Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

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

(1) (a) The Department of Defence's total expenditure on Hospitality (excluding the Minister's Office) with separate analysis of Representational Allowances, for the period 1 January to 30 June 2011, is shown in Table 1.

Official Hospitality is the provision of hospitality to persons other than Defence personnel who are able to assist Defence in achieving its corporate objectives through advice, vocational or business interests or attendance at official ceremonies or functions.

Representational funds assist Australian Defence Organisation (ADO) members posted on long-term duty overseas to meet the costs of officially entertaining host-country nationals.

(b) Details of each event are provided at Table 2. This table includes the number of attendees at each Hospitality event. Attendee details for events paid from Representational Allowances are not currently maintained. Current initiatives to enable presentation of these details will result in these details being available for future disclosure

(2) Details of Hospitality expenditure for the offices of the Minister/Parliamentary Secretary's, for the period 1 January to 30 June 2011, are provided at Table 3.

Attachments:

Attachment A. Table 1: Summary of Hospitality and Representational Allowance Expenditure for the Period 1 January 2011 to 30 June 2011.

Attachment B. Table 2: Event Level Detail for Defence, the Defence Materiel Organisation and the Defence Housing Authority.

Attachment C. Table 3: Event Level Detail for Ministerial Hospitality.

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*All tables and attachments are available from the Senate Table Office.