Australian government employees were required to reimburse personal expenses charged to their work credit cards
Australian government employees were required to reimburse hundreds of thousands of Australian dollars for unintentional personal expenses charged to their government credit cards. These transactions included food orders through Uber Eats, Uber rides, and expenses at restaurants, fast-food outlets, and stores. According to ABC News Australia, the vast majority of these funds have already been repaid.
New data provided to the Senate covers thousands of transactions across several government agencies during the past fiscal year. At the Department of Home Affairs, employees were required to reimburse the cost of 477 purchases made between July of last year and March of this year, totaling 28,400 Australian dollars. Of these, 149 transactions totaling approximately 5,500 dollars were related to Uber or Uber Eats.
At the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, employees were required to reimburse approximately 151,000 Australian dollars for personal expenses. The agency reported 2,029 inadvertent transactions; the largest of these exceeded 3,000 dollars and was fully reimbursed. At the Prime Minister’s Office and the Cabinet, employees reimbursed 81 purchases totaling about $2,400, most of which were related to Uber.
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Over the past fiscal year, the Australian Federal Police recorded 987 erroneous personal transactions made with corporate credit cards totaling more than 42,000 Australian dollars. The police stated that such expenses must be reimbursed within one business day after an employee becomes aware of the accidental use of the card.
The Department of Defense reported 3,276 purchases totaling approximately 240,000 Australian dollars, which it estimated were in violation of departmental policy. It confirmed the reimbursement of at least 213,672 dollars. The Ministry of Health recorded approximately 5,370 dollars in incidental personal expenses in the 2025–26 fiscal year, while the Ministry of Employment and Labor Relations recorded 8,688 dollars, which were fully reimbursed. The Department of Social Services reported the reimbursement of $2,250 in such expenses.
Finance Minister Katie Gallagher stated that she has confidence in the procedures for monitoring credit card use in government agencies, as improper expenditures are identified and reimbursed. At the same time, Deputy Leader of the Opposition Jane Hume said that the scale of the transactions raises questions about the effectiveness of current controls.
