Opposition Leader Tony Abbott caught out charging Australian taxpayers for his own book promotion expenses

On 28 July 2010 ABC The Drum raised the matter of Opposition Leader Tony Abbott’s alleged misuse of parliamentary entitlements in 2009 to promote his book, Battlelines.

The initial Abbott response contained in that article was:

A spokesman for Tony Abbott dismissed the allegations as a smear campaign." All travel undertaken by Mr Abbott has been within the entitlement. This is a blatant attempt by Labor to smear and mislead."

However, documents obtained under Freedom of Information found at Tony Yegles’ Scribd account tell another story.

Dept of Finance to Mr Tony Abbott - 19 August 2010 by Tony Yegles

Peta Credlin to Dept of Finance - 29 October 2010 by Tony Yegles

Gary Gray Special Minister of State to Mr Abbott - 10/11/2011 by Tony Yegles

Less than two months after receiving the first letter from the Dept. of Finance and Deregulation and, in the same month he began to repay monies received to which he was not entitled, this was Opposition Leader Tony Abbott on his feet in The House of Representatives on 9 October 2012:

Never mind that the squalid deal that the Prime Minister cooked up last November involved placing in the chair of this parliament someone whom her own government was investigating for misuse of entitlements…

Apparently when another member of parliament claims money from the taxpayer that he should not have received it is a matter so grave that it should bring down a government, but when Tony Abbott himself does the same thing it is a matter of small importance to be easily shrugged off and lied about to the media.

UPDATE:

Despite the previous written admissions of 29 October 2010 made by his chief of staff on behalf of Tony Abbott, the Opposition Leader continues to lie to the media and the Australian electorate.

The Guardian UK 8 July 2013:

When asked at a press conference on Monday morning if he had wrongly claimed travel expenses while promoting Battlelines, Abbott replied: "No, I did not."
He did not elaborate on the answer before taking the next question and ended the press conference after answering questions from two other journalists on the press club debate and the potential timing of the election....

We now learn from Michelle Grattan that his publisher, Melbourne University Press, actually repaid the debt.