A public record, made legible

OpenBench.au aggregates the quarterly work expenditure of every Australian federal parliamentarian into a single, searchable, source-linked register. The underlying figures are already public — published every quarter by the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority (IPEA) — but they are spread across many separate releases. This site brings them together so anyone can look up their representatives, compare them, and follow the numbers over time.

It is independent and non-partisan. We don't editorialise, rank by judgement, or single anyone out. Every figure links back to its IPEA source, and the methodology is documented in full so you can check our working.

The site is not affiliated with the Australian Government, IPEA, or any party. It is a public-interest project.

What's included

We show the work-related expenditure parliamentarians claim — travel, office administration, staff-related costs and the other categories IPEA reports. We currently do not show salary or superannuation: those are set by the Remuneration Tribunal and are largely formulaic rather than discretionary, and we'd rather omit them than present them with caveats. They may be added later, clearly separated.

Reading the numbers fairly

Raw totals are not a like-for-like measure of value or frugality. A senator representing a remote, geographically vast state will legitimately incur more travel than an inner-city member. Higher spending often reflects ministerial duties, electorate size, or distance from Canberra — not waste. Please read the figures as a transparency record, not a scoreboard.

For exactly how the figures are sourced and calculated, see the methodology.