DFAT head coy on ambassador incident

The head of the foreign affairs department remains tight-lipped about private conversations he had with the ambassador to France over an apparent prime ministerial snub.

Ambassador Stephen Brady reportedly offered to resign after his male partner was excluded from an official party that greeted Prime Minister Tony Abbott in Paris on Anzac Day.

Department secretary Peter Varghese told a Senate committee on Wednesday he had two subsequent phone conversations with the ambassador in which he denied Mr Brady had offered to resign, but would not disclose whether the issue of resignation was canvassed.

Mr Varghese said the issue of a partner's presence at prime ministerial arrivals had never arisen when he had served overseas as a high commissioner.

"We all knew what we were doing and did it," he said.

Labor frontbencher Penny Wong asked if Mr Varghese had considered mounting a public defence of Mr Brady in the wake of an anonymous source in media reports claiming he had "a dummy spit" and a "fit".

He said it wasn't necessary.

Attorney-General George Brandis told the hearing that Mr Abbott had hosted a special dinner in honour of Mr Brady and his partner.