Face of Nation : Riverina MP Michael McCormack has spent almost $500,000 on travel via private jets supplied by the Royal Australian Air Force over the course of six months.
A spokesperson for Mr McCormack said the flights were authorised by the Defence Minister within the guidelines established by the Department of Finance, including the requirement to “justify why a commercial flight is not viable”.
The cost to taxpayers of Mr McCormack’s private RAAF travel was $393,474 while in his capacity as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development, and $100,882 for flights while he was Acting Prime Minister.
Between July and December 2017 Mr McCormack’s predecessor as National Party leader, Barnaby Joyce, spent $176,476 on RAAF private jet flights as deputy prime minister and $27,140 as acting prime minister.
My Joyce was out of Parliament for about two of those six months due to the Section 44 crisis over dual citizens being ineligible to stand for election. A bill of $101,207 was run up for 24 flights that flew with no passengers in order to make aircraft available or return them to home base at Canberra.
The bill included an empty flight from Canberra to Leonora in Western Australia that cost $20,240. A spokesperson for Mr McCormack said the “positioning flights” with no passengers were also used by the RAAF for training.
“Positioning legs without passengers are utilised by Air Force crew for essential training and development, whilst still enabling the subsequent special purpose flight,” the spokesperson said.
