According to Senate estimates, the Future Fund spent $20,000 to send the then-executive assistant to the CEO on a trip to the US to assess hotels and negotiate hotel rates.
This comes as the government is also being criticized for charging taxpayers nearly $100,000 to send Communications Minister, Anika Wells, her staff member and a department official to the US during the UN General Assembly.
The chief executive of the Future Fund, Raphael Arndt, confirmed the Senate estimates on Monday night, one of his two overseas trips flown by EA, and revealed he had dined separately at Disney’s exclusive Disney Club 33 to learn about the entertainment giant’s “cultural induction” for its teams.
Membership in Disney’s Club 33 is by invitation only and reportedly costs thousands of dollars.
ACT senator David Pocock questioned why the hotel conversation could not be made over the phone, asking, “Was there a report from there? Or what, was she checking the strength of the beds?”
Arndt said the rate negotiations have resulted in an annual savings of $30,000. The scoping trip included the former EA (who was not named) and a second person, who both flew business class.
“The view was one was, we wanted to make sure we had the proper setup for hotels, including whether they were in safe locations within cities,” Arndt said.
“And secondly, that relationships with hotel managers will help negotiate rates, and that’s what happened… I think we realized more savings than that as a result of that project.”
The Future Fund was established in 2006 and oversees a $261 billion portfolio.
Arndt said the visit took place after the COVID pandemic, leading Pocock to again question why the conversation could not have been held over Zoom.
“If you ask the average punter whether the Future Fund needs to send someone over to go and check out some hotels, they’ll probably say yes, no,” Pocock said.
On a separate visit, Arndt dined at Disney’s Club 33, which she said was intended to study the “cultural inspirations” of Disney and Disney University while the Future Fund establishes an academy to teach “culture.”
The fund’s 2025–26 corporate plan states that the academy will help “foster our culture” and “develop great leaders”.
“One of the peer groups we identified in the study was Disney and Disney University,” Arndt said.
“They do cultural motivation for their teams in a way that seems to be quite effective. And so we set up some meetings with a person involved in that activity, and took a tour of the facility, which also included lunch at the location you mention.”
On Wednesday, the government faced taxpayer questions over the bill to send Wells, his deputy chief of staff and a department official to the US in September. Wales had originally hoped to fly with Anthony Albanese at the start of the week, but they delayed their trip to deal with the Triple Zero outage.
Taxpayers were charged $95,000 for the three flights. Wells and his staff also claimed US$2,985 for accommodation, while the departmental officer claimed US$5,970 for accommodation. The three each claimed US$1,348 in ground transportation.
The Department of Communications also paid US$45,744 ($70,000) to host an event titled “Safeguarding Children in the Digital Age” at the United Nations General Assembly in the Delegates’ Dining Room. Wells also held meetings with senior executives from Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon and participated in numerous events and panels.
Wales defended the spending at the National Press Club on Wednesday, saying the trip was “incredibly important”.
“The reason you know all those things is because we are transparent about them, we will disclose them and we will continue to disclose them… That incident spurred global momentum in this area.”
The shadow special minister of state, James McGrath, said the cost was “disappointing”.
“When Australians are facing a cost-of-living crisis, they don’t want to find out that the federal Labor Minister is spending $35,000 commuting to New York, and that’s just the minister’s airfare.”
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