Tourism Australia has refused to say how a lot taxpayer cash was spent protecting its most well-paid govt in free lodging in an prosperous Sydney suburb as he rode out the primary 9 months of the coronavirus pandemic earlier than returning to his submit in China.
Crikey can reveal Tourism Australia’s China-based govt basic supervisor for jap markets and aviation, Andrew Hogg, spent most of 2020 in Australia whereas persevering with to obtain the beneficiant advantages related along with his posting in Shanghai.
Tourism Australia ignored lots of the questions Crikey despatched whereas reporting this story, together with how a lot it price to fly Hogg’s household forwards and backwards to China on a number of events. Nonetheless, the company could also be extra forthcoming when it faces a grilling later tonight at Senate estimates.
Potential queries may also embody the firing of three staff who blew $137,441 of taxpayer cash on vacation journeys, an incident Crikey revealed in April.
Hogg is by far essentially the most extremely paid worker on the company. With all advantages, allowances, superannuation and his base wage included, he earned $819,983 in the latest monetary yr. By comparability, Hogg’s boss, Tourism Australia managing director Phillipa Harrison, earned a complete of $536,792.
The one particular determine Tourism Australia provided in response to Crikey’s questions was $57,329: the price of relocating Hogg when he left China earlier this yr to settle again in Australia.
Annual studies present Hogg acquired a complete of $453,374 in advantages and allowances throughout the two monetary years from 2019 to 2021. No different executives had been listed in annual studies as receiving any such advantages.
Tourism Australia confirmed Hogg spent 9 of these months in Australia, from January 2020 to September, after he grew to become caught in Australia in following a household journey to Perth.
“Mr Hogg’s whole ‘different advantages and allowances’ are included in annual studies, consistent with reporting necessities, and embody lodging bills in Australia throughout the pandemic, when he was unable to return to China,” a Tourism Australia spokesperson informed Crikey.
The company mentioned all advantages and allowances had been paid out in accordance with Hogg’s present contractual preparations, and Crikey will not be suggesting any wrongdoing.
In line with sources who labored at Tourism Australia on the time, Hogg lived along with his household in a home within the prosperous Sydney suburb of Manly whereas China’s borders had been shut (the nation shut its borders to foreigners from March 28 to September 28, 2020). In line with an actual property web site, the typical home lease in Manly in 2020 was $1,500 per week.
One supply mentioned that whereas Hogg is properly preferred by many colleagues, the free Sydney lease association raised a number of eyebrows amongst employees. “There was at all times chatter when the annual report was launched and the chief salaries had been revealed, together with Hogg’s allowance,” the supply mentioned.
As a result of the time Hogg spent in Australia straddles two completely different monetary years — and since Tourism Australia has refused to interrupt the funds down by calendar years — it’s not doable to say how a lot of the allowances and advantages had been paid out whereas Hogg was in Australia.
The company mentioned Hogg’s household footed their very own invoice for the January 2020 vacation to Perth. After the Australian authorities shut the nation’s borders on February 1, Tourism Australia paid for Hogg’s lodging in Sydney, the company mentioned. When Hogg returned to Tourism Australia’s Shanghai workplace in September 2020, the company paid for the flights, though a direct query from Crikey about how a lot that transfer price was ignored.
One ex-Tourism Australia worker who spoke to Crikey on the situation of anonymity mentioned the company often employs employees in international areas underneath the native employment circumstances of the nation the place they work. In company parlance, these staff are often called “domestically engaged” and are most frequently not Australian residents.
“There aren’t any advantages until you’ve got negotiated them in [advance], and even then it might solely be for very senior folks [like Hogg] this may apply,” the particular person mentioned.
Workers who transfer overseas after being transferred internally typically obtain a relocation allowance, but it surely’s often a lot smaller than Hogg’s bundle — a typical relocation allowance may embody paid flights and a month’s lodging, the supply mentioned.
Hogg joined Tourism Australia in 2015 after a protracted profession with Qantas Airways. In line with Hogg’s LinkedIn, Tourism Australia promoted him from regional basic supervisor in China to govt basic supervisor in April 2020. He describes himself as accountable for the company’s Asian operations and the “international function of aviation inside Tourism Australia”.
