Business-class flights, five-star hotels among $145,000 in expenses for toll review
A review of Sydney’s toll network has cost taxpayers more than $5.4 million, but drivers have yet to see any changes.
NSW
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Taxpayers were slugged more than $5.4 million on a review of Sydney’s toll network which has so-far failed to deliver any change for drivers.
The expenses include more than $145,000 on flights and accommodation for the two co-authors alone.
In one expense that raised the ire of Treasury officials, former competition crusader Allan Fels spent $1,550 for a two-night stay in a luxury five-star hotel.
But among the eye-watering costs of the Minns government’s review to fix the tolling system, less than $300 was spent on tolls.
Documents obtained under freedom of information laws reveal that Mr Fels was paid almost $1 million to lead the Minns government’s Independent Toll Review, which handed down its final report in July.
According to invoices tabled to parliament, Mr Fels charged the taxpayer for $99,000 of work in March alone.
In that month, Mr Fels also claimed back more than $10,000 in hotels, flights, and taxis – including multiple business class airfares from Melbourne to Sydney and hotel stays at the Fullerton.
The former head of the competition watchdog was chastised by Treasury officials in June over expenses which “significantly exceeded” his estimated weekly expense allowance, when he billed taxpayers for a $1,550 two-night stay at the Capella hotel on Loftus St.
In response to questions about his lavish spending, Mr Fels said that “all expenses were within the cap”.
Mr Fels co-author of the toll review was economist David Cousins, who was paid $608,324.
Between them, Mr Fels and Dr Cousins spent $99,306 on flights, $45,912 on accommodation, and $11,648 on taxis or rideshare vehicles.
They spent just $287 on tolls as part of their work on the review into toll reform.
The review recommended a new northbound toll on the Harbour Bridge and Tunnel, as well as the Eastern Distributor.
The money raised would be used to lower the cost of tolls across the network, under a network-wide system designed to help drivers from Western Sydney pay less.
Roads Minister John Graham has been slow to respond to the report; on Friday he announced that he had presented an “in principle agreement” to the companies that hold toll contracts.
As part of the $5.4 million cost of the review, taxpayers forked out almost $2.8m on staff, almost $1.5m on other consultants and $52,208 in miscellaneous costs.
The costs were contained in documents unearthed in a freedom of information application by Liberal MP Matt Cross.
Deputy Liberal Leader Natalie Ward questioned how “anyone other than public service could spend $100 thousand dollars on flights in just over twelve months”.
“The Toll Review is turning into gravy train spending for bureaucrats and a cash cow for consultants,” she said.
“Millions spent, lavish spending and no results to show for it – welcome to life under Labor.”
A government spokesman said that the costs of the review “pale in comparison to the $195 billion in tolls motorists will pay out to 2060 unless the system is reformed”.
The content summaries were created with the assistance of AI technology, then edited and approved for publication by an editor.
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Originally published as Business-class flights, five-star hotels among $145,000 in expenses for toll review
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