Bill Shorten’s Middle East itinerary and Anzac Day scheduled only for pair to go shopping in Dubai

BILL Shorten and Scott Ryan’s Middle East itinerary and Anzac Day dinner with Diggers was scheduled only for the pair to leave early and go shopping in world’s duty-free capital, Dubai.

A SLEEP, sport or the soldiers mess for dinner were offered to Opposition Leader Bill Shorten for his final night in the Middle East theatre of operations before the option of going early into Dubai to a shopping mall en route to the airport was conceived.

Mr Shorten went on the offensive after revelations he skipped a dinner option with selected female officers on Anzac Day in an Australian military base in lieu of travelling early to Dubai where he visited a shopping mall instead.

Mr Shorten has insisted he was not aware of any dinner plans being arranged for him and indeed he ate and worked in the airport lounge as he waited for his flight home to Australia.

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Opposition Leader Bill Shortens snubbed a dinner with Diggers. Picture: Gary Ramage

But News Corp Australia can reveal Mr Shorten and his travelling party including Liberal Senate President Scott Ryan had had a dinner scheduled into their itinerary of their whistlestop trip to Afghanistan and elsewhere in the Middle East, before they left Australia.

The schedule which named a Dubai restaurant was sent to Mr Shorten’s office for review and approval earlier last month.

While the itinerary had listed a restaurant meal in Dubai after his trip to Afghanistan, Defence offered Mr Shorten three other options including a sleep or a meal in the mess or “PT” (physical training).

But he rejected those options believing all the soldiers at the base “were on a day off “and would not want to dine with a politician.

Labor leader Bill Shorten made a surprise visit to Afghanistan. Picture Gary Ramage

He was also offered by Defence a “drive around” tour of the base but he had done that tour four times in the past and told them he did not want to bother anyone and wanted to leave for Dubai early.

Mr Shorten’s office agreed that a dinner had been scheduled for a Dubai restaurant but there was apparently a “miscommunication” on Defence’s part as other new options were raised but the party did not want to inconvenience anybody.

He confirmed one of those other options was indeed a dinner in the mess of the base but it was not clear it was anything formal or that any special arrangements made or guests invited.

Senator Ryan, who was only thrown into the travelling party late by the government, declined to comment about the trip but remarked the mall that was visited by him and Mr Shorten was not that overly impressive and he had been to bigger ones in Australia.