Prime Minister Tony Abbott has again defended claiming a travel allowance from taxpayers for a charity bike ride.
Over the past few years, he has claimed thousands of dollars in allowances for overnight accommodation and flights for the time he's participated in the Pollie Pedal fundraising bike ride through regional areas.
On Tuesday, he said it was a "perfectly legitimate form of engagement with the community".
Asked whether the Pollie Pedal organisers had provided accommodation and food, he said that was not correct.
"As part of the ride fee you got, I think, muesli bars and I think you might have got a bowl of Corn Flakes or Weetbix at the start of the day," he told reporters in Canberra.
"I think you got access to a tent site at a caravan park."
He had always paid his own ride fee, he said.
Mr Abbott said that on occasions he had slept in the campgrounds and eaten with the other politicians taking part.
"I don't in any way apologise ... for claiming TA (travel allowance) for the Pollie Pedal because the Pollie Pedal is a perfectly legitimate form of engagement with the community," he said.
"It's precisely the kind of engagement with the community that I think politicians who are serious about representing the people of Australia should have."
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