Labor frontbencher Tony Burke led the charge against Bronwyn Bishop over her expense claims.
Now the tables have turned and he has his own questions to answer.
It's been revealed that he charged the taxpayer more than 12-thousand dollars for a four-day trip to Uluru in 2012 - which included business class plane tickets for his children.
"My criticism of Bronwyn Bishop was always that she had broken the rules. Always. Question: So you don't feel like a hypocrite? Answer: My criticism of Bronwyn Bishop was always without exception that she had broken the rules."
Independent M-P Andrew Wilkie says politicians shouldn't be charging such trips to the taxpayer.
"That is, quite frankly, fraud. It is improper for Members and Senators to be going on almost family holidays under cover of some official engagement."
But Tony Burke maintains that it wasn't for pleasure.
"In each of these I had senior members of my staff and departmental officials with me. You don't go on a holiday with the public servants from your department. The view that it was a holiday, it simply wasn't. It simply wasn't."
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten is standing by him.
"There is no comparison between what Mr Burke has done and what Bronwyn Bishop did. He has done everything within the rules."
And nearly every day there's another M-P involved in questions over entitlements.
Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young is the latest to have her spending questioned.
She attended the Mardi Gras on the public purse.
She released this statement:
"Newsflash! I go to Mardi Gras because I'm a proud supporter of LGBTI rights and promoting equality is an important part of my job.
Taxpayers would get a lot of benefit, and the community would have a lot of healing, if Prime Minister Abbott came to Mardi Gras next year. I'll even show him around."
Arriving in Victorian suburb of Geelong by car, the Prime Minister says the review of entitlements needs to go back to first principles.
What I want is root and branch reform so that the public can be absolutely confident that their members of parliament are working for them and that's what I believe will be achieved by the review team."
Tony Burke has also submitted his entitlement spending for review by the Finance Department.
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