Mr Joyce was criticised for taking a helicopter, which cost almost $4000, to Drake for the opening of a mobile phone tower just before Easter.

His office said Mr Joyce had “utilised his charter allowance to travel by helicopter on two occasions since becoming the member for New England, in both instances the travel was to Drake”.

However, his office later disclosed that Mr Joyce had used a helicopter five times since becoming an MP, all of which were on the public record.

Mr Joyce justified his helicopter trip to Drake, pointing out the town was further away from Tamworth than Sydney is from Canberra.

“I’m always trying to cover my electorate. In this instance, it would have been four-and-a-half hours to drive up, four-and-a-half back – that’s a nine-hour round trip,” Mr Joyce said.

“All members of an electorate the size of New England, we have access to a travel entitlement and we can use it as we see fit.

“I’m not going to shy away from the fact that if I’m going to an area that doesn’t have an airstrip, you’re going to have to have a rotary wing, rather than a fixed wing if you want to do it in a day.

“Just so people know, Drake is further away from where I live than Canberra is away from Sydney. Are we saying, seriously, that all the people that go from Canberra to Sydney are going to walk there?”

When Mr Joyce was asked if opening the mobile tower justified the helicopter journey, he said: “Do you need to go to your electorate?”

“I suppose I could just stay in bed and pull the doona up over my head – no one would ask any queries, but I wouldn’t be getting much done either, would I?” he said.

“I think (the people criticising) are in a category, it’s hard to define, but they’re generally people that don’t like me.

“It wouldn’t matter what I did, if I walked on water they would be complaining about the damage to the fish.”

The situation was not comparable to the infamous “choppergate” scandal that led to the downfall of former Speaker Bronwyn Bishop, he said.

“I wasn’t going to a fundraiser – this is getting around the electorate, to deliver an outcome for the electorate,” Mr Joyce said.