Nick Minchin (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance and Administration) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Evans talks about an equivalent rate. The Prime Minister, in response to assertions that the actual amount paid for the actual cost of the function at Kirribilli was too low, made the point that he had looked at costs of functions at Kirribilli and the Lodge of a similar kind and noted to himself that the costs were broadly similar on a per capita basis to the cost of the function held at Kirribilli. I was not there, so I do not know whether they were drinking cask wine or what the quality of the beverages consumed was. It might have been cask wine—I do not know. Nevertheless, they are the actual costs. People have made comparisons on this basis, but, when you compare it to having a function at a hotel or something like that, obviously the hotel puts in a profit margin and an imputed rent for the premises and the Prime Minister has made it abundantly clear that there is no imputed rent for the premises because it is his official residence. (Time expired)