Sunshine prompts some parliamentarians to certify entitlement expenditure

The Department of Finance and Deregulation list of parliamentarians and senators who had not certified that expenditure by Finance was for legal use of entitlements, referred to here a week ago when the count of non-certifiers was around the 100 mark as at 6 January, reduced to 64 by the 20th. How many rightfully asserted "not guilty" along with John Cobb is unknown. Ministers Roxon, Bowen and Crean, Opposition frontbenchers Bishop and Turnbull and The Greens Bandt are among those who tidied up the record in this period-for expenditure January to June 2011- but those still outstanding (you know what I mean) include minister Conroy, Tony Abbott, Joe Hockey, and Andrew Wilkie- who admittedly has had a busy few weeks.

As certification is voluntary (ahem, is anyone else concerned about this?), I imagine the issue is not anywhere near a high priority for the 20 listed who were not re-elected in 2010 (there are others from previous parliaments). They include Lindsay Tanner, Maxine McKew, and Pat Farmer who has run from the North to the South Pole raising money for the Red Cross, but  this week was "in a tent at the US base, with his feet in warm water drinking a bottle of champagne."