The Independent Parliamentarian Expenses Authority has found that former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce and his now-partner Vikki Campion's travel expense claims during the time their relationship developed was within the guidelines.
Following the revelation of the affair this year, the IPEA undertook a review of Joyce and Campion's travel claims between May 2016 and February 2018.
There had been speculation that Joyce and Campion may have misused travel entitlements while engaged in their affair while Campion was still a staffer for another minister in the Turnbull government, but the IPEA audits of the pair have cleared them of any wrongdoing.
In Joyce's case, the audit found that the MP only claimed for trips with the dominant purpose being official parliamentary business. The audit did find that from March 2017 onwards, there had been a significant increase in travel to Canberra in non-sitting weeks for Joyce.
The former deputy prime minister blamed his portfolio responsibilities, Cabinet reshuffles, water and inland rail concerns, his section 44 citizenship woes, and that there was only one national media outlet in Tamworth for the increased trips to Canberra.
For Campion, the audit found that the only two taxi fares associated with time spent in Sydney after a trip from Gladstone to Canberra were not eligible to be claimed, at $100.96, but this was offset because Campion found a travelling claim she did not submit in 2017 meaning she was owed $978.36, meaning the government paid her back in total just over $877.
Joyce is set to release his biography, Weatherboard and Iron next month. Last month the pair faced criticism for agreeing to a paid interview with Seven's Sunday Night program, with the $150,000 said to be going into a trust for their son, Sebastian.