"It had nothing to do with the story," she told Fairfax Media on Monday. Attorney-General George Brandis has repaid travel claims for attending the wedding of a radio announcer friend. Credit:Sasha Woolley However Fairfax Media understands the new ministerial code of conduct is being drafted within the Prime Minister's office, and Senator Brandis had a minor role is reviewing the language of code. At the weekend, Fairfax Media revealed that Senator Brandis had claimed $1683 in taxpayer-funded entitlements for the wedding of his close friend, radio presenter Michael Smith. Despite reports the Attorney-General was "tearing up the dance floor", Senator Brandis insisted the wedding was mostly a work-related function.

Yet he repaid the full amount after the story broke on Sunday. But Mr Bowen said this should not be the end of the matter. "The repayment of the money is a de-facto admission but he hasn't had the good grace to say he got it wrong," he said. Senator Brandis had told Fairfax Media that his attendance at the wedding was ''primarily a professional rather than a social engagement'' in order to ''foster collaboration'' with Smith over the radio presenter's work covering then-prime minister Julia Gillard and embattled former member for Dobell Craig Thomson. Smith left Fairfax Radio after a falling out over his plans to air controversial claims about Ms Gillard while she was prime minister. Senator Brandis publicly made the case for prosecuting Mr Thomson as well as former speaker Peter Slipper, who was later charged with misusing his taxpayer entitlements.

How can you ask somebody who has breached the old ministerial code of conduct so flagrantly to write the new one? Given his role as the Coalition's watchdog, Senator Brandis was "clearly one of the Parliament's now biggest hypocrites," Mr Bowen said. The Attorney-General had "tried to hold other people to a very high standard, a standard he has failed to meet himself", he added. "To ask him, as Tony Abbott has done, to write the new ministerial code of conduct is a slap in the face to all who care about standards in public life," Mr Bowen said. Responding to his alleged role in the expenses scandal, Barnaby Joyce has said he will refund $600 in taxpayer entitlements he claimed to attend the wedding of close friend Sydney shock jock Michael Smith.

“I wasn’t thinking but I wasn’t doing anything sneaky,” Mr Joyce told News Corporation. Unlike Senator Brandis, who refunded $1700 in taxpayer entitlements, Mr Joyce did not claim for flights to Sydney to attend the wedding, or his hotel accommodation on the wedding night. Mr Joyce told News Corp that he caught a ComCar to the Central Coast and then back to Sydney at 3am the next morning after catching a few hours’ sleep in his hotel after the wedding reception. Mr Joyce says he will not pay back his $400 flight home, as Senator Brandis did, because his original purpose was to appear on a television program in Sydney and therefore a legitimate expense. An angry Mr Joyce declined to go into why he had changed his mind, after earlier in the day likening the wedding to a day at the office.

Loading "They're all private functions at which you spend most of the time talking about politics,’’ he said on ABC Radio. Mr Joyce read a poem at the wedding entitled Fair Dinkum Love: ‘‘Fair dinkum love isn’t about bringing in a dozen red roses/It’s about bringing in the washing.’’