In defence of jet-setting politicians doing their job

As far as political attack lines go, overseas travel is the lowest of the low-hanging fruit. So low, in fact, it can be considered a windfall – in the traditional sense of the word – to be hastily exploited lest it be claimed by ants.

“How can [insert minister here] jet off on an overseas junket while [insert current event] is happening here at home?”

Travel is an occupational hazard for politicians, not a perk.Credit: iStock

That line, or a variation thereof, is wheeled out by all sides of politics (when they’re in opposition at least) with monotonous regularity.

That politician from that other party? They’re taking you for a ride, jet-setting around the world on a taxpayer-funded holiday.

In the past month, Labor councillors have blasted Brisbane’s LNP administration over impending travel to the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

“We’re seeing contractors laid off, we’re seeing staff who are exiting the organisation not being replaced because of cutbacks on one hand, but then the international travel bill’s shooting up,” Labor council opposition leader Jared Cassidy complained.

While Zoom is appropriate for some meetings, there are benefits to establishing relationships face to face.Credit: Facebook Queensland Conservation Council

And, just this week, the LNP Queensland state opposition seized on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships, Communities and Arts Minister Leeanne Enoch’s recent trip to North America.

During her trip, Enoch visited world-renowned museums, attended Canadian First Nations meetings and visited social housing enterprises that helped people avoid homelessness – much to the LNP’s chagrin.

“We’ve got people who can’t put food on their table – some people aren’t even sending their kids to school – and yet we’ve got a minister who is jet-setting around the world,” the opposition’s Deb Frecklington said of Enoch’s travel.

“Where are the priorities of this minister?”

Where indeed are the priorities of this minister? In New York? In Edmonton? Vancouver? In ... Tanzania?

You may find yourself wondering about the significance of the east African nation’s unlikely inclusion on that list.

Enoch didn’t go there. But after she returned from North America, Queensland taxpayers footed the bill for a couple of other state politicians to attend the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians Conference in the seaside city of Dar es Salaam.

They justified it in their report to the Queensland Parliament, which was tabled just this month.

“By attending this program, we were presented a remarkable opportunity for inter-nation inter-parliamentary engagement,” the two MPs wrote to their colleagues in the chamber.

And who were those two MPs? One was Labor’s Corrine McMillan, who was joined by a member from the opposition benches.

Deb Frecklington.

You can just smell the hypocrisy in the air.

On balance, it was probably right that the LNP’s Deb Frecklington went to Tanzania. What’s not right is the hypocrisy that swirls around such trips. Credit: Toby Crockford

Could the CWP conference have been easily held via Zoom? You bet it could. Should it have been? That’s a harder question to answer. There are certainly benefits to being on the ground, establishing and maintaining interpersonal relationships that could end up being advantageous for Queensland.

On balance, it was probably right that Frecklington went to Tanzania, as it was probably right that Enoch went to North America to engage in activities directly related to her portfolio.

After all, the best way to learn from others is to pay them a visit. The best way to build beneficial relationships is face to face.

Overseas trips on government (or council) business are not holidays. They are work.

Ask most politicians if they’d prefer to be home with their family or on the other side of the planet schmoozing with officials and, nine times out of 10, you can bet the family would win hands down.

If, as polls suggest, David Crisafulli is sworn in as premier later this year, he and his ministers will no doubt be boarding planes to represent Queensland on the world stage or to study other jurisdictions’ approach to dealing with shared problems.

And the Labor opposition will no doubt be blasting those ministers for “jet-setting around the world while we’ve got people who can’t put food on their table” here at home.

That hypocrisy in the air blows both ways, stronger than a departing plane’s jet blast.