Yarra councillor Amanda Stone under fire for junket

A GLOBETROTTING inner-city Greens councillor has been blasted over another overseas trip to be partly paid for by ratepayers.

A GLOBETROTTING inner-city Greens councillor has been blasted over another overseas trip to be partly paid for by ratepayers.

In June, ex-mayor of Yarra Amanda Stone will fly to Canada for an environmental and “urban sustainability” talkfest.

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That trip comes just seven months after her attendance at a United Nations climate change conference in Bonn, Germany, at a cost of $2250.

As City of Yarra mayor last year, Cr Stone presided over the controversial decision to dump Australia Day, as a gesture to Aborigines. She will be a guest speaker at the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives World Congress, to be held in Montreal from June 19-22.

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Amanda Stone’s Facebook post from Bonn last year. Picture: Facebook

A report to council this week said the event would “spotlight local governments and their most successful initiatives, innovative polices and remarkable results in achieving urban sustainability”.

Cr Stone will pay half of the estimated $3732 cost of airfares and accommodation and conference and other expenses.

In Bonn last year, Cr Stone told a seminar on low-carbon transport that “Melbourne was lagging behind the approaches taken in other cities worldwide” owing to its continuing reliance on cars.

She posted several photos, including of a climate change protest and a shot of actor and ex-governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger and former US vice president Al Gore at an art museum.

Amanda Stone’s Facebook post from her trip to Bonn last year. Picture: Facebook

Evan Mulholland, from free market think tank the Institute of Public Affairs, dubbed the trips ridiculous, especially as rates were higher than ever.

“Victorians have had a gutful of Green-Left councillors across inner-city Melbourne using ratepayers’ money to go on extravagant overseas trips just so they can come back and lecture us about the planet.

“Australia contributes just 1.5 per cent to global greenhouse gas emissions,” he said.

“The area of Yarra City Council would be a tiny fraction of that, which means whatever the council does, it will make no noticeable difference to the world’s climate.

“Instead of spending money on overseas junkets, council should be looking at ways to save money and reduce costs.”

Greens Melbourne lord mayoral candidate Rohan Leppert jetted off on a 10-day jaunt to Europe last October at a cost of $7198 to ratepayers. Picture: Jay Town

Greens Melbourne lord mayoral candidate Rohan Leppert has announced that if he won May’s election, he would give up the mayoral car and ride his bike on city business.

Last October, he jetted off on a 10-day “world cities” jaunt to Hamburg, Brussels and Barcelona that cost City of Melbourne ratepayers $7198.

His Greens colleague, Cathy Oke, attended last Nov­ember’s Bonn conference at a cost to council of $1133. Councillors are expected to approve her attendance in Montreal at a meeting next week.

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