FORMER Federal Member for Fairfax Alex Somlyay says there's plenty to be considered when it comes to the issue of printing and communications entitlements.

From electorate size, postage costs, population sizes and access to technology, he said there were many factors that came into play when it comes to the entitlements, after expenditure was revealed by an APN special investigation.

Mr Somlyay, retired for two years now, said the changing face of communications, namely through social media and email, had changed the way many politicians communicated.
 

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However he acknowledged the question remained as to whether MPs should be able to use the entitlements during election campaign periods.

"There's an argument that they shouldn't be used during an election period, there's an argument for and against," he said.

"In the past MPs have been able to use it in an election period - that's always been the rules forever and ever."

Mr Somlyay said federal electorates were generally much larger than state electorates, making communications more expensive in much the same way Federal MPs with bigger electorates often had larger travel costs.

"Airfares for somebody like the Member for Kalgoorlie would be much more than someone going from Sydney to Canberra," he said.

"People still expect to be serviced; they expect to be told what's happening."

Mr Somlyay, Fairfax MP from 1990-2013, said he believed the way technology was headed, printing costs could continue to decline, as more and more personalised communication went digital.

Meanwhile current Member for Fairfax Clive Palmer said he believed printing of communications during election campaigns gave incumbents an unfair advantage and should be banned as soon as an election was called.

Member for Longman Wyatt Roy, who's spent more than $540,000 since his election in 2010, said it was vital to keep communities adequately informed while always looking for ways to reduce costs.

APN revealed yesterday that Mr Somlyay had spent $489,870 in printing and communications from mid-2009 to December 2014, while former Member for Fisher Peter Slipper had spent $540,031 from mid-2009 to December 2014.

Kunda Park-based printer Graham Hart, of GT Print, gave some indication as to what that sort of money could buy, although postage costs also needed to be considered.

Mr Hart said standard A4 flyers, two-sided, with artwork, would set one back, on average, about $1000-$1500 for 10,000 fliers, meaning $540,000 could secure about five million flyers.