Opinion: All aboard in global dash for taxpayer cash
It’s not so much the actual millions in taxpayer funds spent on international travel that grates, writes Mike O’Connor.
There are only three weeks remaining in 2025, and on current form First Nations ambassador Justin Mohamed is a red hot favourite to take out this year’s award as Most Travelled Government Funded Frequent Flyer.
Creative Australia has made a last-minute charge, along with Energy Minister Chris Bowen, with Communications Minister Anika Wells showing good form but handicapped by having made her run too late.
She is, however, showing promise, and is one to watch in the Frequent Flyer Stakes for 2026, with her and two staff members charging taxpayers $120,000 in airfares and accommodation for a quick flit to New York this year. Expect big things from her next year.
The year certainly ended on a high note for Mr Mohamed, who managed to be on the ground for long enough to be awarded a $20,000 pay rise by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, which bought his annual salary to a nicely rounded $400,000.
Not one to let the grass grow under his feet, since being appointed to the role a little over two-and-a-half years ago Mr Mohamed has racked up an impressive score of 46 trips around the globe, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, travelling for 261 days whole running up a bill of $230,085.73 in international travel costs and another $98,795.55 in domestic travel with Paris, New York, Geneva and San Francisco being preferred destinations along with Dubai, Hawaii, Fiji and the Solomon Islands.
The United States appears to hold special appeal, with the ambassador spending a total of 68 days there.
While he was busy carrying out his duties to work in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to progress Indigenous rights globally and help grow First Nations trade and investment, his staff members were not wasting their time gossiping around the water cooler, running up $291,686.45 in overseas expenses and $109,710.52 in domestic travel, bringing the total travel bill to $730,278.25.
Staff? Oh yes. Mr Mohamed doesn’t progress Indigenous rights globally solo, and heads an office with 10 staff on a four-year budget of $13.6m. There’s also a nice little $1.25m fund from which handouts are made “to lift the participation of First Nations Australians in international meetings”. Imagine how many Zoom meetings could be held at that price?
Meanwhile the boys and girls – should that be “them or those”? It’s hard to keep up – at Creative Australia have been having a wonderful time telling the world how creative we are. Obviously there’s no point in sitting at home telling Australians how creative they are. That would be incredibly boring. Much better to go forth and tell the world.
When it comes to going forth, Creative Australia gave Ambassador Mohamed a run for his taxpayer dollar, billing you and me to the tune of $636,126 for international travel over the past two years.
Former Opera Australia chief Lyndon Terracini has called for a two-year funding freeze on Creative Australia, saying that it had a “broken fundamental mechanism” and calling for a review.
“I think anyone in the community would think that’s over the top,” he said regarding the travel bills. While he was at it, he also took aim at its funding policy, which hands out hundreds of thousands of dollars on a peer-review basis. Peers are selected to assess the worthiness of the creative work of a peer. Then that peer may sit on a selection board and assess whether one of the peers who has just awarded him a chunk of cash should get their share of the lolly. What could possibly be more transparent and fairer than that?
Energy Minister Chris Bowen’s travelling circus racks up million-dollar travel bills, but given that fact that he is on a divine mission, having been tasked by the Almighty with saving the planet, it would be unfair to pitch him against the ambassador and our incredibly creative Creative Australia persons in vying for the Frequent Flyer Award so I’d say the ambassador is odds-on to win.
It’s not so much the pile of taxpayers’ dollars that go up in smoke on this international travel pyre that grates, but the apparent acceptance by the federal government that this is just fine, and the appalling sense of entitlement on display. Nothing to see here. Business as usual.
To put all this in perspective the average Australian spends $7300 on their big overseas holiday. Albo and his team might bear that in mind next time they reach for a glass of champagne in the Qantas Chairman’s Lounge.
