Malcolm Turnbull has defended MPs who use their travel allowance to stay in apartments they own in Canberra.
The prime minister was responding to claims Small Business Minister Michael McCormack uses his $273 a night allowance to stay in a unit owned by his wife.
Mr Turnbull said every MP gets the same amount so it's fair, but it was a matter for each of them where they chose to stay when in the national capital.
"You could be staying in a thousand-dollar-a-night suite at the Park Hyatt, you could be staying in the apartment of yours, or your friends or your wife or you could be sleeping in a swag ... but you still get the same amount of money," he told 3AW's Neil Mitchell on Friday.
When asked if that passed the sniff test, Mr Turnbull said it did as long as the cost was the same across the board.
Mr McCormack has defended his use of the provision, which is within the rules.
"I get a travel allowance, others get penalty rates - it's part of the package," he told his local newspaper, The Daily Advertiser in Wagga Wagga.
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