Results of review by Department of Finance into public servants’ travel to stay a secret
A review of how public servants book travel has been completed but the findings aren’t being released by the government.
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A much anticipated review of public service travel policy has been completed but its findings remain unknown, with the report being kept under wraps by Finance Minister Katy Gallagher.
The Department of Finance confirmed that the review of travel policies was finished in late 2024, and it was “now with the government for consideration”.
A spokeswoman for Senator Gallagher said consultation would be undertaken on the review’s findings later this year, with the report not to be released beforehand.
Flagged by the Aviation White Paper, the review was undertaken because of submissions pointing out that public servants and members of parliament favoured Qantas when booking travel, despite the policy requiring they select the cheapest and most practical fare.
“Some Aviation White Paper submissions suggested that Australian government travel policies may not include adequate protections to prevent government employees from preferencing certain airlines when booking travel,” said the paper, released in August. “This could have negative implications for airline competition.”
Virgin Australia’s submission pointed out that the airline had only an 11 per cent revenue share of domestic travel for federal politicians and their staff members.
That was despite Virgin’s average ticket price of $207, compared to $289 across its competitors.
“The total travel spend for (federal politicians and staff) is nearly $29m and Virgin Australia receives only $3.2m of this spend,” the submission said.
“This suggests there is considerable preferencing of Qantas and that the government is significantly overpaying for fares.”
The submission went further, suggesting the spending patterns served to “entrench Qantas’s dominance and deny Virgin Australia a real opportunity to attract government and corporate passengers”.
“Value for money should be the overarching consideration when booking flights for domestic air travel at the taxpayer’s expense,” Virgin Australia said.
“When booking travel, officials must make decisions based on an impartial consideration of the fares available, and not on personal preference for a particular airline or aircraft type, access to airline lounges, and the ability to accumulate status credits.”
Since 2010, government travellers have been banned from collecting frequent-flyer points for work-related flights, but they can still access status credits offered by airline loyalty programs.
Both Virgin’s Velocity and Qantas Frequent Flyer have various “tiers” attainable through the accumulation of status credits, and the higher the tier, the greater the benefits.
With its broader lounge and international destination network, Qantas status credits could be viewed as more attractive.
Furthermore, Qantas included wi-fi, a meal or snack and checked baggage in its domestic economy fares, all of which were extra when booking Virgin Australia’s cheapest fare.
Qantas flies to 66 destinations across Australia, compared with Virgin’s 33 destinations.
Neither Qantas nor Virgin Australia would comment on the review.
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Originally published as Results of review by Department of Finance into public servants’ travel to stay a secret
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