Attorney-General George Brandis racked up a $1100 dinner bill on taxpayers during a visit to London this year, just a month before his government called on the poor to accept budget cuts and new taxes to help pay off the deficit.
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Labor said the cost was obscene but the Attorney-General's office said the dinner was usual practice, because Senator Brandis was hosting "important stakeholders".
A freedom of information request lodged by the Labor Party has revealed Senator Brandis opted for Australian wine on the night of April 4 when he dined with a group of senior British arts representatives at the Corinthia Hotel's fine-dining Massimo Restaurant.
The group ordered three bottles of 2010 vintage Tyrrell's Semillon-Sauvignon and supped on a bottle of upmarket Italian Vin Santo del Chianti Bonacchi dessert wine, as well as glasses of Laurent-Perrier Champagne.
The dinner cost taxpayers £627, with £228 in alcohol charges alone. Currency site XE said the Australian dollar was worth 56p at the time, meaning Senator Brandis's bill came to $1123, including $408 in alcohol.
Just five days earlier, Treasurer Joe Hockey, who was preparing to unveil his first budget - which included the now-revised GP tax, a rise in the fuel excise and an extra tax on the rich - said everyone in the community needed to help to do the "heavy lifting" in repairing the budget deficit.
A spokesman for Senator Brandis defended the dinner.
"It's usual practice for senior cabinet ministers to host dinners for important stakeholders within their portfolios," the spokesman said.
"On this occasion the Attorney-General and Minister for Arts hosted key UK senior arts representatives."
Fairfax Media asked Senator Brandis's office how many people attended the dinner but staff declined to say. Labor's Waste Watch spokesman Pat Conroy said the dinner bill was for Senator Brandis and three guests, which was obscene.
"To spend over $400 of taxpayers' money on wine is unpardonable, especially at the same time as the government is making people pay more at the doctors and petrol pump," he said.
Just two months earlier, Senator Brandis had been forced to defend spending more than $15,000 of taxpayers' money to fund a second custom-built bookshelf for his personal library. That followed revelations in late 2013 that Senator Brandis had spent nearly $13,000 over four years stocking his library.
"Maybe George can put the empty bottle of vintage Italian dessert wine that cost $124 on the $15,000 bookshelves also paid for by taxpayers," Mr Conroy said.
