Attorney-General George Brandis's office said an expensive dinner on taxpayers during a visit to London was usual practice.
Attorney-General George Brandis's office
said an expensive dinner on taxpayers during a visit to London was
usual practice. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen



Attorney-General George Brandis racked up a $1100 dinner bill on
taxpayers during a visit to London this year, just a month before his
government called on the poor to accept budget cuts and new taxes to
help pay off the deficit.

Labor said the cost was obscene but the
Attorney-General's office said the dinner was usual practice, because
 Senator Brandis was hosting "important stakeholders".

A freedom
of information request lodged by the Labor Party has revealed Senator
Brandis opted for Australian wine on the night of April 4 when he dined
with a group of senior British arts representatives at the Corinthia
Hotel's fine-dining Massimo Restaurant.

The group ordered three
bottles of 2010 vintage Tyrrell's Semillon-Sauvignon and supped on a
bottle of upmarket Italian Vin Santo del Chianti Bonacchi dessert wine,
as well as glasses of Laurent-Perrier Champagne.


The dinner cost taxpayers £627 pounds, with £228 in alcohol charges
alone. Currency site XE said the Australian dollar was worth 56p at the
time, meaning Senator Brandis's bill came to $1123, including $408 in
alcohol.  

Just five days earlier, Treasurer Joe Hockey, who was
preparing to unveil his first budget - which included the now-revised GP
tax, a rise in the fuel excise and an extra tax on the rich - said everyone in the community needed to help to do the "heavy lifting" in repairing the budget deficit. 

A spokesman for Senator Brandis defended the dinner.

"It's
usual practice for senior cabinet ministers to host dinners for
important stakeholders within their portfolios," the spokesman said.
"On this occasion the Attorney-General and Minister for Arts hosted key UK senior arts representatives."

Fairfax
Media asked Senator Brandis's office how many people attended the
dinner but staff declined to say. Labor's Waste Watch spokesman Pat
Conroy said the dinner bill was for Senator Brandis and three guests,
which was obscene.

"To spend over $400 of taxpayers' money on wine
is unpardonable, especially at the same time as the government is
making people pay more at the doctors and petrol pump," he said.

Just two months earlier,
Senator Brandis had been forced to defend spending more than $15,000 of
taxpayers' money to fund a second custom-built bookshelf for his
personal library. That followed revelations in late 2013 that Senator Brandis had spent nearly $13,000 over four years stocking his library.

"Maybe
George can put the empty bottle of vintage Italian dessert wine that
cost $124 on the $15,000 bookshelves also paid for by taxpayers," Mr
Conroy said.