In what are further signs of an unofficial truce between the two major political parties on MPs entitlements, Mr Burke on Thursday defended high charter flight bills racked up by two cabinet ministers and Mr Abbott again refused to criticise Mr Burke in return. Labor's Tony Burke, who led the opposition's successful pursuit of Mrs Bishop over her expenses, is facing questions over his own use of entitlements. Credit:Arsineh Houspian Mr Burke has been in the sights of some within the government, including Employment Minister Eric Abetz who has called for Mr Burke to consider his position in the shadow cabinet over his expense claims. Mr Burke is under fire for using the "family reunion" provision to fly his family business class so they could join him on a family holiday at Uluru, where he was carrying out work in his capacity as the then Environment Minister. The entire trip cost $12,000. Mr Burke is not repaying any of those expenses, despite acknowledging they were extravagant.

Mr Burke, who led Labor's successful attack against former speaker Bronwyn Bishop, who resigned in disgrace on Sunday, broke his silence on Thursday and said the two cases were completely different. Global focus on Australia: Tony Abbott cannot afford any new errors of judgment. Credit:Joe Armao But he conceded his claims, although within the rules, looked excessive to the public. "While I am completely confident that the questions in particular relating to Uluru and Cairns have been 100 per cent within the rules, they have also been completely beyond community expectations, and that's been made clear," he said. Illustration: Ron Tandberg

He said while he saw his family in the morning and at night it was no holiday for him. "For Uluru, I left the kids each day and went to work. In the evenings, I was with them. Similarly in Cairns I would leave to go to different sites, particularly in Cape York and in the Daintree, and would leave to conduct meetings. "In each of these, I had senior members of my staff and departmental officials with me. You don't go on a holiday with the public servants from your department. And the view that it was a holiday, it simply wasn't. It simply wasn't," he said. Mr Burke said the Prime Minister's "root and branch" review of the entitlements system was needed and predicted the family reunion provision he has used over the years may be abolished as a result of the inquiry.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said on Thursday that he had confidence in his frontbencher. "There is no comparison with what Mr Burke's done and what Bronwyn Bishop did - he's done everything within the rules," Mr Shorten said. Mr Abbott again refused to criticise Mr Burke on Thursday. "As I have been saying all week, the issue is the system," he told reporters in Geelong. "And yes some people have done things [which] with the wisdom of hindsight wouldn't have been done," he said.

"I am determined to ensure that the public can have confidence in their members of Parliament, can have confidence that we are doing our work for them and that will be the result of this root-and-branch reform," he said. Mr Abbott defended political fundraisers as part of the job of a politician and said he thought it was reasonable to ask taxpayers to fund an MP's attendance. "We have a political role and we've got to be able to do our job," he said. He said a party fundraiser he attended in Geelong the night before was not just about raising money for the local branch. "These are opportunities to learn more about the way our country works, to learn more about what is on the minds of the people of Australia and I think they're an important part of a job like mine," he said.