Labor MP Tony Burke admits it was wrong to fly his children in business class, asks for review of his travel claims

Labor frontbencher Tony Burke has asked the Finance Department to investigate his use of parliamentary travel entitlements, and conceded that it was “clearly beyond community expectations,” to have flown his children business class to Uluru in 2012.

Mr Burke, who has been vocal about former speaker Bronwyn Bishop’s travel expenses claims, including the use of a chartered helicopter to attend a Liberal Party fundraiser, has been subjected to vehement criticism by Coalition MPs after it was found that he paid almost AU$12,000 using taxpayers’ money for a four day trip to Uluru with his family in 2012.

He publicly emphasised that his visit was entirely on official purposes and that it was within the rules, but admits that digging money out of taxpayers’ funds for his children to travel business class was wrong.

"No-one can satisfy an argument that says that kids should have been flying business class and [I] accept that argument absolutely,” he said."There is a justifiable expectation that was unnecessary and shouldn't have happened."

"I don't want there to be any argument whatsoever where somebody claims that I'm not willing to be held to the exact same standard as anyone else.” It was reported that more than $8,000 was spent to cover the travel expenses for his family.

Meanwhile, Mr Burke has provided more details about his business trip to Uluru, saying he left for work each day and did not meet his kids until the evenings.

However, Mr Burke’s claims of attending a Robbie Williams concert for work purposes were disputed by the concert promoter Michael Chugg, who claimed that there was no “work-related chit chat” backstage. “My view is, I’ll just pay the thing back,” Mr Burke told reporters today . “I’ve got a different recollection to Chuggy on that,” he added.

After all the criticism Burke has faced, his opinions on Bishop however remains same. “My criticism of Bronwyn Bishop was that she had broken the rules, always,” he said as reported by 9 News. “When other issues were raised that were raised in regards to Bronwyn Bishop that were within the rules, I did not criticise her.”

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