Senator Bob Carr The Minister for Defence has provided the following answer to the honourable senator’s question: Some Defence employees have airline club membership funded by Defence where it provides value for money outcomes to Defence and is approved by an authorised financial delegate. However it is not possible to provide accurate data on the total number of Defence employees who have these memberships funded by Defence. Payment is by various means (Defence Travel Card, Defence Purchasing Card or on a reimbursement basis) to one or more airlines and these transactions are not itemised separately in Defence’s financial management system or enterprise management system. Under the Whole-of-Australian Government travel arrangements, some airlines do offer discounted lounge membership rates to government employees.