Gina Rinehart has provided free travel and accommodation to nine Coalition MPs

WARREN Truss, Barnaby Joyce, Scott Morrison and Bronwyn Bishop are just some of the Coalition MPs who have benefited from Gina Rinehart's largesse.

Gina Rinehart and Barnaby Joyces at the MP's election night victory party in Tamworth.

THE world's richest woman Gina Rinehart has showered travel and other hospitality on a raft of senior Coalition figures including acting Prime Minister Warren Truss and Immigration Minister Scott Morrison.

Incoming Speaker Bronwyn Bishop and Tony Abbott's hand-picked minister for women, Michaelia Cash, have also benefited from the multi-billionaire's generosity - which has come under scrutiny as part of the entitlements controversy.

The mining magnate - who donated $50,000 to Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce's election campaign and lobbied Coalition MPs to scrap the mining tax - also flew Liberal frontbencher Bob Baldwin to visit her West Australian mines.

Abbott's fitness shouldn't cost public-ALP

Dreyfus coughs up $400 for ski trip

Abbott repays Slipper wedding claim

Expenses scandal 'levelling score'- Joyce

If there's doubt pay up, Abbott tells MPs

%caption%href="/www.news.com.au/hewson-warns-coalition-on-wedding-claims/story-fng3f5ma-1226733924085%26assetId=1226733924085%26assetType=News_Story%26subType="/>

At least nine Coalition MPs have declared in their register of interests that Ms Rinehart has supplied free travel, hospitality and accommodation.

With the entitlements fiasco ensnaring more MPs, there is now a push within the Coalition to "tighten up" guidelines and supply greater detail on what are legitimate expenses - and what falls outside entitlement.

Some senior Government figures claim the present guidelines - which allow spending on "parliamentary and electorate" business - are too vague and open to genuine misunderstanding.

Former Special Minister of State Gary Nairn agreed there was "some merit" in providing a list of items that qualify for entitlements.

"It shouldn't be too difficult to put together a number of examples," said Mr Nairn, who was in charge of parliamentary entitlements between 2006 and 2007.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has been on the defensive following revelations he used the public purse to attend a raft of sporting events and to compete in an iron man event in coastal NSW.

Senator Joyce and Attorney-General George Brandis have also repaid moneys claimed to attend the interstate wedding of a journalist.

Gina Rinehart and Barnaby Joyces at the MP's election night victory party in Tamworth.

The Agriculture Minister has also benefited from Ms Rinehart's generosity, telling the ABC that she had "indirectly" contributed $50,000 to his campaign to win the seat of New England last month.

Ms Rinehart - through her company Hancock Prospecting (HPPL) - also flew Senator Joyce, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and Government MP Teresa Gambaro to an Indian wedding in June 2011.

Mr Baldwin, who is parliamentary secretary to the Industry Minister, flew with Ms Rinehart in April to visit two Western Australia projects, including the Newman iron ore project.

"I had never seen an iron ore mine before," Mr Baldwin said.

Ms Gambaro and acting PM Warren Truss were also flown, in June 2011, by HPPL to western Queensland for an event to mark the first load of coal shipped from the Alpha coal mine in the Galilee basin.

Former Labor minister Martin Ferguson also flew to the Alpha project "on a charter provided by" Ms Rinehart's Hancock Coal in November 2010.

Mrs Bishop - who is set to be appointed as parliamentary speaker next month - and her adviser flew with Hancock Prospecting on a private flight from Canberra to Sydney, after the billionaire was her special guest at a post-budget function, this year.

Ms Cash, who is assistant Immigration Minister, also flew on a private jet supplied by HPPL from Canberra to Sydney in May.

And Liberal Senator Stephen Parry flew in a private jet chartered by HPPL from Adelaide to Canberra in November 2011.

Mr Morrison attended a dinner in Sydney in March this year, courtesy of Ms Rinehart.

It also emerged Labor leadership contender Bill Shorten claimed $1000 in accident excess on his electorate car back from taxpayers - which is within entitlements - after two fender benders within a month of each other.

In March 2010, taxpayers paid $500 to fix minor damage after a motorist merged into Mr Shorten's car, while a month later another $500 was paid for repairs after the MP reversed out of a laneway and into some plumbing on the side of a building.

###