HANSARD
SITTING CALENDAR
SEARCH
LIVE BROADCAST
Hansard Dynamic Member Index
Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-02-21 Daily Xml
Contents
Xml

Ministerial Travel

The Hon. S.L. GAME (14:39): I seek leave to make a brief explanation prior to addressing a question to the Attorney-General, representing the Treasurer, regarding government policy on travel expenses.

Leave granted.

The Hon. S.L. GAME: Between 19 January and 27 January, the Treasurer, along with two other government representatives, travelled to Los Angeles, New York and Washington DC to seek state funding opportunities for future expenses and to refinance current state debt. According to a report in The Advertiser, that trip is estimated to have cost South Australian taxpayers $78,000, or $26,000 per person, almost $10,000 per day of travel.

It has been stated by the government that the full calculations for the trip cost should be expected within the coming weeks. The Treasurer stated on radio this morning that his government's policy is to finalise costs of travel within three months, yet then offered no justification for the Premier's $150,000 Japan and South Korea trip last October taking four months to report, largely by a media exposé. Our state needs to be promoted overseas and interstate and new business and financial leads needs to be sourced; however, my questions to the Attorney-General, representing the Treasurer, are:

1. Does the government's overseas travel expenditure policy consist of a recommended daily threshold and what is that recommended threshold?

2. Does the government acknowledge that its travel expenditure reporting policy is not timely or efficient, given modern business practices of digital receipting and invoicing?

3. Does the government agree that a lack of transparency and accountability on overseas ministerial travel expense is leading to lack of public confidence in prudent government spending, and that all interstate and overseas travel costs should be kept to a minimum?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (14:40): I thank the honourable member for her question that was directed to the Treasurer and I am happy to forward it to the minister who was questioned and bring back a reply.

The Hon. R.P. Wortley: Send it to where it belongs: the Treasurer.

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Wortley! The Hon. Ms Girolamo, you have a supplementary question arising from the answer.

PARLIAMENTARY BUSINESS
MEMBERS
GET INVOLVED
ABOUT PARLIAMENT
VISIT
LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY
CONTACT