Whitehorse Council to spend $30,000 on a junket to Matsudo, Japan in 2021
An eastern suburbs council has set aside $30,000 – mid-pandemic – for staff and councillors to visit Japan in a move dubbed “gratuitous spending” during a time of unprecedented hardship.
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Whitehorse ratepayers will foot a $30,000 bill to send councillors, staff and community representatives to Japan to celebrate the city’s 50th anniversary with sister city Matsudo.
Councillors agreed to accept an invitation from their overseas counterparts to send a delegation to Japan in May 2021.
This decision comes after the council allocated $106,547 to publish a book about the anniversary and more than $6000 spent every year on supporting activities and groups including students from Matsudo high schools, and Matsudo Week events.
According to council documents, it could cost $3500 for each person for airfares, four night’s in a hotel and airport transfers.
Cr Blair Barker — the only councillor to vote against the move — slammed the trip as “gratuitous spending” at a time when council funds could be better used to help the community.
“There are far better things that the ratepayer money needs to be spent on, particularly given what’s happening with the COVID virus,” Cr Barker said.
“The last thing that any government organisation should be doing is indulging in that sort of gratuitous spending, we should be focusing all our resources on providing relief for those who are finding themselves in times of hardship.”
But Cr Andrew Munroe defended the decision to allocate cash to the trip and said he knew some people would question the value to ratepayers.
“It’s easy to pull down this sort of exchange, but there is a bit more to it and I’m happy to argue and defend the position,” Cr Munroe said.
“I think the key benefit is the people-to-people relations that helps develop and foster (relationships between) the people of Japan and the people of Australia and more importantly Whitehorse and Matsudo.”
Cr Munroe said the cost was “modest” and councillors had a budget allocation to attend conferences.
He said community members chosen for the trip would be vetted and have to prove a connection to Japan.
But Ratepayers Victoria president Dean Hurlston described the trip as nothing more than an “outrageous junket”.
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Mr Hurlston said while community grants programs for cultural exchanges were appropriate, they should not be used to send councillors and staff “who have absolutely nothing to do with a Japanese city in their day-to-day role” on an overseas trip.
“It’s an indulgent, self-serving exercise that has no basis in delivering $1 of service to the ratepayers funding it,” Mr Hurlston said.
“Rates are collected for services, this does nothing for a ratepayer in the city of Whitehorse.”