Attorney-General George Brandis says he was entitled to claim more than $1000 to travel to Sydney in 2010 when he spoke at a Liberal Party-organised event.
Senator Brandis delivered the inaugural Sir Garfield Barwick address in Sydney on June 28, 2010, when he was shadow attorney-general.
The funds from the $90-a-head function were payable to the Liberal Party's NSW division.
The event made headlines on Thursday after unions royal commissioner Dyson Heydon pulled out of the 2015 address, citing attendance at a Liberal Party event as having the potential to compromise his independence.
Senator Brandis' travel entitlement records show he took a domestic flight from Brisbane to Sydney on June 28, 2010, at a cost of $531.60.
In Sydney, he used two Comcars totalling a little more than $100 and his Brisbane Comcars cost $93.
The return flight to Brisbane the same night cost $408.18
Senator Brandis told AAP he had attended a meeting with KPMG on "policy development" on the same day.
The matters under discussion included liability reform, government procurement and contracting arrangements, and professional standards legislation.
He said the speech he made later that day "was not of a political character", but rather "commemorated the life and work of Australia's greatest attorney-general".
"In attendance were members of the New South Wales Bar, current and retired judges, together with members of Sir Garfield Barwick's family," he said.
"I did not stay overnight in Sydney, returning home on the late flight to Brisbane."
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