Vic; MPaccused of plagiarising overseas study tour report

AAP General News (Australia)
12-03-2001
Vic; MPaccused of plagiarising overseas study tour report

A Victorian state Liberal MP has admitted he cut and pasted from the Internet large
sections of his report on a taxpayer-funded overseas junket.

The Herald Sun says ANDREW BRIDESON travelled to Britain, the Isle of Man and Singapore
with his wife in 1998 on a trip that cost taxpayers $23,000.

But he is unrepentant over copying almost half of his report from official websites,
saying all MPs use supplied materials to compile reports about overseas trips.

Mr BRIDESON is only the latest of a number of MPs to be criticised -- with former state
MP JIM PLOWMAN admitting in May that he copied slabs from the SBS World Guide into a report
on a trip to Vanuatu.

And Liberal MP GEOFF LEIGH has been criticised for filing 16 sentences on a five-country
trip - four years after travelling.

State parliament has ordered a crackdown on MPs' abuse of Commonwealth Parliamentary
Association study tours.

AAP RTV ra/ge

KEYWORD: BRIDESON (MELBOURNE)

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