Attorney-General George Brandis spent how much on private jets?

Attorney-General George Brandis, in just one day, used military and private jets to take him from Canberra to north Queensland for a less than one hour meet-and-greet, then to a meeting in Sydney.

It was following Cyclone Ita in April 2014, reports The Daily Telegraph, and Senator Brandis didn’t travel alone. According to his travel itineraries he was joined by his chief-of-staff and three advisers.

The cost comes in at almost $18,ooo. Charted flights from Townsville to Ingham cost $1250 each way but the defence flight to Sydney costs a whopping $7260. It’s a steep price to pay for one days travel, especially when a commercial airline would have cost far less. 

Questions have been made relating to the taxpayer-funded costs, especially when the Sydney meeting he attended started at 3.30pm and he arrived at 5.30pm, just an hour before it finished. He had one final three hour personal engagement following, at 7pm, which he won’t disclose the purpose of, but said it was unrelated to work.

“The Attorney’s visit was made at the request of the Member for Kennedy, Mr Bob Katter MP, and with the authority of the then Prime Minister,” a spokesman said.“The purpose of the visit was to allow the Attorney to see first-hand the damage caused, and to hear directly from those most impacted by the cyclone. After the visit to Ingham, the Attorney returned immediately to Sydney to attend a subcommittee of Cabinet meeting.”

It’s not the first time we’ve heard of costly flights by our politicians. Remember Bronwyn Bishop in 2015? 

What do you think of this type of taxpayer-funded transport?