Tourism Australia calls in anti-corruption body over staff sacked over travel expenses

The fallout from Tourism Australia having sacked three staff members over their travel expenses has seen the national tourism body call in the National Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate the matter.

Appearing before a Senate committee in Canberra, Tourism Australia Managing Director Phillipa Harrison said the spending had been uncovered in October 2023 when the agency's own staff detected the misuse of funds by a senior employee and two of their China-based colleagues.

Having spent $137,441 of taxpayer money on personal holiday trips, the trio have since been sacked from the agency.

Tourism Australia, which did not comment on the matter until asked by the Crickey publication in April, referred the matter to the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) for further investigation on 21st January this year.

Speaking about the fraud, Harrison told the Committee today “the three employees undertook personal travel that was booked through Tourism Australia's corporate travel agent, and was invoiced to Tourism Australia.

"Tourism Australia demanded that the three individuals repay the full amount of the travel, and that full amount was $137,441, and that was fully repaid to Tourism Australia in December 2023."

Harrison was reluctant to go into further detail about the incident, saying Tourism Australia was awaiting a response from the NACC about the situation.

In response to a Senator’s questions, Harrison did commit to providing details on how many trips were booked by the staff, the destinations for the travel or whether the body’s Chief Financial Officer was one of the staff involved.

Harrison added “the NACC has advised me that I'm unable to provide the further details on the roles and the people involved until they have finished their investigations.

"To do so may compromise current or potential investigations, and prematurely impact the reputations of individuals in circumstances.

"The legislation enacted by parliament intends to avoid that by requiring that investigations, generally, be conducted in private and that information concerning them is not to be disclosed."

Federal Tourism and Trade Minister Don Farrell said Harrison would make a public interest immunity claim to outline the situation.

He advised "I have to say, this is the first time in my experience where a direction from the NACC has directed an official not to make a public statement," he said.

"This does present some significant issues which I myself would like to get clarified.”

Harrison said Senator Farrell's office had been made aware of the situation in late 2023.

The matter has not been referred to authorities.

Image: Ruby the Roo, voiced by actor Rose Byrne, is the face of Tourism Australia's current international promotion campaign. Credit: Tourism Australia.