"I submitted a claim for travel allowance for 10 days, which was my office process," he said. Shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus Credit:Andrew Meares "We should not have claimed for the two nights, Friday and Saturday, because I went to Perisher to ski." He said his staff were not aware he had left Canberra for those two nights. The shadow minister's office said the expenses claim on the ski trip came to light after enquiries from News Corp journalists.

Just two hours earlier Mr Dreyfus told Fairfax Media there was a “pattern of behaviour by Coalition MPs” who were claiming inappropriate entitlements such as weddings, after Tony Abbott faced fresh controversy over expenses claims from his participation in an Ironman event and his Pollie Pedal charity bike ride. Mr Dreyfus had called for the Department of Finance to investigate MPs’ entitlements across the Parliament. "Coalition MPs, including the Prime Minister, don't understand that a private wedding is not official business. "And I think most Australians would have a lot of difficulty with the idea that a private wedding was official business." But Mr Dreyfus did not agree with a suggestion from the Greens to appoint an independent National Integrity Commissioner to oversee entitlements and parliamentary corruption.

“I’m not convinced that there is a need for yet another integrity officer,” he said. “The Auditor General is already able to look at entitlement claims”. It was up to the Abbott government to “come up with a proposal” to examine the abuse of entitlements, Mr Dreyfus said. Asked whether the investigation might backfire and reveal that Labor MPs as well as Coalition MPs were rorting the entitlements system, Mr Dreyfus declined to comment on his own party. "Well I'm not going to give a comment that’s generally across the board," he said. Mr Dreyfus then listed Mr Abbott, Attorney-General George Brandis and Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce as senior members of government who appeared to be unaware that a private wedding should not be charged to taxpayers. “I certainly think there’s a case for looking at some more prescriptive guidelines," said Mr Dreyfus, before his own expenses controversy broke.

Earlier on Tuesday, acting Labor leader Chris Bowen attacked Mr Abbott, Attorney-General George Brandis and "others" for billing taxpayers for private events. Mr Bowen said the guidelines were broad and required MPs to declare they were on official business. He accused the Coalition of displaying "a pattern of poor judgment which is exploiting any ambiguity, any grey areas". Mr Bowen said Mr Abbott should consider repaying the money for his Ironman participation as it appeared to be a private sporting event that should not have been on the public purse. Loading Mr Bowen said the opposition would consider any proposal to restore public confidence in the system but played down suggestions he may have his own entitlement skeletons in the closet.

"Whenever I've had any doubt I've not claimed travel allowance," Mr Bowen said.