Finance Minister Mathias Cormann charged taxpayers $4,400 to take his wife on a romantic beach getaway on her birthday.
On July 9, 2010 the Liberal senator for Western Australia treated his new spouse Hayley Ross, a lawyer, to a weekend away in a remote resort town known for its beach camel rides.
To mark her 28th birthday on a Friday, he arranged for her to fly 2,200km from their home city of Perth to Broome in the far north of his vast state, Department of Finance records show.
Finance Minister Mathias Cormann (left) charged taxpayers $1,740 to take his wife Hayley Ross (right) on a romantic beach getaway on her birthday
This direct flight cost the public purse $1,741 as part of a three-day weekend away to Broome which cost taxpayers $4,397.
It included $221 in charter hire cars to get around Broome on Hayley Ross' birthday, and $118 in Commonwealth car transport to get the couple to and from Perth airport.
The senator also claimed $676 in travel allowance for two nights' accommodation in Broome as 'electorate business'.
This romantic weekend away on the public purse took place a year after the senator married Ms Ross, the daughter of West Australian wheat farmers.
Senator Cormann now has two daughters with his wife, a senior associate lawyer with Clayton Utz in Perth.
The cabinet minister, now 48, has been an enthusiastic beneficiary of a scheme where federal MPs' partners are entitled to nine business class flights or three family reunion trips a year.
These rules remained in place under the new Independent Parliament Expenses Authority, which was established in 2017 following an expenses scandal involving former health minister Sussan Ley.
On July 9, 2010 the Liberal senator for Western Australia treated his new spouse, a lawyer, to a weekend away in a remote
