Finance Minister Mathias Cormann claims he had 'no idea' $2,780 family flights to Singapore were paid for by a travel company that had won a $1billion contract from his department.
The senior cabinet minister on a salary of $383,000, his wife Hayley Ross, and their two young daughters flew to the popular Asian travel destination from Perth in January 2018.
Melbourne-based travel firm Helloworld paid for the return tickets in July 2017, a month before it announced its AOT corporate travel subsidiary had been awarded a $1billion, three-year contact, a Sydney Morning Herald investigation has revealed.
Finance Minister Mathias Cormann (left with wife Hayley) claims he had 'no idea' $2,780 family flights to Singapore were paid for by a travel company that had won a $1billion contract
The senior cabinet minister, his wife Hayley Ross and their two daughters flew to the popular Asian travel destination (Singapore's Marina Bay Sands pictured) from Perth in January 2018
Senator Cormann agreed to repay the money on Monday after being contacted by Nine Entertainment's flagship newspaper, claiming he had 'no idea' Helloworld had booked the travel on under the 'family and staff' account category without charging the minister's credit card.
Helloworld subsidiary AOT's contract with the Department of Finance is worth more than $300million a year.
Senator Cormann has released a letter to him from Helloworld's chief financial officer Michael Burnett blaming a 'regrettable administrative error' for the company's failure to charge the minister's credit card account.
'The flights were never "free" and were never intended to be free,' he told Senator Cormann.
'We apologise for any inconvenience or embarrassment this administrative error may have caused.'
A spokeswoman for Senator Cormann told Daily Mail Australia the minister had instructed Helloworld to charge the Singapore flights to his credit card.
'That is what the minister genuinely thought had happened,' she said.
'At no point, until approached by the media yesterday, did the minister receive any reminders that the payment due remained outstanding.'
Senator Cormann also released a statement claiming he had no
