Queensland Premier and ministers’ accommodation fees
Queensland's premier and other ministers accumulated over $80,000 worth of accommodation fees during the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.
The reason: security concerns, according to the government which it said, were totally justified.
During the games, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and ministers including Commonwealth Games Minister Kate Jones stayed in $720-a-night suites at the five-star Sheraton Grand Mirage.
Just for Ms Palaszczuk and Ms Jones alone, the accommodation bill was over $20,000.
And that’s not including the bill for dozens of staffers were also housed in high-end resorts.
On Sunday, State Treasurer Jackie Trad defended the measures, citing security reasons.
"It was very much the advice of the Queensland Police Service and the Queensland Police Commissioner that all senior public dignitaries like the premier and like the minister for the Commonwealth Games stay in the one location with the Commonwealth Games Federation," Ms Trad told news.com.au.
"Just the same way the Prime Minister stayed there under security advice, the same way that the federal sports minister, LNP member Bridget McKenzie, stayed there under advice from Queensland security officials."
She said the state picked up lots of economic benefits from the investment.
The economic benefits of the Gold Coast event to Queensland, she said, well exceeded the money spent on it
But the Liberal National Party Opposition's Shadow Treasurer Tim Mander said this sort of expense that the premier and her ministers had racked up was "obscene"
He said that for many of the nights, the premier could have easily travelled home to Brisbane instead of staying in a plush hotel on the Gold Coast.
"One of those night she was charged for accommodation the premier wasn't even there, she was in Bundaberg," Mr Mander told news.com.au.
"One of her other ministers spent a third of that money in accommodation (elsewhere), that would have been totally more appropriate."
Leon Gettler - 20 August 2018
