Ritzy restaurants deprived of pollies’ long lunch ‘rorts’
Fine dine restaurants will be shaking their heads in dismay after Federal Education Department secretary Tony Cook banned the long lunch practice in a new hospitality policy.
Cook was called out by the federal opposition after it was revealed public servants had racked up a $12,637 bill for work meetings.
The opposition called it a “a complete rort of taxpayers’ money’’.
Cook apologised for the excess, including a $1209 bill for a booking at at the one-hat Courgette Restaurant in Canberra.
Federal Opposition education spokeswoman Sarah Henderson said, “How could you run a department which allows this sort of flagrant waste of taxpayers’ dollars?’’
“Meetings should be held in a meeting room with a cup of tea and a biscuit, not in fine dining restaurants.
“That’s just a complete rort of taxpayers’ money in my view.
“These are just restaurant rorts – it’s a disgrace.”
Cook banned the practice after a meeting with federal Education Minister Jason Clare last month.
“I think we have let the taxpayers down in terms of what they would expect of public servants,” Cook said.
“We now have limits on the expenditure that is allowed to be made … the maximum rate is $77 (per person for meals).”
The ban is part of a new hospitality and business catering policy, tabled in the Senate.
Alcohol must not be purchased without explicit consent from Cook.
“Any decision to spend relevant money on official hospitality or business catering must be publicly defensible,’’ the policy states.
Bureaucrats are now banned from spending taxpayers’ money on three-course meals, on food or drinks for social occasions, or on tips to restaurant staff.
Senator Henderson aimed an arrow at newly appointed Jobs and Skills Australia Commissioner, Professor Barney Glover, who she said claimed a $37,000 payment to sit on Universities Accord review panel, at the time he was vice-chancellor of Western Sydney University.
“It’s not right, that when Australians are struggling to put food on the table, that you’ve got a vice chancellor earning a million dollars a year, who then seeks to charge the Commonwealth another $37,000 for working during the week when he’s already being paid by the university,’’ she told the Senate estimates hearing.
“This does not pass the pub test.’’
Glover donated the $37,000 payment, after tax was deducted, to the University of Western Sydney medical research school in June last year.
Jonathan Jackson, 21st February 2024
