Turnbull not too rich to claim $10 for wife's Canberra sleepovers

Newly-crowned prime minister Malcolm Turnbull may be one of the richest men in parliament but he still claims $10 from taxpayers every time his wife Lucy stays at his $2 million-plus waterfront home in Canberra.

Mr Turnbull, who is worth an estimated $150 million, also claims the $271 a night allowance provided to MPs to stay in Canberra, The Daily Telegraph reports.

In the six-month period from July to December 2014, Mr Turnbull submitted five claims totalling $60 for Mrs Turnbull's stays in his Kingston home.

In the previous six-month period he made three claims for his wife's Canberra visits worth $30 in total.

However, a spokesman for the Liberal Party leader said yesterday the $10 claims were a clerical error.

"Mrs Turnbull's visits were declared without realising that it triggered the $10 payment," the PM's spokesman said.

Last year Mr Turnbull also made claims worth $5264.78 for family member airfares between Sydney and Canberra.

He also claimed $25,912 in travel allowances for the 88 nights he spent away from Sydney on parliamentary business and $40,563 on airfares to get there.

A spokesman for the PM said his position on travel allowances had not changed and pointed to a statement Mr Turnbull made in 2007.

"Whether I stay in expensive accommodation or cheap accommodation, in my own apartment or an apartment belonging to my wife, a hotel or a serviced flat is immaterial,” Mr Turnbull said. “You get the same amount and where you stay is of no concern to the government. That's the way the system works."