Taxpayers funded two Europe trips for the Governor. What went on?

Governor Jeannette Young spent more than $360,000 on a bountiful year of travel that included trips to Europe for which the full costs, accommodation and itineraries are secret.

The total figure, contained in this year’s annual report, is about $220,000 more than the previous financial year of 2021-22, when the COVID-19 pandemic had quashed any notion of international travel.

Queensland Governor Jeannette Young (left) at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.Credit: Office of the Governor.

Young and her husband, Graeme Nimmo, made two vice-regal overseas trips for 2022-23, adding up to a month in total, for the purpose of “promoting Queensland” in Germany and the United Kingdom.

The $367,000 the office spent on travel also included the Governor’s 31 trips outside Brisbane that took in 50 regional Queensland centres. The cost split between domestic and international missions is unclear.

Unlike Queensland government ministers, who have strict transparency requirements, the Governor does not publish detailed information about her overseas trips such as costs, accommodation and detailed day-to-day activities.

While away, the Governor must be replaced by the chief justice or a senior judge, sometimes with flow-on impacts for the court system.

Queensland legislation exempts the ceremonial position, which draws a salary of more than $560,000 a year, from Right to Information applications.

While it is expected that the Governor would represent Queensland abroad, there does not appear to be any means for the public to know full details about the value-for-money proposition unless the office chooses to release them.

Brisbane Times requested expenses, itineraries and how many additional staff were part of the travelling parties for both Euro trips, but was rebuffed.

The best information available about vice-regal international goings-on is contained in the Governor’s social media postings and narrow references in the annual report.

The first trip, which went for 2½ weeks from July 14, 2022, took in Germany, where the Governor met a local minister enthusiastic about hydrogen.

She also met people involved in health care and companies investing in Queensland, according to the annual report. In Berlin, she visited the Falling Walls Foundation, a science and innovation hub.

The UK leg was to catch the opening ceremony of the Birmingham Commonwealth Games, but at some point, possibly on the same day, she also met the soon-to-be King Charles III, the Earl of Wessex and London’s Lord Mayor.

She attended dinners, said hello to Rhodes Scholars from Queensland, held meetings with Commonwealth types and met with UK-based prospective investor Eco Energy World.

The second trip, two weeks from Anzac Day 2023, was built around the King’s coronation. It also included an eight-day program of pressing the flesh around London.

Posts on social media show the Governor, among other busy activities, dropping in at a Toowoomba-owned Wagner Corporation site developing “earth-friendly concrete”; lunching with a Lord; hosting dining events; visiting the London headquarters of Gold Coast’s ABI Interiors; and taking in the ballet and museums.

Taxpayers funded the office to the tune of $11.2 million last financial year, an increase of almost $3 million on the previous reporting period. More than $6 million went towards paying the Governor’s 48 full-time equivalent staff.

The latest annual report also shows Young presented 378 Queenslanders with various awards and attended 927 constitutional, ceremonial and civic events – an average more than 2½ a day.

To help get the vice-regal couple around, the office spent $35,000 on the upkeep of the fleet, which includes a Rolls-Royce Phantom, a Lexus and a Mercedes-Benz.

Purchases in 2023, though not included in the annual report, included $56,000 for flowers and a $32,000 cover for the vice-regal couple’s private pool.

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