The Minister has provided the following answer to the honourable senator's question:

(1) (a) The Defence Portfolio's total expenditure on Hospitality (excluding the Minister's Office and minor Portfolio bodies), for the period 1 July 2011 to 31 December 2011 is $658,977. Details for each agency are shown on Table 1.

(b) Details of: date, location, purpose, cost (GST exclusive) and number of attendees of each event are provided at Table 2.

(2) Table 3 provides Hospitality spend for the period 1 July 2011 to 31 December 2011, for Minister for Defence, Minister for Defence Materiel and Minister for Defence Science and Personnel. Details provided include: date, location, purpose and cost (GST exclusive) of each event for the period 1 July 2011 to 31 December 2011.

Attachments: *

Table 1: Summary of Hospitality and Representational Allowance Expenditure for the Period 1 July 2011 to 31 December 2011.

Table 2: Event Level Detail for Defence, DMO and DHA.

Table 3: Event Level Detail for Ministerial Hospitality.

* All attachments are available from the Senate Table Office.