[Jan Fisher]

Do you know how much the Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles has spent on travel since April last year … $3.6 million. By golly that’s a lot of VIP flights.

Not surprisingly Mr Marles recently ratified a decision to prohibit the release of information where government VIP planes flew and who was on board. The decision was based on security reasons.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, a full breakdown of Mr Marles’, or any other politician’s travel expenses is unlikely to be published until next year, with the government blaming the delay on an IT bungle.

What IT ‘bungle’ takes six months to fix?

Similar travel figures have been publicly available for decades until the recent decision to keep them secret due to ‘security’ reasons.

If politicians want us to trust them, then maybe they should be a bit more transparent about how they spend their money. Racking up millions of dollars in travel and not explaining why does not pass the pub test.

Do you think this information should be made public?

[Des]

This old nonsense again? You can’t run a government on a shoe string budget. And you conveniently forget that Marles is also the Defence Minister – and the majority of that travel is as the Defence Minister, and that is why there are security considerations. The IT issue is that the system for posting expenditure has not been fit for purpose for years, but remediation of it was held back by the former government who were busily outsourcing IT roles. Government IT has been left a shambles across all departments and agencies by this piecemeal approach over the last decade.

[KayJay]

Many Government members of all political shades seem to look upon their time in government as a good time enjoy luxury travel at public and tax payers expense. (Just look at the lovely life of MEPs- Members of the European Parliament”). However, the current Labor Government seems to be making many new rules and excuses to mask their real intentions. Why has the need for “security” increased so much since Labor was elected, that all VIP flights by members of the Government must remain secret. Government members now make all travel by VIP flights so nobody can find what I spend. Maybe Labor are concerned that these joy flights will only last until after the next election.

[Author]

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