Chief Minister Katy Gallagher and deputy Andrew Barr spent more than $200,000 on international travel for themselves and staff last financial year, as ministerial travel costs doubled, according to expenses reports.
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Ms Gallagher took two trips to China during the year, a higher education delegation to Shanghai and Beijing in September 2013 and again to Shanghai in April as part of a Prime Ministerial trade delgation.
Those trips took the Chief Minister's personal annual travel and related expenses bill to $64,769 - the highest of any of the ACT's six ministers. Directorate staff who accompanied Ms Gallagher on her domestic and international trips last year spent a further $27,906, pushing her annual total (including ministerial staff) to more than $92,000 for the year. By comparison, Ms Gallagher spent just $10,399 on travel for her and staff the year before.
Mr Barr's trips to Portland, San Francisco and Singapore during November for infrastructure, planning and tourism meetings, cost taxpayers $78,727 for him and accompanying staff. Mr Barr and an advisor also spent nearly $2000 flying to Melbourne to attend sports meetings and the AFL grand final.
The cost of his visit to Singapore last month as part of an ACT trade delegation totalled a further $20,500.
Mr Barr was accompanied by two staffers for the visit and said ACT government ministers would make return visits to Singapore in 2015 and 2016.
Environment and Sustainable Development Minister Simon Corbell also visited China during the financial year. Combined with 10 domestic trips for the year, Mr Corbell and staff also ran up travel expenses of more than $85,000 for the 12 months. Mr Corbell was also the only minister to claim travel costs for a spouse, totalling $8368 in 2013-14 and $4570 in 2012-13.
The international trips helped to double the total travel bill for all the ACT's ministers, who spent a total of $308,733 during 2013-14, compared to $148,588 in 2012-13. Ministers also chose not to claim travel expenses for a number of their domestic trips.
A spokesman for Mr Barr said the full cost of the Singapore trade mission, including financial assistance payments of up to $3000 for the participating businesses is expected to be around $140,000.
The figure includes marketing, event programming, flights and accommodation for officials.
"The recent trade mission to Singapore was the biggest yet with 39 trade mission partners accompanying the Deputy Chief Minister," the spokesman said.
"While the full outcomes are yet to be known, there has already been resounding successes for Canberra businesses as a result of the mission."
The Canberra Liberals also spent more than $11,000 last year attending a media training course in Sydney.
Opposition Leader Jeremy Hanson, deputy Alistair Coe and five other MLAs completed a day-long "Mastering 21st Century Media" training course with Reputation Australia on July 5 last year. The total cost for travel, accommodation and training was $11,251.80.
