Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for the Murray Darling Basin) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs, upon notice, on 15 February 2012:

(1) Can details be provided of all resources committed by the department, as well as known contributions from other agencies, towards the return to Australia of three protesters who boarded the Japanese vessel Shonan Maru No. 2 in January 2012.

(2) What was the department's total expenditure on this exercise.

Bob Carr (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The answer to the honourable senator's question is as follows:

(1) Officers from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade's North Asia Division, International Organisations and Legal Division, Consular, Public Diplomacy and Parliamentary Affairs Division, and the Australian Embassy in Tokyo worked on this issue.

Questions regarding expenditure by other agencies are best answered by those agencies.

(2) The Department managed the incident from within existing resources.