Attorney-General George Brandis spends $1100 of taxpayer money on dinner

Attorney-General George Brandis spent $1100 of taxpayer money on a single dinner while visiting London in April this year.

The restaurant bill came just a month before his government called on budget cuts and new taxes to help pay off the country’s deficit, Fairfax Media reports.

His office said that this was "usual practice" and Brandis was meeting "important stakeholders" from the arts in Britain.

A freedom of information request lodged by the Labor Party has revealed the dinner cost taxpayers $408 in alcohol alone.

According to currency site XE, the Australian dollar was worth 56p at the time, meaning their £627 bill came to $1123.

When Fairfax Media asked Senator Brandis's office how many people attended the dinner, they declined to give an answer.

Labor’s Waste Watch spokesman Pat Conroy said the dinner bill is "unpardonable, especially at the same time as the government is making people pay more at the doctors and petrol pump."

Source: The Age