Climate delegation cost questioned

THE Gillard government spent more than $360,000 of taxpayer funds to send a 38-member delegation to last year's United Nations climate change conference in Mexico.

THE Gillard government spent more than $360,000 of taxpayer funds to send a 38-member delegation to last year's United Nations climate change conference in Mexico.

Despite the failure of the previous Copenhagen meeting in December 2009, Climate Change Minister Greg Combet, parliamentary secretary Mark Dreyfus, South Australian Premier Mike Rann and their advisers all flew business class to Cancun for the meeting.

The party was joined by 20 staff from the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, four people from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, three officials from AusAid and IT support from the Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism.

The delegation was also assisted by an additional three Mexico-based DFAT staff and they all stayed in a beachside and golf resort called “Moon Palace”, where the conference was held.

The figures, obtained through the Senate Standing Committee on Environment and Communications, also showed the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency spent $3 million on overseas travel in 2010.

This included one staff member travelling first class in December last year.

Liberal Senator Simon Birmingham said the government had learned little from “the obscene waste” involved in its delegation to Copenhagen.

“The delegation to this latest climate change conference would clearly have cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars,” he said.”The extravagance involved in a delegation of this size stands in contrast to the frugality that will be imposed on Australian families by Labor's carbon tax.”

A spokeswoman for Mr Combet - who is currently overseas at an environmental conference in Brussels - said climate change was a global problem and Australia needed to be at these meetings.

“It is in Australia's national interest to ensure that we are properly represented at the major international conferences dealing with these important issues,” she said. “Delegations of a comparable size under the Howard government also appropriately attended such conferences, for example the discussions that led to the formation of the Kyoto Protocol.”

It is understood the delegation that went to Cancun was significantly smaller than the one sent to Copenhagen.