,000 in the process and returning millions of dollars in investments then so be it, that’s just the way it is.”
Cr Aziz offered no apologies for his overseas trips, saying “they’re not junkets by any stretch of the imagination.”
“You’re putting in 16 hour days … they’re actually business trips and they’re hard working trips that deliver results.
“I just work within the budget,” Cr Aziz said, “And deliver a certain capability and that’s exactly what I do.
“Trust me if you want to get rich don’t become a councillor,” he added.
The second most expensive councillor was Cr Amanda Stapledon who claimed $20,541 including nearly $11,000 for carers.
Mayor Geoff Ablett collected $20,000 while Cr Milla Gilic claimed the least amount with $639 in total on IT.
Cr Gilic said she didn’t “feel comfortable” with ratepayers having to foot the bill for councillor expenses.
“I just want to make sure that I don’t let down the people that voted for me,” she said, adding “I don’t need to cost anybody any money.”
“I know there are councillors, when it comes to needing care for family members and things like that, I know that is 100 per cent absolutely genuine.”
When pressed about whether Cr Aziz’s claim was justified, she said “I respect Sam greatly and to be very, very honest he’s never done anything but the most professional and helpful and supportive work in council since I’ve been there.”
“From the outside it may seem a certain way, I don’t know, but honestly he fights really hard for our residents,” Cr Milic said.
Cr Rex Flannery, who claimed $1,849 on phone and internet bills said: “I don’t spend anything deliberately because I don’t want to be seen dipping my hands into ratepayers’ pockets.“
