Wedding travel costs were valid: Turnbull COALITION frontbencher Malcolm Turnbull says his colleagues would have been "absolutely satisfied" they were doing the right thing when claiming thousands of dollars in allowances to attend weddings. Over the past week it has emerged that four senior coalition ministers and a backbencher have claimed expenses totalling in excess of $15,000 to attend three different weddings. Mr Turnbull believes Julie Bishop made a "very valid use of her travel entitlement" when she claimed $3445 to pay for flights home from a lavish wedding in India when she was shadow foreign minister in June 2011. Mining magnate Gina Rinehart flew Ms Bishop, Barnaby Joyce and Teresa Gambaro from Perth to Hyderabad in a private jet to watch the granddaughter of her business partner marry in front of 10,000 guests, Fairfax media reported on Sunday. In the name of fostering stronger ties with India, Ms Rinehart invited Australian politicians to be her guests at the wedding, who later claimed more than $12,000 in travelling expenses to return home. Ms Bishop claims to have spent more time talking to business executives over the three days than she did attending the wedding. "Julie Bishop's visit to India was very much in line with what she should have been doing as shadow foreign minister," Mr Turnbull told ABC's Insiders on Sunday. One of the biggest issues in our foreign policy discourse has been the need to raise the level of engagement with India, being a legitimate criticism there has been an overwhelming fascination with China. Mr Turnbull's comments come the same day news reports emerged that Prime Minister Tony Abbott repaid $1094 in travel expenses he charged taxpayers for attending the 2006 wedding of Liberal MP Sophie Mirabella in Victoria. A week ago Attorney-General George Brandis and Mr Joyce agreed to repay the combined $2299 they had charged taxpayers to attend the 2011 wedding of Sydney radio broadcaster Michael Smith. Mr Turnbull conceded there was a degree of ambiguity in the rules. "The better course of action is to always err on a more conservative side and if there is any doubt, then don't make a claim," he said. All of the colleagues that you have mentioned are people that are scrupulous about the way they use taxpayers' money and would have been absolutely satisfied that what they were doing was the right thing.