$ 350k bill for jetset pollies
TAXPAYERS coughed up about $ 350,000 in just six months to send empty VIP jets across the country to ferry around government ministers.
News Corp Australia can reveal the RAAF’s five specialpurpose planes took more than 80 “ghost flights” to pick up or return from dropping off senior members of Malcolm Turnbull’s team.
The schedule of flights, from the last six months of 2016, includes a $ 6900 trip from Canberra to Adelaide to collect Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop after she celebrated her 60th birthday with dinner at her sister’s house.
The most expensive empty flight cost taxpayers $ 21,620, when a VIP jet was called from Canberra to Perth to pick up Western Australian MPs including ministers Christian Porter, Michael Keenan and Mathias Cormann.
RAAF planes took nine trips without passengers between Tamworth and Canberra to provide chartered flights to Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce, with each flight costing more than $ 4000.
There was also a $ 17,940 ghost flight from Darwin to Canberra after a VIP jet dropped off Opposition Leader Bill Shorten and his staff.
Politicians and their staffers, as well as occasionally family members, are offered hot meals and beer and wine on the charter service.
The RAAF says the five planes are operated in a “costconscious manner” and are used when “commercial travel arrangements are not suitable for official commitments”.
About 30 empty flights were made during the sixmonth period on the Canberra- Sydney route, where commercial flights are usually available.
On one occasion, Mr Turnbull’s official photographer was the only passenger aboard a $ 2300 flight from Canberra to Sydney to pick up the Prime Minister and his staff for a trip to Adelaide.
The ghost flight to Adelaide to pick up Ms Bishop came after she billed taxpayers $ 1341 to fly from Perth to her home town, where she enjoyed a family dinner of seafood and South Australian wine.
The VIP jet then took her to Melbourne to host then- US vice- president Joe Biden. Her spokeswoman said there was no commercial flight option to get her there in time, and that the Prime Minister’s Office had approved the use of the government plane.
The travelling arrangements of Nationals ministers Fiona Nash and Nigel Scullion also forced several expensive empty flights to and from regional areas.