Fairfax Media understands the two weddings were those of his former colleagues Sophie Mirabella and Mr Slipper. Peter Slipper and his wife Inge on their wedding day. The Prime Minister has repaid both, as he said in the press conference. The Slipper wedding payment repaid was $609.10. Mr Abbott, who is in Indonesia to attend the APEC conference, said he made the two reimbursements after Fairfax Media revealed a week ago that taxpayers met the costs of Attorney-General George Brandis and Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce attending shock jock Michael Smith's wedding. "I remembered that some seven years ago, I had been to a couple of weddings and so I went back and I checked," Mr Abbott said.

"I was advised, because I sought advice on this, that the entitlement was unclear and so, in order to avoid doubt, I paid the relevant money back and, look, that's what people should do. Artist: Ron Tandberg. "They should act within entitlements, they should err on the side of caution and if there is any doubt, they should act immediately to clear the matter up. That's exactly what I have done." Earlier on Monday, Mr Slipper said he found it "breathtaking" that other politicians were allowed to pay back inappropriate entitlements while he faced court for his. Mr Slipper, who could be jailed if found guilty of a taxpayer-funded tour of wineries using his government Cabcharge card, says he tried to repay about $1000 of expenses, but was not allowed to do so.

''What is breathtaking is that I am before a court . . . despite a number of attempts on my part to resolve the matter administratively,'' Mr Slipper told Fairfax Media. Upon learning later on Monday that Mr Abbott used taxpayer funds to attend his wedding, Mr Slipper said it showed ''breathtaking hypocrisy'' given the Prime Minister's attacks on his character. ''I am before the courts for $964 when it seems to be carte blanche for Coalition figures simply to be able to write cheques for reimbursement,'' Mr Slipper said. ''This whole thing has destroyed my career and since April last year it has destroyed my life.'' He said the whole incident had ''robbed'' he and his wife, Inge, of the chance to have children as it became too stressful for her to undergo IVF.

Mr Slipper said he had written to the Department of Finance four times to try to repay his disputed expense claims, but was not allowed to do so. ''Given so many Coalition figures are engulfed in this and allowed to write a cheque . . . now the time has come for the allegations against me to be scrapped,'' he said. Other politicians to have attended the Slipper wedding included Ms Mirabella, Bronwyn Bishop, Andrew Southcott, Peter Costello, Bruce Scott, Phillip Ruddock, Brett Mason, Patrick Secker and Kevin Rudd. It is not known whether others claimed taxpayer-funded travel to attend the wedding. Labor leadership contender Anthony Albanese believes Mr Slipper has been subject to unequal treatment over the travel expense claims. Asked on ABC radio if he thought Mr Slipper had been treated unfairly, Mr Albanese said one could ''draw a conclusion that . . . (there's been) unequal treatment''.

''People must have noticed the way in which the Coalition went after Peter Slipper, who's now before the courts over a claim that's much less than the money that has had to be paid back (by Coalition MPs),'' Mr Albanese said on Tuesday. Fellow Labor leadership aspirant Bill Shorten said expense claim guidelines should be simplified. ''I think most members of parliament wouldn't deliberately diddle their expenses,'' he told ABC radio. ''But I also think this recent controversy shows that the guidelines need to be as unambiguous and as black and white as possible.'' Labor frontbencher Mark Dreyfus was more critical of the Coalition's link to expense claims.

''Clearly there is a definite scope for some serious investigation,'' he told ABC Radio. Greens leader Christine Milne says the next Parliament must urgently pass legislation to clean up politicians' entitlements. Senator Milne said she would introduce a private member's bill once the new Parliament begins, expected to be next month, which would establish an independent commissioner and a parliamentary adviser to oversee entitlements. Professor Allan Fels, who was part of a 2010 committee review of parliamentary expenses, which found that the system should be overhauled, said a solution could lie in politicians' remuneration. ''The more we move to just paying them income and fewer direct allowances, the less controversy there will be,'' he said.

Mr Abbott had previously used the elevation of Mr Slipper to the role of Speaker to attack then prime minister Julia Gillard's ethics - even invoking the spectre of misuse of entitlements. In October 2012 Mr Abbott accused Ms Gillard of cooking up a "squalid deal" that "involved placing in the chair of this Parliament someone whom her own government was investigating for misuse of entitlements". "As things stand, this whole sorry Slipper saga illustrates the ethical bankruptcy of this [Labor] government," Mr Abbott said while calling for the removal of Mr Slipper from office. Mr Abbott's parliamentary motion - in which he said the government should have ''died of shame'' - triggered Ms Gillard’s much-discussed misogyny speech. Mr Abbott told Parliament Mr Slipper "appeared to be addicted in his text messaging" to "vile anatomical references" and was no longer fit and proper to preside over the lower house.

Mr Slipper survived the motion to remove him by one vote but resigned later that day. In August 2010, when Mr Slipper was still a Liberal National Party MP, Mr Abbott defended the controversial Sunshine Coast MP amid questions over large travel bills. "I'm satisfied [Mr Slipper] has acted within his entitlements," Mr Abbott said at the time. But Mr Abbott became a stern critic after Mr Slipper accepted Ms Gillard's offer to be the Speaker and quit the LNP in late 2011. Loading

Mr Abbott suggested Ms Gillard would come to regret the deal, saying people should "wait and see who Peter Slipper ends up ultimately damaging". "A week or so back Peter was my problem and now he's the Prime Minister's problem," Mr Abbott said after the elevation of Mr Slipper to the Speakership.