Peter Dutton's office asked billionaire Gina Rinehart's company if jet was available for event

The flight upgrade row in Parliament has now snared Opposition leader Peter Dutton, who revealed a previous request to billionaire Gina Rinehart.

But yesterday, he was forced to backtrack when he admitted his staff had spoken to Rinehart's office about using the aircraft to fly the Opposition Leader from Queensland to Sydney for a Bali memorial service.Opposition Leader Peter Dutton with Gina Rinehart in a promotional video for Hancock Prospecting.

"I thought that was very expensive and the cheaper option for the taxpayer was for my office to speak to, to Mrs Rinehart's office as to whether the plane might be available," he said.His comments came as MPs are sifting through their flight records and upgrades to make sure they've followed the rules in declaring everything.

Earlier this week she declared she had received a flight upgrade in 2018 when she was a government minister.this morning she was writing to three airlines to check if there were more.

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