‘I’m not convinced that we should be sending a large delegation,’ Cr Owen Guest says of council’s Asia trip

Ratepayers will stump up more than $80,000 to fly Nick Reece and three other councillors business class to China and Hong Kong in a trip that has been dubbed “overkill”.

Melbourne Lord Mayor Nick Reece will fly business class to Asia. Picture: Jason Edwards

Lord Mayor Nick Reece and three City of Melbourne councillors will fly business class to Asia as part of a business delegation at an estimated cost of $81,880 to ratepayers.

The delegation will include Mr Reece and Councillors Kevin Louey, Philip Le Liu and Gladys Liu and will visit “priority partner cities of Chengdu, Nanjing and Tianjin in China and Osaka in Japan”, with stopovers in Hong Kong and Tokyo, between September 16 to 29.

It is expected that other City of Melbourne staff will attend but it is not clear if they will also fly business class using ratepayer funds.

The cost of their travel is not included in the $81,880 estimate for the four councillors to go on the delegation.

Cr Owen Guest said it was unclear what value adding extra councillors to the trip would deliver for the City of Melbourne.

“I’m not convinced that we should be sending a large delegation,” he said.

“My gut tells me that we are going into the realms of overkill.

“I want to see some really hardcore evidence of the value that comes back here rather than just talking about multiculturalism.”

Mr Reece and three other councillors are part of the delegation. Picture: David Crosling

However, Mr Reece said the extra councillors being added to the ratepayer-funded delegation was a positive thing for Melbourne.

“I think it is good that we are taking a delegation of four councillors to China… and to Japan,” he said.

“I do want to say, having councillor Kevin Louey, Phil Le Liu and Gladys Liu are all being part of a delegation travelling to China is a wonderful thing

“The trip is a reflection of our incredible multicultural city

“The City of Melbourne is aggressively hunting international headquarters and we are putting our best foot forward with this strong delegation.”

Mr Reece said multiculturalism was Melbourne’s “superpower” when it comes to trade and foreign affairs and he said it was great to have three councillors of Chinese heritage going on an Asian trade mission.

Deputy Lord Mayor Roshena Campbell said the business delegation was an “extraordinarily good use of ratepayer money”.

The City of Melbourne voting to send four councillors on a super-sized overseas trade delegation comes on the same day that the Herald Sun revealed that Mr Reece had billed ratepayers more than $114,000 in travel since the end of 2020 when he was elected as Deputy Lord Mayor.

A City of Melbourne spokeswoman said: “The expenses reflect the significant demands on the Lord Mayor and Deputy Lord Mayor to attend a range of engagements, where they represent and advocate for the city.”

Originally published as ‘I’m not convinced that we should be sending a large delegation,’ Cr Owen Guest says of council’s Asia trip