Taxpayers dished out $600,000 to defend a worker's compensation claim from a "libidinous" public servant injured while having sex on a work trip.
Employment Minister Eric Abetz revealed the figure while pushing for a shake-up of the "outdated" Comcare scheme.
"The flaws in the system were highlighted in lurid terms by the infamous hotel room sex case," Senator Abetz wrote in Fairfax Media on Wednesday.
The decision to award compensation to the woman, who suffered cuts to her face when a glass light fitting was pulled from a wall in 2007, was eventually overturned in the High Court.
But Mr Abetz said it came at significant cost to the scheme because it had to pay more than $600,000 in legal costs to defend the "spurious" claim.
The government has introduced legislation to parliament closing loopholes in the scheme and help injured workers return to their jobs more quickly.
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