Defence Minister Richard Marles has slammed criticism of his $3.6 million in taxpayer-funded VIP flights revealing he “stands by” every flight he has taken.
Speaking on Channel 9’s Today show with host Karl Stefanovic, Mr Marles fired up over the flights accusing the Coalition of a “smear” campaign over the taxpayer-funded spending.
But he’s been accused of putting former politician Bronwyn Bishop “to shame” over his frequent flyer status including taking RAAF jets to Avalon airport, close to his home in East Geelong, but refusing to reveal exactly when and where he’s flying.
“Let’s change to the other aviation story that seems to be burning a significant hole, your frequent flyer miles, will you come clean about your flight schedule?’’ Stefanovic asked.
“Look, I am glad that you raised it ... because it’s been a very frustrating week in terms of looking at the media,” Mr Marles said.
“Obviously, I am the authorising person for those flights. My direct component is a fraction of the number that has been reported.”
Mr Marles’ “fraction” of the total costs is $3.6 million in personal flights.
He has booked more than 700 hours of taxpayer-funded RAAF VIP flights since last year – the equivalent of flying to London 30 times or 59 return trips to Bali.
“Everywhere I have gone, everything that I have done has been on behalf of the Australian people and the duties that I do in that regard. I stand by every one of the flights that I have taken,” Mr Marles said.
“This has been kicked along over the course of the week by a dodgy spreadsheet produced in Peter‘s office, which is about smear and fear.”
Mr Marles, who has the power to book the flight for himself and others as Defence Minister, won’t publicly confirm whether some or all of the flights are his own bookings, citing new “security advice”.
That has forced journalists and others to try to piece together where he’s been flying from flight tracker data because he refuses to say where he’s going despite detailing some of his movements in real time on Instagram.
“OK, why don't you just produce the manifest, the flight schedules,’’ Stefanovic said. “You can probably just explain many flights, that has nothing to do with security.”
Ever since a political scandal that became known as the VIP aircraft affair engulfed the Holt Government in 1967, documents outlining where and when politicians book taxpayer-funded military flights and the passenger manifests have been regularly tabled in parliament.
But that all changed in late 2022, when Mr Marles quietly sought advice from the AFP on the security implications of that material being in the public domain.
But in a breakthrough that could restore transparency, Mr Marles has revealed he was so “frustrated” by the media furore that he hinted he would probably prefer to just release the information so that voters could get a clearer view.
“To be honest, where we’re at now I’d like to have all of that out there because that would make things much clearer,” he said.
“But there is a genuine security issue here. The information that we’ve put out there does provide the number of hours, but obviously the manifests give rise to patterns of behaviour which then do create a target.”
Mr Marles claimed when Mr Dutton was the minister for defence not “one shred” of information was released.
“Karl, the difficulty that Richard has got, if you go back through social media, he ripped into Bronwyn Bishop for spending $5000 on a helicopter,” Mr Dutton said.
“He puts Bronnie to shame. He dispensed with the helicopter and had got a plane. He puts Bronnie to shame.
“If he is ripping into Bronwyn Bishop there is a double standard operating here. I think that you are right to ask the question.”
News.com.au revealed this week that Mr Marles was booking military planes to pick him up and drop him off at Avalon airport closer to his home in Geelong, saving himself a one-hour chauffeur-driven car ride from Melbourne.
Publicly available flight tracker information obtained by news.com.au have detailed more than 70 RAAF flights in and out of Avalon since March, 2023 alone.
Liberal frontbencher Sarah Henderson said Mr Marles had some serious questions to answer on his use of the Special Purpose Aircraft.
“The member for Corio represents some of the most disadvantaged suburbs in the country,” she said. “Many of Mr Marles’ constituents are struggling just to put food on the table and turn on the heater.
“The fact that it appears Mr Marles has been commuting between Avalon Airport and Canberra on VIP flights, rather than catch commercial flights to and from Tullamarine, requires an explanation.”
In total, Mr Marles spent 367 hours on RAAF flights since last year for domestic travel purposes and 379.1 hours in the air to travel to international meetings overseas.
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Defending the spending, he has insisted the trips – which included a quick return trip to Sydney to watch a Matildas semi-final – were “in the national interest” and that many were about international visits.
An analysis of Mr Marles’ $3.6 million bill for private RAAF transport also reveals that despite claims the travel is all about international diplomacy that nearly half of the flights were booked for domestic travel in Australia.
The flights also appear to involve travel to and from Avalon, closer to his home in East Geelong, but he won‘t say when and where he’s been flying citing “security” concerns.
