Fed: Howard defends travel bills ahead of Pacific trip

AAP General News (Australia)
08-02-2004
Fed: Howard defends travel bills ahead of Pacific trip

By James Grubel, Chief Political Correspondent

CANBERRA, Aug 2 AAP - Prime Minister John Howard, who is set to visit Western Samoa
later this week, today defended the amount of money he has spent on international travel
in the past two years.

But Labor has accused Mr Howard of spending up big on a farewell tour.

New figures show Mr Howard spent more than $5 million on international travel in 2002 and 2003.

Later this week, Mr Howard will visit Western Samoa to attend the Pacific Islands Forum
of regional leaders.

The Daily Telegraph newspaper said Mr Howard racked up a travel bill of $3.9 million
in 2002 and $1.3 million the following year.

The visits followed the September 11 terrorist attacks and came as Australia considered
sending troops to fight in Afghanistan and Iraq, and as Mr Howard lobbied for trade deals
with China, Singapore and the United States.

The travel also coincided with Mr Howard's term as the chairman of the Commonwealth
Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), which involved several trips to Africa and London.

Mr Howard said he would have expected a large travel bill, but said his trips were necessary.

"Was it unnecessary for me to go to the APEC meeting in Bangkok last year which resulted
in the signing of the free trade agreement with Thailand?" he asked on Townsville radio.

"Was it unnecessary for me to go and see China's new leaders? Was it unnecessary for
me to go and visit President Bush on several occasions and including most recently to
go to Congress and lobby for the free trade agreement?"

He said the travel was an unavoidable part of the job of being prime minister.

"I think that has to be acknowledged no matter who's in office," he said.

"Every one of those trips was justified."

He said the travel bill was not just for one person, but included the costs for advisers
and security agents who accompanied the prime minister overseas.

Mr Howard said Australia would never have won a $25 billion gas deal with China if
he had not become personally involved and visited China's leaders.

But Labor's family spokesman Wayne Swan said Mr Howard was behaving like a Middle Eastern
oil sheikh on his farewell tour.

"The prime minister's behaving like some sort of Middle Eastern oil sheikh, travelling
around the country in an extravagant way on his goodbye tour," Mr Swan told reporters
in Canberra.

"There's just such a double standard between the prime minister's performance abroad
and his policies at home domestically where he's taken the axe to carers on carers' allowance.

"We all understand that prime ministers have to travel for official purposes, it's
just that this prime minister has taken a lot longer this time - you can only conclude
that he's waving goodbye," he said.

AAP jg/sb/it/de a

KEYWORD: TRAVEL HOWARD NIGHTLEAD

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