Canberra bureaucrat goes on $20K overseas trip

TAXPAYERS coughed up almost $20,000 for the head of Parliament House’s security to go on a three-week junket around the world.

Taxpayers coughed up almost $20,000 for the head of Parliament House’s security to go on a three-week junket around the world. Picture: AAP

TAXPAYERS coughed up almost $20,000 for the head of Parliament House’s security to go on a three-week junket around the world.

Graeme Anderson’s overseas trip included stops in Ottawa, Washington, San Francisco and London.

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Taxpayers coughed up almost $20,000 for the head of Parliament House’s security to go on a three-week junket around the world. Picture: AAP

The entire trip, between June 14 and July 3 this year, included seven business-class flights and cost the taxpayer $19,080.64.

Mr Anderson first went to a conference in Victoria, in Canada, before visiting parliaments in Ottawa, Washington and London.

He also spent a night in Canada as a “rest day”.

Mr Anderson, the deputy secretary of Parliament House’s security branch in Canberra, spent $12,617.72 on airfares, $4,374.24 on accommodation and $916.69 on meals.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Parliamentary Services said the travel was approved by the department’s secretary and complied with its international travel policy.

“The officer attended the International Security Preparedness Professional Development Conference to facilitate further development of key strategic partnerships with overseas legislatures through sharing information, resources and experiences and enabled strengthening of our relationship with the Commonwealth Security Forum,” the spokeswoman said.

“The officer was then joined by an AFP member to visit national parliaments of the US, Canada and UK to observe their current security arrangements, recent response to security incidents and discuss current security concerns.”

The spokeswoman said travel through San Francisco, Toronto and Seoul were for flight transit stopovers only.

Mr Anderson previously hit the headlines earlier this year after telling a Senate inquiry he tasted a mysterious white powder which turned up at Parliament House.

The inquiry also heard he told staff he would “burn this security division to the ground and start again” over leaks about white powder incidents.

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