Vic MP Don Nardella should be sacked: Oppn

It's not enough for disgraced MP Don Nardella to repay $98,000 in allowances, he should be booted from parliament too, the Victorian opposition says.

Disgraced Victorian MP Don Nardella has finally agreed to pay back almost $100,000 he claimed in parliamentary perks to live by the seaside and not his electorate, but the opposition says that's not enough.

The former deputy speaker has reportedly struck a deal to refund the $98,000 he claimed in the second residence allowance in instalments and with a $16,000 lump sum by November 24, 2018.

However, Mr Nardella, who represents the outer metropolitan electorate of Melton, is still refusing to apologise for claiming the money because it was technically within the rules.

Treasurer Tim Pallas told reporters on Saturday it was "good to see" repayments had been set up.

However, he predicted Mr Nardella would remain on the crossbench after he left the parliamentary Labor Party over the debacle.

The state opposition on Saturday called the repayments a "secret deal" and says it raises more questions about why the government isn't doing more to hold him accountable.

"It's almost as if he's on Easy Street, repaying this money back," shadow attorney general John Pesutto told AAP.

"If that's not bad enough, he gets to keep his job. And Don Nardella does not deserve to keep his job."

The second residence allowance was originally designed to help country MPs keep a second home in the city for when parliament sits.

However, Mr Nardella, along with former Speaker Telmo Languiller, took advantage of the vague rules to claim the perk.

Mr Languiller has repaid almost $40,000 that he had claimed, but Mr Nardella refused.

Then on Monday, during a parliamentary perks overhaul announcement, Premier Daniel Andrews threatened to use parliament to make Mr Nardella pay if he did not volunteer.

A parliamentary audit found Mr Nardella had claimed about $175,000 since 2010 in the second residence allowance, first living in Ballarat with a partner.

When that relationship broke down in 2014, he told officials he moved to Ocean Grove.

But questions were raised over the legitimacy of the Ocean Grove claims because the audit found Mr Nardella was renting a caravan park cabin off a family member for $200 a fortnight and there were few documents to prove he lived there.

He also told auditors he chose Ocean Grove over a St Kilda apartment he owned because the city pad wasn't "spacious enough".

Among the reforms announced on Monday the second residence allowance will be tied to electorates; allowances, payments and salaries will be published online; and an independent tribunal will be introduced to set the pay of MPs, public sector executives and office holders.


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Source: AAP



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