And here is the related party girl Robyn McLeod who had to be taken to dinner first.

Her fee was $1,000 for this dinner.   Thiess happily paid.  And the Minister of the Crown for whom Robyn Mcleod was Chief of Staff told the parliament that

No public funding was spent on the attendance of my Chief of Staff at a private ALP function in December 1999.

All Company payments for this function were paid directly to the ALP. All costs associated with this function were met directly by the ALP. Therefore, no Company directly paid for the attendance of my Chief of Staff at said function.

I think that means that because Thiess paid the $1,000 bill to Labor, then Labor paid the catering invoice for the whole function, then Labor paid the cost of the dinner, not Thiess.   Or something.  A bit like if I take a girl out to dinner and the bill comes and I pay it, when we talk later our night the young lady says, "yes I forgot to thank the restaurant for paying for my meal."