A senior West Australian Liberal has defended the party's use of taxpayer money on extravagant dinners amid warnings a laptop seized from disgraced former colleague Phil Edman has enough material to "bury" other MPs.
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A Corruption and Crime Commission report tabled in state parliament on Tuesday revealed Mr Edman used his electorate allowance on acting as a "sugar daddy" to women he met online, visiting strip clubs and paying speeding fines.
The former government whip quit the party following the revelations he had misused thousands of taxpayer dollars but CCC chief John McKechnie confirmed other current and former MPs remained under investigation.
After the CCC raided his premises, Mr Edman got a former MP and a party official to warn various sitting members that a seized laptop - which has since been returned to an upper house committee - contained damaging material.
"It's got everything, all the emails between all of us, Black Hand Gang dinners, it's got the video, there's enough stuff on that f***ing computer to bury f***ing a lot of people," he said to a former MP.
Peter Collier, the opposition's leader in the legislative council, has confirmed that the "Black Hand Gang" referred to all upper house Liberal MPs.
Mr Edman claimed almost $18,000 on parliamentary allowance for the group's twice-yearly dinners between December 2013 and June 2016.
The report quoted one member worried that the dinners could be perceived as "frivolous frequent taxpayer-funded excuse for an expensive piss-up" - an allegation denied by Mr Collier.
"The assumption that they are long boozy occasions is far from the truth," he told 6PR radio.
"They're twice a year, they're not expensive and quite frankly they're very fruitful - both in terms of team-building but also in terms of information-gathering."
When pressed, Mr Collier conceded it failed the pub test for MPs to have claimed the dinners on their parliamentary allowance.
Premier Mark McGowan has urged the powerful Procedures and Privileges Committee to hand back Mr Edman's laptop to corruption investigators.
The parties have been embroiled in a bitter dispute for months, with the committee demanding the CCC return Mr Edman's laptop over concerns some of the documents it contained were subject to parliamentary privilege.
The CCC capitulated in September as the matter headed to court.
Mr McGowan described Mr Edman's conduct as "grossly improper" and urged the committee to return the laptop to investigators.
"They need to now co-operate with the CCC," he said.
Australian Associated Press
