Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Clearly, Senator Campbell, you do not know much about running houses, because you would know that a sewing machine is very useful in a household. In any case, you would otherwise have had to send items out, incurring further cost to the taxpayer. The point I am making is that this is the sort of fixation that you lot over there have with this sort of thing. One need only go back to the time when the Lodge and Kirribilli were occupied by those opposite. We do not hear anything about when your lot occupied Kirribilli and the Lodge. Nothing is said about the entertainment costs that were incurred at that time.

On this particular occasion, yes, the Prime Minister did hold a function at Kirribilli House. As I have said, the decision to hold the function took into account previous advice from the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. It was appropriate to hold the function there on a full cost-recovery basis. As I have said, the cost of the function has been reimbursed by the Liberal Party. Certainly advice has been provided to that extent. I think that, as Senator Minchin said yesterday, it is not appropriate for that advice to be tabled at this point.