It would
appear that Australian federal politicians have a long history of using RAAF VIP jets in an
extravagant manner.
Take current Deputy Prime Minister and Nationals MP for New England Barnaby Joyce as an example.
News
Mail, 28 December 2012:
One Coalition
heavyweight, Queensland Senator Barnaby Joyce, racked up one of the
highest percentages of ghost flights among non-government
parliamentarians.
Senator Joyce’s travel
bill totalled some $47,955 for 10 taxpayer-funded flights, primarily
between Melbourne or Canberra and St George.
But he was only on board
for three of those flights, with the remaining seven costing nearly twice
as much as the flights he was on board for - racking up $31,395 worth
of ghost flights.
BuzzFeed, 28 July 2017:
BuzzFeed News has
confirmed the deputy prime minister billed taxpayers almost $9,000 for
"special purpose" defence force charter flights on the same day he
attended a rugby league game with his family……
On Mother's Day last
year, the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) was charged with collecting Barnaby
Joyce and Nationals deputy leader Fiona Nash from two regional NSW towns, and
flying them to Canberra ahead of the first day of the federal election campaign…..
The RAAF's logs revealed
that the first flight on May 8 [2016],
from Canberra to Tamworth with no passengers, cost $3,348. The second shows
Joyce was picked up in Tamworth and flown to Parkes for $2,930.
The
Daily Telegraph,
13 August 2017:
In March that year [2016], the empty VIP plane flew from
Canberra to Melbourne, at a cost of $4604, to collect Deputy Prime
Minister Barnaby Joyce and fly him to Tamworth at a cost of
$5441. The plane then returned to Canberra without any passengers, at a cost of
$4185.
Herald
Sun, 2
January 2018:
RAAF planes took nine
trips [in last
half 2016] without passengers between Tamworth and Canberra to
provide chartered flights to Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce,
with each flight costing more than $4000.
The
New Daily, 18
February 2018:
Barnaby Joyce charged
the taxpayer to stay overnight in Melbourne after attending an AFL game last
year [2017],
before chartering a $6000 “special purpose” defence force flight back to
Tamworth the following day…..
Parliamentary documents
show Mr Joyce claimed $442 in travelling allowance on May 13 last year for an
overnight stay in Melbourne, citing “official business” as Deputy Prime
Minister.
The Nationals leader
declared in his register of member’s interests that he was a guest for the
City vs Country at the May 13 AFL night match between Geelong and Essendon at
the MCG, with the gift including “hospitality in the form of food and drinks”.
The New Daily can
also reveal Mr Joyce was then the sole passenger on a Royal Australian Air
Force (RAAF) flight from Melbourne to Tamworth the following day, which was
Mother’s Day.
Defence Department
documents show the cost to the taxpayer for the charter flight was
$6440.
So it is no
wonder that questions are being asked at this particular time.
Australian
Parliament Senate
Hansard, 14 February 2018:
Senator Kitching to move
on the next day of sitting:
That there be laid on
the table, by 5 pm on 15 February 2018, by: (a) the Minister for Defence,
details of any Special Purpose Flights taken by members of the executive in
2017, noting that no reports on the use of Special Purpose Flights since 3 July
2016 have been tabled.
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