Council tour cost sky high

TENSIONS have flared at the last Hobart City Council meeting for the year, with Lord Mayor Sue Hickey accusing an alderman of damaging the council’s reputation through an act of revenge.

Sparks flew last night after Alderman Anna Reynolds initiated debate which revealed the council had spent nearly $200,000 on two overseas study tours.

Ald Hickey said the move was “payback” after revelations that Ald Reynolds extended her time overseas for a holiday after a council-funded trip.

“You have damaged the reputation of the council,” Ald Hickey said.

“I am very unhappy as are a great deal of your colleagues.

“This is a revenge motion, a complete waste of council resources.”

During the debate, Ald Hickey used her power as chair to prevent Ald Reynolds from responding to her comments, which led Ald Reynolds to say she was “gagged”.

“It was disappointing that I raised an issue of public interest and transparency and the Mayor’s response was to gag me,” she said after the meeting.

“It is important that the information about international travel is presented in full and not selectively as the Mayor would like it to be.”

Ald Hickey wasn’t the only aldermen to have a slight against Ald Reynolds regarding the move. Ald Damon Thomas took exception for being named alongside the Lord Mayor on radio regarding the travel issue.

“This was a devious, mischievous and downright dis- honest way of making a point,” he said.

Ald Reynolds’ question appeared on the council’s meeting agenda accompanied by information that said over the past two years the council had spent $193,595 for aldermen and staff to go on two trips at the urging of the University of Tasmania. One trip was to Budapest, Freiburg and Cambridge and the other to London — for conferences and study tours where all but one aldermen flew business class.

The conferences looked at the impact of universities in cities as UTAS continues its relocation to central Hobart.

Aldermen also made a stop in Hobart council’s sister city of L’Aquila in Italy during a trip to the London conference.

The delegation to Budapest, Freiburg and Cambridge last year had a total bill of $74,458 for travel, accommodation, conference registration, meals, travel allowance and roaming charges.

Ald Jeff Briscoe, Ald Helen Burnet, who flew premium economy, council general manager Nick Heath, director of city planning Neil Noye and executive manager city design George Wilkie were in the travelling group.

Of Ald Briscoe’s $12,607 spend on airfares, $5000 came from his personal development allocation. The trip to London and Italy in May cost $119,137 and included Aldermen Hickey, Thomas, Tanya Denison and Marti Zucco, deputy general manager Heather Salisbury and group manager executive and economic development Tim Short.

But last night it emerged that Ald Zucco did not go to Europe for the conference — only to Italy after being asked to — and an amendment was used to take his name out of the breakdown as it only concerned aldermen who went overseas for the conferences.