BRUSSELS: Tax payers were billed almost $100,000 to send a delegation of seven senior government officials led by Jay Weatherill on a week-long European sojourn, new figures show.
Government documents reveal that earlier this year the Premier, and two advisers, spent more than $5400 for two nights at a luxury London hotel that promises “feather and down duvets with finest Frette linen”.
The seven-night trip’s public cost was $98,067.17, which also included expenses for Environment Minister Ian Hunter, an aide and two department chiefs, to attend a climate change conference.
The World Summit for Climate and Territories brought the globetrotting group of South Australians together in Lyon, in France’s south east, during the European summer in June and July.
The Premier, who was accompanied by chief of staff Daniel Romeo and spin doctor Jarrad Pilkington, made the keynote address. Mr Hunter was joined by chief of staff Tom Mooney, head of the Department of Environment Sandy Pitcher, and Julia Grant, the department’s executive director for Water and Climate Change.
The World Summit bills itself as “the principal gathering of subnational and local governments and other non-state actors in the lead up to COP 21, the United Nations Climate Change Conference, scheduled for Paris next month.
Jonathan Pickering, from the Centre for Deliberative Democracy & Global Governance at the University of Canberra, said climate change would cost much more if international action stalls “so responsible investment in climate diplomacy is good value for taxpayers”. But he also said governments “need to be accountable for what they spend on travel”.
In a statement to The Advertiser, Mr Weatherill’s spokesman said “as a leading jurisdiction in climate policy, we sent the necessary officials to best represent our state”. But the Premier’s office declined to justify why Mr Pilkington, one of Mr Weatherill’s two personal press advisers, travelled despite no media activities planned.
Prior to the summit, the Premier’s group spent two nights in Britain “to meet with key businesses for potential investments in the state”, according to documents lodged with the Department of Premier and Cabinet. Credit card statements published under the government’s proactive disclosure program, show Mr Weatherill and his two advisers spent $5418.63 at the One Aldwych hotel, which describes itself as “a luxury five-star independent hotel in Covent Garden”
