"I can only assume it's a mistake," George said, when asked why flights to Queensland were approved as expenses to be charged to Sydney Water.
Ministers insisted the accountancy bills were in relation to their work as MPs and that the claims were allowable as parliamentary expenses.
(Expenses are paid by donations, and a few independent well-wishers also run "mirror sites" in support).
Unlike some of its rivals it avoided major costs for litigation and legal expenses.
But the publication today of another tranche of management expenses suggests its most senior executives are increasingly parsimonious, at least when it comes to claiming back taxis, hotels and meals.
This shows that the overall figure spent on expenses in the last three months of 2010 was £195,891.01p.
The BBC's 108 highest-paid bosses – including those on salaries of £150,000 or more – reduced the total amount of expenses they claimed in the first three quarters of this financial year by 14.1% compared with the equivalent period in 2009/10.
Humiliated over his wife Iris's affair and the £50,000 loan she secured for her lover; embattled due to allegations about his financial dealings with property developers and revelations over his and his wife's parliamentary expenses, Robinson's position on the surface at least appears to be precarious.
I have on file cases of Britons recently imprisoned for crimes as relatively mild as abusive tweeting, poll-rigging, Boat Race obstructing, cathedral desecrating, job-application falsifying, expenses fiddling, urinatingon a war memorial, speeding-point switching, licence fee non-paying, and googling in court.
All these are in addition to the absurd spectacle of PMQs and the House of Lords, and spadocracy and MPs' expenses, which were mentioned by Timothy Garton Ash.
It could well make sense not to accept a lump sum contribution to the purchase of the property but to accept a regular contribution to living expenses instead.
