The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and its Beijing embassy had no prior knowledge of a trip under-siege minister Stuart Robert made to China, a Senate committee has been told.
The embassy became aware of the private visit after being told by Defence in late August 2014.
It was normal practice for the department to be told about MPs' and ministers' official travel, Foreign Affairs and Trade secretary Peter Varghese told an estimates hearing in Canberra on Thursday.
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Notice of any private trips depended on whether MPs chose to inform the department, he said.
"There isn't a hard and fast rule about advising missions that you're on private travel."
Labor Senate leader Penny Wong said that as a former minister it was inconceivable to her that an Australian minister would meet a Chinese vice-minister without having a DFAT official present.
Mr Varghese took on notice what action DFAT or the embassy took after finding out about Mr Robert's meeting.
Mr Robert also played golf and visited tourist sites while in China, the hearing was told.
His future could be determined before the end of the day, but there's speculation he might survive the fallout after the Senate committee heard his homeward flight from Beijing to Singapore was approved by the Prime Minister's Office.
The head of the prime minister's department is believed to have finalised his investigation into the trip.
Labor insists Mr Robert has to go, arguing the minister breached the code of conduct by assisting a business friend and Liberal Party donor secure a mining deal with the Chinese.
It says the code prohibits ministers using their public office to benefit private business.
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"He's clearly admitted that he's done that," deputy opposition leader Tanya Plibersek told ABC radio.
"I think it's a very clear-cut situation."
Defence Department secretary Denis Richardson told a Senate hearing on Wednesday his department was aware at the time the minister was in Beijing.
"Following his return to Australia, minister Robert asked his office to advise the department who he had met in China," he said.
Cabinet minister Andrew Robb says Mr Turnbull would have come in for more criticism had he made a rushed decision without having all the facts.
"He's played it by the book and the issue will come and go," he told reporters in Canberra.
Labor frontbencher Jim Chalmers said any outcome other than Mr Robert being sacked on Thursday would be a complete farce.
"Clinging onto a minister to the end of a parliamentary sitting week is such cynical behaviour," he told reporters.
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