Foreign Correspondence

[fuagf]

Very ordinary stuff .. Australian PM defends ministers' travel bill .. AFP


AFP/File – File photo of Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd,
who has defended a million dollar-plus bill for international
May 17, 2:05 am ET

MELBOURNE (AFP) – Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has defended a million dollar-plus
bill for international travel that his ministers racked up during a parliamentary break.

Documents released last week revealed that government ministers spent almost
two million dollars (1.55 million US) during an eight-week parliamentary recess last year.

Environment Minister Peter Garrett ran up the largest bill, spending 226,000 dollars on an 11-day trip to the United
States and Chile, while Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard spent more than 158,000 visiting the US, Britain and Singapore.

Rudd, whose travel expenses were not included in the documents, denied the travel expenses were excessive, saying
former prime minister John Howard spent 20 million on international travel during his 11 years in office.

"They are consistent in broad measure with Mr Howard?s 20 million investment," Rudd told reporters.

He also denied the government released the documents containing the travel figures
at the same time as the annual budget last Tuesday in an attempt to cover them up.

"I am advised that these numbers have been released as soon as the bureaucracy has them prepared," he said.

Opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull says the government was trying to avoid scrutiny about ministerial travel.

"It's interesting that the government chose to reveal all this travel on the day of the budget, when it
wouldn't be noticed," Turnbull told Channel Nine television. "So they're clearly ashamed of it."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090517/wl_asia_afp/australiapoliticstravel_20090517060613