David Johnston (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

asked the Minister representing the Minister for Defence, Minister representing the Minister for Defence Science and Personnel and Minister representing the Minister for Defence Materiel, upon notice, on 5 July 2011:

(1) For the period 1 January to 30 June 2011: (a) what was the hospitality spend for each agency within the responsibility of the

Minister/Parliamentary Secretary; and (b) for each hospitality event, can the following details be provided: (i) the date, (ii) the location, (iii) the purpose, (iv) the cost and (v) the number of attendees.

(2) For the period 1 January to 30 June 2011, can details be provided of the total hospitality spend for the office of the Minister/Parliamentary Secretary.

Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Minister for Defence has provided the following answer to the honourable senator's question:

(1) (a) The Department of Defence's total expenditure on Hospitality (excluding the Minister's Office) with separate analysis of Representational Allowances, for the period 1 January to 30 June 2011, is shown in Table 1.

Official Hospitality is the provision of hospitality to persons other than Defence personnel who are able to assist Defence in achieving its corporate objectives through advice, vocational or business interests or attendance at official ceremonies or functions.

Representational funds assist Australian Defence Organisation (ADO) members posted on long-term duty overseas to meet the costs of officially entertaining host-country nationals.

(b) Details of each event are provided at Table 2. This table includes the number of attendees at each Hospitality event. Attendee details for events paid from Representational Allowances are not currently maintained. Current initiatives to enable presentation of these details will result in these details being available for future disclosure

(2) Details of Hospitality expenditure for the offices of the Minister/Parliamentary Secretary's, for the period 1 January to 30 June 2011, are provided at Table 3.

Attachments:

Attachment A. Table 1: Summary of Hospitality and Representational Allowance Expenditure for the Period 1 January 2011 to 30 June 2011.

Attachment B. Table 2: Event Level Detail for Defence, the Defence Materiel Organisation and the Defence Housing Authority.

Attachment C. Table 3: Event Level Detail for Ministerial Hospitality.

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*All tables and attachments are available from the Senate Table Office.

David Johnston (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

ask ed the Minister representing the Minister for Defence , the Minister for Defence Science and Personnel and the Minister for Defence Materiel, upon notice, on 5 July 201:

For the period 1 January to 30 June 2011:

(1) (a) Did the Minister/Parliamentary Secretary travel overseas on official business; if so: (i) to what destination, (ii) for what duration, and (iii) for what purpose; and (b) what was the total cost of: (i) travel, (ii) accommodation, and (iii) any other expenses.

(2) (a) Which departmental and uniformed personnel accompanied the Minister/Parliamentary Secretary on each trip; and (b) for those personnel, what was the total cost of: (i) travel, (ii) accommodation, and (iii) any other expenses.

(3) (a) Apart from ministerial staff and uniformed and civilian departmental personnel, who else accompanied the Minister/Parliamentary Secretary on each trip; and (b) for each of these people, what was the total cost of:

(i) travel, (ii) accommodation, and (iii) any other expenses.

Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Minister for Defence has provided the following answer to the honourable senator ' s question:

(1) (a) (i), (ii) and (iii) Yes, Ministers Smith, Snowdon and Parliamentary Secretary Feeney travelled overseas during this period. Minister Clare did not travel during this period. Full details are provided in the attached table.

(2) (b) (i), (ii) and (ii) All costs of official overseas travel by Ministers, Parliamentary Secretaries and advisers are paid for by the Department of Finance and Deregulation. Dates, destinations, the purpose and costs of all official overseas travel are tabled in the Parliament every six months in a report titled Parliamentarians' Travel paid by the Department of Finance and Deregulation and its supporting information. These reports are now also published to the Finance web site. When available, expenditure for these visits will be provided to Defence by the Department of Finance and Deregulation via regular reporting.

Where travel was undertaken via special purpose aircraft (SPA) the Schedule of Special Purpose flights for 1 January to 30 June 2011 will be tabled in December 2011.

(1) (b) (iii) Some Ministerial expenses are a direct portfolio cost to Defence and those costs are included under item 1(b)(iii) with any ministerial incidentals.

(2) Please refer to the attached table.

(3) (i), (ii) and (iii) Costs for additional persons accompanying the Ministers and Parliamentary Secretaries are stated where known. Costs and details for ministerial advisers are reflected in this column, as are details of non-defence delegates or media that were invited to join the delegation. Mr Snowdon's spouse accompanied the Minister overseas in April 2011 to Europe and Turkey (a Defence visit to Europe and Veterans' Affairs portfolio visit to Turkey). Mr Smith's spouse accompanied the Minister overseas in June 2011 to Europe (Holland and Belgium).