Three Australian politicians have reportedly accumulated a collective wealth of more than 12,000 dollars in 'overseas study' allowances to pay for their flights home from an Indian wedding attended by 10,000 guests.
MPs Barnaby Joyce, Julie Bishop and Teresa Gambaro had been flown in to Hyderabad in a private jet by Australian mining heiress Gina Rinehart in June 2011 to attend the wedding of the granddaughter of her business partner G.V. Krishna Reddy, the founder of GVK, one of India's largest energy and infrastructure companies.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Rinehart, who was about to clinch a one billion-dollar coal deal with Reddy, had invited Australian politicians to be her guests at the wedding although then Labor's resources minister Martin Ferguson rejected the offer, saying that he felt it was 'inappropriate' of him to attend.
The report mentioned that Joyce claimed 5500 dollars as a part of the allowances; Bishop claimed a 3445-dollar flight home to Perth from Hyderabad and Gambaro claimed 3446 dollars in 'overseas study travel' for the trip.