The opposition leader, Tony Abbott, has refused to take responsibility for incorrectly claiming more than $9,000 worth of travel expenses and will not explain in detail how the error occurred.
On Monday, Abbott
denied incorrectly claiming $9,397.42 in travel expenses while on his book tour, despite freedom of information (FOI) documents
published by website No Fibs on the weekend revealing he repaid the money to the government in 2010.
When further questioned by Guardian Australia at a press conference on Tuesday, Abbott did not explain how the incorrect claim occurred.
“Look, this matter was fully dealt with last year and there’s nothing further to add,” he said.
When asked to explain how the travel expenses for his book tour came to be claimed as official business expenses, Abbott repeated that the matter had been fully dealt with.
Asked again what the process was that led to $9,000 being incorrectly claimed, he said it had been an “oversight” in his office but it had been fully dealt with.
Abbott initially repaid $6,255.49 for flights during his tour but was later asked by the then special minister of state, Gary Gray, for a further $3,141.93 for other expenses including the use of commonwealth cars.
When asked why he used Comcars - the company which provides the cars and drivers used by federal parliamentarians when they are on official business - while he was on his book tour, Abbott replied: “Fully dealt with last year. The Labor minister at the time was perfectly satisfied that there had been nothing that was deliberately done wrong and the matter was closed."
“I think I have fully dealt with it and it’s time to move on,” he said, when asked if he took responsibility for the mistake.
“I didn’t claim travel allowance, I never claimed travel allowance. My office inadvertently booked some travel as official and it shouldn’t have been booked that way,” he said.
When it was pointed out there were expenses that had been claimed, as Gray had written to Abbott’s office asking for more expenses to be paid back, Abbott replied: “OK. Are there any other questions?”
Abbott also tried to blame the prime minister, Kevin Rudd, for the issue surfacing, suggesting it was part of a smear campaign, despite the documents being published on an independent website.
"Why is Kevin Rudd now trying to dish this sort of dirt?" he said."Kevin Rudd came into the prime ministership a few days ago and he said, 'Let's have a kinder, gentler polity'… and he called for positive politics. Now we've got the Labor Party spinning this kind of stuff. Now, let's move on."
The FOI documents show emails between the finance department and Abbott's chief of staff, Peta Credlin, who writes that, though she was not employed by Abbott at the time, she has discovered through her own investigation that the flights were "inadvertently" booked as business flights rather than private flights.
"It should be noted that the fact Mr Abbott did not claim travel allowance associated with this travel, with the exception of 6 August, 2009 where portfolio business was the primary purpose of travel, indicates this understanding in the office," she wrote, to explain that the office did understand it was private business but a mistake was made when booking flights.
Abbott repaid $6,255.49 but was later asked to reimburse the government a further $3,141.93 for other expenses he claimed during the trips, including commonwealth cars.
The travel was undertaken between 30 July and 14 August 2009.
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