Politicians will also be banned from using their own pay to print how-to-vote cards and other election campaign material, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.

With 150 MPs currently in Parliament this represents a cut of $3.8m in printing allowance. In addition the allowance cut for the 72 members of the Senate represents another $300,000 a year that won’t be coming into the printing industry.

The cuts – initiated by Joe Ludwig, special minister of state – are the second hit to printers in less than two years with last year’s Labor budget cutting MP’s printing allowances by a third from $150,000 to $100,000 as well as the senate having its allowance cut by a sixth to $16,667.

The audit report shows that total printing costs for MPs reached almost $6m a month during the 2007 federal election campaign.

According to the SMH, to stop MPs using printers and photocopiers in their electorate offices to circumvent the restrictions, there will be an annual cap of $35,000 on such consumables as toner, paper and printing cartridges.

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