Rort back and sides

THIS is state MP Paul Gibson, hard at it in a London hair salon on a parliamentary study tour which has taken him and fellow MP Daryl Maguire to the UK, Russia and South Africa.

The globe-trotting MPs had just one official engagement on the first day of the London leg of their $55,000 road safety study tour – but neither of them turned up, so officials from UK safe roads group, the FIA Foundation, did not get to meet their two overseas visitors. The Saturday Daily Telegraph later discovered Mr Gibson in a London high street hair salon getting a $46 haircut.

Then it was off to the dry cleaners to pick up some shirts and the pub for an authentic London dining experience.

The state MPs missed another appointment as part of their business-class tour on their second day in London, although they did get to a luncheon at the House of Commons.

When The Saturday Daily Telegraph approached the MPs on the streets of London Mr Gibson became angry and told us to "piss off".

The MPs who are now in St Petersburg are on a taxpayer-funded tour approved by Parliament. Mr Gibson, the Labor Member for Blacktown, is the chair of the Staysafe Commitee. Mr Maguire, a Liberal MP and Member for Wagga, is also on the committee. They are travelling with Staysafe Committee staffer Ian Faulks.

FIA Foundation spokeswoman Fiona Holland said only Mr Faulks had attended Monday's meeting. "We were expecting three people, but the MPs didn't come," she said.

The MPs were scheduled to meet the Parliamentary Advisory Council on Transport Safety at 3pm on Tuesday but again they did not turn up. A spokesman for the advisory council said Mr Faulks was the only one to attend the meeting.

A Commonwealth Parliamentary Association UK spokeswoman confirmed Mr Gibson and Mr Maguire had lunch at the House of Commons from about 1-2pm Tuesday.

Asked what he had been doing all day, an angry Mr Gibson said: "We didn't do anything."

In a confusing exchange, he then said he had spent the day in meetings with various MPs, though he refused to specify when, where, or with whom. A few minutes later he backflipped and denied he had said anything about meetings with MPs.

Mr Gibson was spotted laughing as he sat in a barber's chair at 3.30pm before returning to his luxury hotel with an armful of polo shirts.

The Saturday Daily Telegraph spoke with Mr Gibson by phone on Thursday, when the tour had moved on to Moscow. Asked why he had missed meetings in London, Mr Gibson said: "I never missed a meeting that we had to go to.

"If it's meeting politicians, that's one thing but if it's with administration, then the administration person goes.

"I've been to every meeting I had to go to. Just because it's on the itinerary doesn't mean I have to go to it."

Asked which engagements he had attended, Mr Gibson said: "I'm not telling you what meetings I went to."

"I don't report to The (Saturday) Daily Telegraph, I report to Parliament. Who do you think you are? I report to Parliament . . . "

The final leg of the Staysafe tour is to St Petersburg. Surprisingly no meetings are scheduled on the group's itinerary but when asked what he was planning to do in St Petersburg, Mr Gibson said: "I'm not telling you."

By DAVID FISHER and FIONA HUDSON
The Daily Telegraph
Australia, 5 Nov 2005