Kara Cook’s parliamentary expenses 2025–26: $601,965 (1 Jul 2025 – 30 Jun 2026)

What’s included in these figures

The total for Kara Cook is the sum of all expenses charged to Kara Cook’s parliamentary office and reported by the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority (IPEA) over the 2025–26 financial year: travel, office facilities and administration, vehicles, communications and other categories. Refunds and credits are netted off, so a category can be negative. Family and nominee travel is included, as in IPEA’s own headline total for a parliamentarian: those claims are attributed to the parliamentarian who made them and shown as their own category, “Family or Nominee Travel”.

Method and data source

Quarterly claims are taken from IPEA’s open data on data.gov.au (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia), current to the IPEA release of 2 Sep 2026. Totals cover the four most recent reported quarters; the median and rank are calculated across all sitting parliamentarians with claims in the same window. Earlier category names are matched to current ones.

Figures are compiled from IPEA data; IPEA is the authoritative source. Page generated 2026-10-23. Political Gadgets’ compilation is licensed CC BY-NC 4.0.

Frequently asked questions

Why four quarters instead of one?

Kara Cook’s four-quarter total of $601,965 (1 Jul 2025 – 30 Jun 2026) smooths out one-off quarters such as an election period or an overseas trip. The latest single quarter (Apr–Jun 2026) was $141,166, against an average of $150,491 a quarter across the window.

What is the median and how is it calculated?

The median is the middle four-quarter total when all 224 sitting parliamentarians are ranked: half claimed less than $647,706 and half more. Kara Cook’s total of $601,965 is $45,741 below the median of $647,706, which ranks 139th of 224.

Why do some parliamentarians claim much more than others?

IPEA says: “When comparing expenditure between parliamentarians, it is important to take into account the parliamentarian’s role, the size of their electorate, and their electorate’s distance from the closest capital city and Canberra.” Kara Cook’s largest category over the window was Office Administration ($275,831).

Is family and nominee travel included?

Yes. Claims for travel by family members or nominees are attributed to the parliamentarian who made them and counted in their total, as in IPEA’s own totals. For Kara Cook this came to $24,023 over the window.