14 September 2011 in Media
The Foreign Minister of Australia should travel overseas, but it shouldn’t be done like Donald Trump.
Following today’s revelations that Kevin Rudd has spent over a million dollars travelling in only nine months, the Australian taxpayer is quickly realising that it would be far cheaper if the Labor Caucus just re-elected Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister.
In his first nine months as Foreign Minister, Kevin Rudd visited more than 50 countries during 14 overseas tours, clocking up approximately 500,000km and costing an estimated $1.1 million.
These figures are revealed in documents outlining proposed itineraries and estimated travel costs for the Foreign Minister and his staff, which were released under Freedom of Information laws.
This jet-setting far outstrips that of his predecessor, Stephen Smith who in his first six months as Foreign Minister spent less than $150,000 on overseas travel.
Even more staggering is that according to these figures, Kevin Rudd is travelling more kilometres and visiting more countries each month on average than Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
The State Department’s website shows that Hillary Clinton has visited 87 countries in almost three years. At his current rate, Kevin Rudd stands to visit this many in under 18 months.
Spending over a million dollars in just nine months flying to many countries that Australia has little strategic interest in raises taxpayers’ collective eyebrows.
Adding to this cost is the large entourage that Mr Rudd seems addicted to when he travels around the world. Australian embassies are staffed by talented foreign affairs officials, yet Mr Rudd seems intent on travelling with his own spin doctors.
This fact alone makes you wonder whether some of this travel is about Australia’s interest or Mr Rudd’s personal interest.
While the Prime Minister is perfectly happy for the Foreign Minister to be out of the country, seemingly at any cost, the Australian taxpayer has every right to question the purpose of this extravagant travelling.