Energy Minister Chris Bowen has been grilled over revelations public servants spent almost $500,000 on overseas business class trips in the first two months of 2026.
Sunrise host Nat Barr repeatedly pressed Bowen on Tuesday morning over the spending, questioning how the government can justify the costs to taxpayers battling the cost of living crisis.
“We’re in a cost-of-living crisis, people are tightening their belts, and they pick up the paper this morning and read that your guys and women spent $485,602 on trips to Turkey, Fiji, Germany and Korea,” Barr said, noting the trips were reportedly taken in January and February on business-class flights.
Bowen defended the expenses, arguing business class is the normal standard of travel for public servants under all governments.
“Even to Fiji? That’s three hours from Sydney,” Barr questioned.
The minister argued Fiji was “a very important country in our region” and said such travel was necessary to maintain Australia’s influence in the Pacific.
A quick check of current airfares shows Canberra to Nadi business class flights can cost four to six times more than economy fares.
“People are cutting back, you have to be pretty high up in a company now to fly business class … its taxpayers’ money,” Barr said.
“These are very senior public servants and you know there’s lots of travel that gets declined,” Bowen responded.
“We’re not talking about junior clerks, we’re talking about some of the most senior people in our public service.”
Bowen said all travel expenses were closely scrutinised before approval.
“There’ll always be public servants travelling, representing our country,” he said.
The news comes amid reports the government is set to spend almost $150 million funding Bowen’s new role as president of negotiations at the next major UN climate conference, Conference of the Parties (COP), with more than 100 bureaucrats reportedly assembled to support the effort.
Defending the costs, Bowen clarified the actual cost of Australia’s role at COP was closer to $50 million as part of a broader $150 million engagement in the Pacific.
He acknowledged it was “a lot of money” but noted this kind of “important” work does “come at a cost”.
“When John Howard chaired APEC, it cost money. When Tony Abbott chaired G20, it cost money,” Bowen said.
Barr dismissed talk of previous government spending as largely irrelevant to the current economic climate.
“The difference is this time we have more influence,” Bowen said. “Now the Liberal Party says we’re only 1 per cent of emissions so we shouldn’t bother. When we have a chance to influence 100 per cent of emissions, they say this is terrible too.”
“This is very important for Australia and for our region and for the Pacific to actually have a chance to impact on some of these international discussions,” he said.
Bowen insisted the government was keeping costs as low as possible, noting the event would primarily be held in Turkey rather than Australia, with Turkey taking on much of the expense.
