Thursday, 26 November 2020

Scott Morrison defends $4,000 per hour plane for Mathias Cormann's OECD pitch, says 'he would have got COVID' flying commercial.

Extract from ABC News

Politics

By political reporter Jack Snape

, A Royal Australian Air Force jet sits on a tarmac in Canberra
Australia has provided a RAAF jet to help Mathias Cormann campaign for the top job at the OECD.(Australian Defence Force)

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has defended allowing a former government minister to fly around the world on a taxpayer-funded Royal Australian Air Force jet.

Former WA senator Mathias Cormann has clocked up more than 20,000 kilometres campaigning to become the next head of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Air Force planes cost taxpayers more than $4,000 per hour of flying, but Mr Morrison said using commercial flights would have been risky.

"There really wasn't the practical option to use commercial flights in the time we had available, because of COVID," he told radio station 2GB.

"If Mathias was flying around on commercial planes he would have got COVID, the risk of that was extremely high."

Mathias Cormann holds tongs while standing at a barbecue with sausages and steaks

Former finance minister Mathias Cormann held a barbecue during a stop in Berlin as he campaigned for the top job at the OECD.(Twitter)

Mr Morrison said COVID-19 was running rampant in Europe and Australia was taking Mr Cormann's bid for the job at the global economic body seriously. 

"Australia has never secured such a position before, and now we are in the race for it, it would be very important," Mr Morrison said.

"Mathias would be an outstanding secretary-general of the OECD, standing up for those liberal democratic market-based values which the OECD represents."

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) is supporting Mr Cormann's campaign with a taskforce of eight staff, and he is also accompanied by one DFAT officer while overseas.

"The duties of the taskforce include coordinating advocacy by the Prime Minister and senior ministers, visit and travel coordination, as well as the preparation of briefs and communications materials to support the campaign," a DFAT spokesperson said.

The staff will return to other duties when the campaign concludes in March 2021.

Former senator Natasha Stott Despoja successfully won a spot on a UN committee fighting for equality for women last month.

She told the Sydney Morning Herald she travelled to Washington in March, and to Canberra during the pandemic, but otherwise campaigned via teleconference from her Adelaide home, participating in close to 200 meetings.

Natasha Stott Despoja speaks at World Bank wearing a white blazer.

Natasha Stott Despoja successfully campaigned for a United Nations role from her study in Adelaide.(Flickr: Clarissa Villondo)

In 2018, Mr Cormann booked a $37,000 solo Defence Force flight to help lobby crossbenchers on the Government's plan for business tax cuts.

The Government justified the expense at the time by saying no commercial flights were "readily" available.

A map of the globe showing the cities Mathias Cormann has flown to around the globe

The flight path Mathias Cormann has travelled on a taxpayer-funded RAAF plane as he campaigns to lead the OECD.(ABC News: Emma Machan)

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