Defence minister Richard Marles took a ride on a RAAF flight to attend the Matildas World Cup semi-final at an estimated cost to taxpayers of $16,000.
His latest VIP flight comes after revelations Mr Marles’ expenses for flights have totalled nearly $3.6 million this year.
On the afternoon of August 16, an RAAF VIP flight flew from Brisbane, where Mr Marles had attended several press events, to Sydney.
The following morning, the tax-funded plane picked up passengers from Sydney and flew back to Brisbane in time for the ALP National Conference.
Just hours later, the defence minister posted photos of the Matildas squad and stated he was at the ‘Sydney stadium’ for the semi-final.
However, the defence minister and his office have declined to comment on whether he caught the VIP flight for two days, even though his presence at both the game and the ALP conference was documented on social media.
A spokeswoman for Mr Marles confirmed that any travel was in line with the government rules.
‘All travel conducted by the Deputy Prime Minister either in his role as Defence Minister or as Acting Prime Minister is in accordance with the relevant guidelines and security procedures,’ the spokeswoman said.
The cost of RAAF travel has sparked calls for more transparency after the release of flight schedules was discontinued for ‘security’ reasons last year.
Mr Marles was forced to defend his office’s role in that decision after his travel bill was revealed.
‘Well, all we’ve done in terms of the reporting is taken the advice that we’ve been given in relation to our own security,’ Mr Marles told ABC radio on Friday.
‘And we did do a security review about making sure that the information that is put into the public domain is not compromising any person in relation to disclosing patterns of life and behaviour and that’s a standard assessment that’s made in relation to national security.’
North Queensland Liberal National Party Senator Matt Canavan previously told Daily Mail Australia that Mr Marles should be honest about his flight history.
‘I have no problem with our government using planes to do business, but they should do so at best value to the taxpayer,’ he said.
‘Our Defence Minister should be travelling the world and defending our interests. The issue here is transparency.
‘The government should publish the same details we did, including where the flights were and who were travelling on the taxpayer’s expense.’
Mr Marles’ flight costs have totalled $3.6million, with $1million accrued since January of this year, while Mr Albanese has spent $5.3million from April 2022 to July 2023.
Special purpose’ logs of taxpayer-funded RAAF flights taken by government ministers were previously released four times per year.
These records detailed where and when ministers had flown and who was present.
But the release of flight schedules has been discontinued since last year because of ‘security’ reasons following a review carried out by the Australian Federal Police.
The AFP stated that the previous regulations regarding the release of VIP flight logs failed to protect ‘pattern of life data for passengers’.
Mr Albanese has previously attracted controversy over his frequent overseas trips, with some political commentators dubbing him ‘Airbus Albo’.