Yahoo Movies Flights for Mathias Cormann’s European campaign for OECD job could cost taxpayers $4,300 an hour
Mathias Cormann’s travel around Europe to campaign for the top OECD job may be costing Australian taxpayers as much as $4,300 an hour, based on records of previous flights by the same type of air force plane that he is using.
The Morrison government is backing the former Australian finance minister’s bid to become the secretary general of the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development but his prospects will depend on his appeal to European nations.
Cormann, who quit the Senate earlier this month, is travelling around Europe on a Royal Australian Air Force Falcon as part of his campaign, the Nine newspapers have reported.
The Dassault Falcon 7X special purpose aircraft, part of the RAAF fleet since early 2019, has a range of up to 11,000km. Defence says the Falcon usually has a crew of two pilots and one attendant, and can carry up to 14 passengers.
Sources familiar with RAAF travel arrangements pointed Guardian Australia to recent records of special purpose flights, which are commonly used to fly ministers and dignitaries around Australia including to attend parliament.
Records from the final six months of 2019 indicate flying the Dassault Falcon 7X comes at a cost of $4,305 a flying hour.
That suggests a return trip between Australia and Europe could cost more than $100,000, plus the cost of any internal flights within Europe.
Guardian Australia asked defence’s media unit to confirm the use of RAAF assets for the Cormann campaign, the costs incurred to date and any expected future provisions. It said it was working on a response.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is yet to respond to questions regarding how much has been budgeted for Cormann’s campaign, given the government has set up a website and is likely to be providing support through embassies across Europe.
Scott Morrison used a speech to the Policy Exchange in the UK on Monday evening to promote Cormann’s candidacy, arguing the former finance minister would help the OECD to support open trade and market-based principles.
Speaking to the event by video link from the Lodge in Canberra – where he remains in isolation after his trip to Japan – the prime minister argued the world would not recover from the Covid-19 recession “if we trade and invest less or relinquish hard-won lessons on market-led wealth creation”.
The world’s 38 open market democracies in the OECD had a responsibility to lead the way, Morrison said, and he argued Cormann was “a compelling package”.
The prime minister noted Cormann was “a German-speaking Belgian native, who studied in French and Flemish”, emigrated to Australia at age 24 and became the country’s longest serving finance minister.
“So he brings a unique perspective bridging Asia, the Americas and Europe,” Morrison said.
Cormann is hoping to replace Angel Gurria when he steps down from the OECD top job next year. He has recently embraced language promoting a green recovery, in a bid to head off concerns from Europe about Australia’s lack of ambitious climate policies.
