Dumped Liberal minister Stuart Robert will repay taxpayer funds he claimed to fly to the opening of a north Queensland goldmine in which he and his family had bought shares.
Department of Finance documents show Mr Robert claimed for return flights from Brisbane to Townsville on April 10, 2013, the day he visited the $200 million Mt Carlton mine of gold producer Evolution Mining.
Mr Robert charged $1091 for the flights from Brisbane to Townsville and return to Brisbane and chalked up Comcar limousine charges of $205 and a further $376 travel allowance for a night in Brisbane before inspecting his private investment.
At the time he was opposition spokesman for defence, science, technology and personnel, with no official role related to the mine, in which he had bought shares the previous year.
Mr Robert had close ties with Paul Marks, one of Evolution Mining's directors at the time, who had more than six million shares in the company and is a Liberal party donor.
Mr Robert last week quit the Turnbull government front bench after it was found he breached ministerial standards on a 2014 trip to China, also involving Mr Marks.
The MP has written to the Finance Department offering to voluntarily pay back the Townsville trip money, plus a penalty.
He said in the letter he had gone to Townsville on official shadow ministerial business to talk to the then premier Campbell Newman about how to boost defence industry jobs.
He accepted the invitation to the mining event when he learned the then spokesman Ian Macfarlane would not be attending.
"I held a very minor shareholding that I had previously declared to the parliament," Mr Robert wrote in a letter obtained by the Gold Coast Bulletin.
Liberal frontbencher Steve Ciobo said all MPs needed to properly explain their travel.
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