Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has reacted with anger to a suggestion he stood up a group of Diggers for dinner to go shopping during his return to Australia from Anzac Day ceremonies.
News Corp Australia suggested in a page one story that Mr Shorten had turned down dinner with a group of ADF officers in Dubai to go shopping with Liberal Senator Scott Ryan.
"Earlier today, I personally confirmed with Vice Chief of Defence Force designate, Admiral David Johnston, that neither I nor Senator Ryan were provided with advice that a small number of staff officers were expecting to have dinner with us in the United Arab Emirates as we transited from Afghanistan back to Australia," Mr Shorten said in a statement on Friday night.
"Despite being informed of the facts, News Corp has published an article that suggested Senator Ryan and I stood up some Australian Defence Force personnel in the UAE. That suggestion is offensive."
Mr Shorten had spent Anzac Day with military personnel in the Afghanistan capital Kabul and returned via a military base in Dubai before catching a flight home from the international airport.
The Labor leader said had he been aware that a dinner had been especially arranged for Senator Ryan and him at the base, and that troops were expecting to dine with them, he would have attended.
He described the situation as a "stuff-up" on the part of the ADF.
"Mr Shorten did not have dinner in Dubai. Mr Shorten spent most of the evening at Dubai International Airport attending to work matters," Mr Shorten's office told The Daily Telegraph.
"As a routine part of the visit, an optional program was developed for the post Afghanistan visit while in transit through an ADF logistics base," the paper cited an ADF spokeswoman as saying.
"Given the nature of VIP visits, they are subject to change."
