News
Hundreds of thousands wasted on empty planes to pick up ministers - by: Linda Silmalis and Claire Harvey From: The Sunday Telegraph December 18, 2011 12:00AM
0 Stephen Smith has been a regular user of 'ghost flights'. Picture: Ray Strange Source: The Sunday Telegraph
OUR travel-happy federal politicians wasted more than $1 million over the past 12 months forcing empty VIP jets to take "ghost flights" around the country to pick them up.
And, in the most extreme case, Defence Minister Stephen Smith not only had empty planes rush across the country to collect him, but blew $120,000 on several flights -- including on a 30-seater Boeing 737 -- in which he was the only passenger.The specially fitted-out RAAF 737 is crewed by up to three flight attendants and two pilots.

VIP passengers such as Mr Smith, who lives in Perth, are lavished with first-class food and beverages during their journeys.

As Defence Minister, Mr Smith personally approves the use of the exclusive plane service. The Minister also regularly stretched out aboard an otherwise empty nine-seater Challenger, with only two flight attendants and two pilots for company.

. .
A golden ticket for lucky few»
JULIA Gillard, Tony Abbott and the Speaker Peter Slipper will still be flying high with a gold pass for free domestic air travel when they quit politics.


Despite empty planes often flying to collect him a day earlier, Mr Smith yesterday told The Sunday Telegraph in each case there was "no viable commercial alternative".

Official Department of Defence documents reveal Mr Smith took five solo flights in six months this year and on four of those occasions the RAAF jets flew empty for one leg of the journey.

The total cost to taxpayers for these round trips is more than $120,000.

The special purpose flights documents reveal taxpayers spent nearly $790,000 in six months flying empty air force VIP aircraft to collect politicians. Mr Smith's total bill for the "ghost flights" part of the trips is $103,000 from January 1 to June 30, 2011.

The RAAF "ghost flights" were ordered by government and Opposition MPs to fly empty between cities including Perth, Brisbane and Canberra, despite the availability of commercial flights.

The fleet includes two 737 Boeing jets and three Challenger 604s. The 737 is crewed by up to three flight attendants and two pilots and features full food and beverage service.

The nine-seater Challenger has up to two flight attendants and two pilots.

Mr Smith authorised himself to fly as the lone passenger from Brisbane to Perth on January 12 in a 30-seater Boeing 737 VIP jet. The flight from Brisbane, where Mr Smith had been visiting the floods, lasted 4.6 hours and cost $15,088. Mr Smith said through a spokeswoman that there was "no viable commercial alternative" to taking the VIP jet.

The following day, the 737 flew empty to Canberra at a cost of $12,136. On March 14, the documents show an empty nine-seater Challenger jet signed off by Mr Smith flew 4.5 hours from Canberra to Perth at a cost of $14,760.

Mr Smith flew solo from Perth to Canberra for Cabinet aboard the jet the following day at a cost of $10,824.

On April 3 the jet was again summoned to Perth from Canberra where it flew empty except for its crew for 4.1 hours at a cost of $13,448.

Mr Smith boarded the plane in Perth on April 4 before travelling solo back to Canberra for Cabinet on a 3.6 hour flight, costing $11,808. The jet was again enlisted on May 1 to fly empty from Canberra to Perth to collect Mr Smith, who flew solo back to Canberra, again for Cabinet, the following day at a total cost of $27,224.

On June 17, Mr Smith flew alone from Coolangatta to Perth on the nine-seat Challenger jet at a cost of $17,384. He had been in Queensland to attend the funeral of Sapper Rowan Robinson, killed in Afghanistan on June 6.

The total VIP bill for Mr Smith is $389,845.

For each of the flights, Mr Smith's spokeswoman said: "There was no viable commercial alternative. Mr Smith did not request the aircraft to fly empty (to collect him)".

She said the RAAF's 34 Squadron made the decisions about when jets flew empty.

"As 34 Squadron is based in Canberra, at times aircraft need to be pre-positioned in other locations to pick up passengers. On these occasions aircraft can transit without passengers," she said.

Labor's Warren Snowdon was the next-biggest user of the empty "ghost" flights, costing taxpayers $78,392 to collect him from his remote Northern Territory electorate, while Treasurer Wayne Swan spent $75,440.

Opposition leader Tony Abbott ordered the jet to collect him on empty flights worth $51,496, and deputy leader Julie Bishop was responsible for $39,032 in empty flights.

The VIP flights, provided by the RAAF, cost Australia a total of $4.77 million in the first half of 2011, including the Prime Minister's tally of $921,565 and the Governor-General's bill of $750,794, including their ghost flights.

Mr Abbott's overall flight bill was $266,694.

Other solo flyers were Labor's Senator Kim Carr, who took a $2296 flight alone, and Veterans Affairs Minister Warren Snowdon, who took a variety of flights alone, including one trip via Alice Springs and Brisbane that cost $21,976.



I think we are being conned!

cods<<we are being taken for fools...does that surprise anyone? >>
.........................................................

Not me.

I knew that.

They are the 1% that continuously screw us.

Would you vote for these charlatans?

cods wrote on Dec 18^th, 2011 at 6:15am:



I voted for the Greens and independents LOL

How are the Greens travelling?

cods wrote on Dec 18^th, 2011 at 6:33am:




I'm not really in favour of the carbon tax, there could have been better ways to accomplish the same end, but hey! it's better than nothing at all.

There's nothing wrong with renewable's and green technology. It is time to cut down on the pollution, don't you think?

Have you noticed the number of houses getting solar panels on their rooftops? An incredible increase just in the last year, that's a good thing.

I'm all for cutting down on carbon emissions and moving into a cleaner source of energy and every little change helps.

We muddled through the GST and we will do the same with the carbon tax.

Governments will always find ways to get more money so they have more to waste. The travel rorts are a good example.

The more they get the more they waste. We don't have a say in it because we vote for governments that we don't really want.

What is the choice? people are sheeple, they do as they're told.

Carbon Footprint

Moving Forward

Greatest Moral Challenge of our time

There will be no carbon tax under a government I lead

Ex Dame Pansi wrote on Dec 18^th, 2011 at 6:52am:




well all I know pansi is that we tend to work against each other.. you now claim you are not in favour of CARBON TAX yet you were one of those on here that sneered at those that marched against it...we put each other down and call them idiots or sceptics..instead of maybe listening to them..and seeing, yes!they do have a point..

this TAX could do untold damage to our mining industry..

we are now feeling the backlash from the Indonesian cattle fiasco.. we could be pricing ourselves out of an ever shrinking coal/ore market..

to me commonsense and new techo every few days.. will be all it takes..this TAX will affect us all and for what?

Who payed to clean up the shite in England to stop cholera!???!

...oh, the richies, that's right!!

THE RICH CANNA EAT GOLD YA KNOW!!



((YES, I saw the repeat of when Tim Flannery released his book at the press club in 2010 yesterday!))

BatteriesNotIncluded wrote on Dec 18^th, 2011 at 3:14pm:


Yes, but like the internet and other things that need electricity, electric cars will be heavily censored and only allow the driver to go where the authorities want them to go and only if there is no more than one child in the car...