Deputy PM’s $21,000 flight to give speech on belt-tightening
May 2014
Taxpayers paid $21,500 for a chartered flight between Canberra and Brisbane for Warren Truss to give a speech after the controversial 2014 federal budget explaining the virtues of reducing expenditure, according to the Fraser Coast Chronicle.
According to an online transcript of the speech: “The Budget takes steps to ensure the government is living within its means, and to rein in the age of entitlement.”
A spokeswoman for Mr Truss said the flight was chartered as there were “no suitable commercial flights available to meet Mr Truss’s ministerial duties on May 13 and 14, 2014”.
Mr Truss’s appearance at the Conservative Breakfast Club in Brisbane occurred during Budget week sitting of Parliament, meaning he would be required in Parliament that week.
The newspaper notes: “It is unclear why (the) Brisbane appearance was booked during Budget week given that most majority of parliamentary sittings are scheduled well in advance.”