news, latest-news

Federal government efforts to cut the public service's half-billion dollar annual travel bill appear grounded as new figures show spending has blown out by $75 million since the Coalition returned to government. Despite 15,000 jobs being cut from government departments and agencies in four years, the centralised public service travel bill has grown from $502.9 million in 2013-14 to more than $575.7 million in 2015-16. The most recent bill included $423 million in air travel, $19.9 million for car rentals and $132 million for hotels and other accommodation. Domestic airfares cost taxpayers $198.9 million, compared with $111.9 million spent on overseas flights. The breakdown of costs between economy and business class fares is stark: there was $228.5 million spent on economy tickets, mostly for domestic travel, and $82.3 million spent on business class. New figures provided to a Senate estimates committee showed roughly 15 per cent growth year-on-year, despite moves to save money through a new list of approved airlines for domestic and international flights and widespread efforts to cut government spending. The Defence portfolio remained the biggest spender, racking up more than $171 million in bills in 2015-16 and growing from $155 million a year earlier. The massive department's 58,000 public servants and serving personnel spent more than $121 million on flights in the period. Defence spent $25.4 million of its share on business class fares - the largest spend across government. The Immigration and Border Protection portfolio saw spending of $33.8 million, including $23.2 million on flights, much of it related to immigration enforcement and operation of Australia's offshore immigration detention network. The Human Services portfolio the travel total was $28.7 million. For the Foreign Affairs and Trade portfolio, which includes more than 6200 public servants and Australia's overseas diplomatic corps, total spending reached $28.3 million, down from $37.5 million in the previous figures. The most spend thrift portfolio areas included those with the smallest departmental and agency footprints, including Communications at $2.1 million and the departments responsible for running Parliament. Travel between Canberra, Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne topped the most flown domestic routes, while the most flown overseas were from Sydney to the major international hubs of Los Angeles, Singapore and Dallas/Fort Worth. The figures include travel by public servants, Defence Force personnel and other official travel by the federal government. Travel costs for members of Parliament, government ministers and their staff are not included in the totals. Federal departments and agencies are the largest spenders on air travel in Australia, ahead of miners BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, the big four banks and the country's largest consulting firms. The travel bill is likely to continue its growth as the Coalition pursues a government-wide decentralisation plan this year, led by Nationals leaders Barnaby Joyce and Fiona Nash. The Department of Finance administers the whole of government travel system, allowing bureaucrats and officials only to buy the lowest practical airfare. Public servants are required to book semi-flexible economy seats, unless they are entitled to business class travel or receive direct approval to upgrade. For overseas travel, the rules require the best priced international fare be selected from at least three quotes. The rules call for "an appropriate level of rigor" to be shown in finding value for money. Follow Tom McIlroy on Facebook and Twitter

https://nnimgt-a.akamaihd.net/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/476ad07b-8dee-42a2-b2e0-b3ccc6d88cbb/r0_47_1039_634_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg