Airservices Australia boss quizzed over taxpayer-funded dinner in Canberra

Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie grills Airservices Australia CEO Jason Harfield over $1889 dinner at Canberra restaurant.

Transcript

00:00 Did the $1,889 dinner include alcohol?

00:08 It would have, yes.

00:10 Yes? Okay.

00:12 Is that standard practice?

00:15 With a meal like that, there would be alcohol being part of the...

00:19 As part of the policy of Air Services Australia?

00:21 It is part of the policy in reasonableness with the meal.

00:24 On notice, can you table the menu and the drinks?

00:29 Yes, Madam.

00:31 So they're all managers?

00:33 Yes, they're all part of the executive management.

00:35 Okay.

00:36 And so would that constitute a gift to staff, given the...

00:41 This isn't something you do after every management meeting, is it?

00:46 If I've got all the managers team in town for a particular meeting,

00:51 then normally we would have a dinner at some stage.

00:53 And would you shout everybody, or do they all have their own carts?

00:57 No, no, no. The most senior person in the room at the time

01:00 is the one that puts on their credit card.

01:02 Well, when we say shout, it's the taxpayer's shout, isn't it?

01:05 Well, it's the organisation's money, which is the people's money.

01:10 That's right.

01:12 So what would be...

01:19 So for this dinner, that I think it roughly adds up to $171 per person,

01:26 what would be the average wage of people at this dinner?

01:31 And I...

01:33 Because not all of them are in the...

01:36 No, because of the changeover in the reporting...

01:39 So we would be talking...

01:41 A couple of people on over half a mil.

01:44 So we're talking about, let's just say, on average, $400,000.

01:47 $400,000.

01:53 On average, 11 people earning over $400,000 a year

01:59 having a free dinner, thanks to the taxpayer.

02:03 Thank you.