Key Points
- The federal education department said staff had spent $12,637.31 at fine dining restaurants over six months.
- The average cost per person for the dinners was $81 but the highest was $171.
- Dining out on taxpayer cash has been curtailed for education department staff.
Dining out at taxpayer expense will be curtailed for federal education department staff after more than $12,000 in restaurant bills were made public.
Department secretary Tony Cook was criticised by Liberal senator Sarah Henderson in a parliamentary hearing about the cost of his staff holding meetings at high-end restaurants.
"No matter who it is, holding a meeting should be in a meeting room with a cup of tea and a biscuit," Henderson said on Thursday.
In answers to questions on notice, the department said staff had spent $12,637.31 at fine dining restaurants across Australia and South Korea over six months.
Fine dining venues including Mezzalira and Courgette in Canberra, Ginger Indian in Sydney and Mabu Mabu in Melbourne were used for meetings and the cost of the meals was claimed on expenses.
The average cost per person for the dinners was $81 but the highest — at Mezzalira — was $171.
Henderson characterised the spending as "flagrant waste" and called it "restaurant rorts".
"I'm in furious agreement with you," Cook told the committee.
His agency's hospitality and travel policy was revised to reflect Australian Tax Office rates, which meant most of the restaurants listed were now out of range.
Staff are now expected to expense $77 or less for meals.
Cook raised the changes with Education Minister Jason Clare. "We have let the taxpayers down in terms of what they would expect from public servants," he said.
"It should not have happened."
