The conversation with Mr Entsch, which Prime Minister Tony Abbott described in a radio interview earlier in the week as "very important", took in a range of issues including "local government amalgamations", according to Mr Randall. In a separate interview Mr Randall suggested to a Perth suburban newspaper, the Armadale Examiner, that he had travelled to Cairns with his wife in his capacity as a shadow parliamentary secretary for local government. Fairfax Media revealed last week that Mr Randall billed taxpayers $5259 for the trip in November last year on the grounds of ''electorate business''. But Mr Randall has refused on more than eight occasions to answer Fairfax's questions about the Cairns trip and about another trip to Melbourne in September 2012 – costing taxpayers $5300 – which he claimed on the grounds of "sittings of Parliament". Asked repeatedly why he thought he was entitled to the trip given Parliament had not convened regularly in Melbourne since 1927, Mr Randall's spokeswoman has refused on every occasion to answer the question. Mr Randall had also refused over the past week to say whether he and his wife had attended the West Coast Eagles AFL semi-final that Saturday night at the MCG. But Mr Randall has now told The West Australian that the Melbourne trip was "totally within entitlement", while admitting that he had in fact attended the AFL game on the Saturday night. He said MPs from WA were entitled to "break up" trips to Canberra by flying through a capital city of their choice.

"Just to illustrate that, you might want to check the front bar of the Hilton Hotel [in Melbourne] on grand final day to see how many members of all parties are there," Mr Randall said. When the reporter asked him if he believed those MPs at the football bar were travelling under parliamentary entitlements, Mr Randall replied: "I'm sure they are probably making it their business to examine the MCG as part of their parliamentary business. That's tongue in cheek, of course". Mr Randall blamed the media for the attention on his expenses. "It's not being driven by the Labor Party. And I've had calls from Labor Party people to say that." "It's an issue that's been trawled over largely by the Fairfax Media and then become an issue for the rest of you." I'm sure [MPs] are probably making it their business to examine the MCG [on grand final day] as part of their parliamentary business.

Asked whether he had acted in the spirit of the law, Mr Randall said: "My interpretation of the spirit of the law will be completely different from somebody who is my opponent or my critic." Mr Randall repeated his defence of spending more than $2500 on books that apparently had no relation to parliamentary business, including cookbooks and multiple copies of the Guinness Book of Records. They were gifts for school children in his electorate, he said. Mr Randall also said his daughter Tess, who has been employed in his office, would be "going to work elsewhere shortly". Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said on Friday he believed it was up to Mr Abbott to explain how Mr Randall's expenses fell within the guidelines. ''Clearly each of the two people involved, Prime Minister Abbott and Don Randall, have got a different explanation,'' he told ABC Radio.

Mr Shorten acknowledged there was ''community anxiety'' about entitlements, even though the majority of MPs did the right thing. The Labor leader said the opposition would work with the government to clear up the guidelines around expenses, but when asked, did not indicate Labor would approach the Coalition with a specific model. ''Obviously you've got to approach this on a bipartisan basis and we have made it clear that we are willing to sit down with the government to alleviate community concern, to make sure that there can be no doubt about the integrity of the system.'' Finance Minister Mathias Cormann on Friday defended the current expenses system, saying that it was not ''desirable'' for opposition MPs to provide detailed accounts of who they met with. ''Do you think that the government should be asking members of the current opposition to detail the meetings they're having with who and what about before a judgment is made on whether a particular meeting ... was in or outside the official business?'' he asked on ABC Radio.

He later added that it would not be practical for public servants to manage the compliance aspects of MPs providing more detail about their expenses. Loading Senator Cormann said that members of Parliament had a job to do and that it involved travel ''from time to time''. ''In opposition you have all sorts of meetings in relation to all sorts of matters in order to pursue your responsibilities,'' he said.