National Archives of Australia boss David Fricker has defended his high travel bill as "money well spent" under questioning at Senate estimates.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Mr Fricker's travel records were released to the committee, including 26 overseas trips since he started the role in 2012, with a total bill of $280,724.
The most expensive trip was in April 2012, when Mr Fricker travelled to France, Switzerland, Germany, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands to attend the International Council of Archives board meeting in Switzerland, followed by archives in the other countries. Including flights, accommodation and other costs, it came in at $28,241.
Under federal government travel rules, public servants are entitled to fly business class when travelling internationally, but are still required to choose the "best fare of the day," which includes considerations such as stopovers and luggage allowances.
The director-general's travel is approved by the minister with responsibility for the archives, he told the committee.
"That's $280,000 well spent in my view," Mr Fricker told the committee on Tuesday evening, referring to his opening statement where he outlined the challenges facing the archives as the organisation races to digitise audiovisual records by 2025.
"Standing still is not an option for us. We are going to lose the records of the government unless we drastically overhaul the infrastructure the systems, the policies and the legislation of the archives. There's no corner of the organisation that does not need rapid change," Mr Fricker said.
"The best ideas in the world are not necessarily in my office in Canberra and they're not going to come looking for me here, they're out there. I get a lot of value and the archives as an organisation extracts a great deal of value in obtaining international best practice, in consulting with our counterpart agencies and those agencies that are ahead of us in some areas."
In the same six-year time period, staff numbers at the archives have dropped from 470 to 384, and in May this year 24,147 requests for access to archives had passed the 90-day statutory deadline for a decision
"That's a lot of money for international travel in the context of these other things happening in your organisation," Senator Rex Patrick said to Mr Fricker, who maintained the travel was necessary.
