In Senate Estimates hearings last night,  an official from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) revealed that the report commissioned by the Prime Minister for his grand vision of an Asia Pacific Community had cost Australian taxpayers in excess of $549 000.

The information was provided in answers to questions by Queensland Senator, Russell Trood. While Senator Trood welcomed the conclusion of the report he was critical that the findings of the report would not be made public except for those released by the Prime Minister in his recent Shangri-La speech.

“This report does not amount to a great deal. In fact, the overall recommendations in the report are not a revelation. After more than a year of consultations by Special Envoy, Mr Richard Woolcott, they have come to the conclusion that there is no great enthusiasm amongst our Asia-Pacific neighbours for a new regional architecture such as the Prime Minister is proposing. ”

“A lot of taxpayer’s money has been spent on consultations which amount to no new information. On the face of it, the kind of conclusions in the report may have been written by one of my better undergraduate students,” stated Senator Trood.  (Prior to his election to the Senate, Senator Russell Trood was an Associate Professor in International Relations.)

“The Prime Minister is pushing ahead with the idea and hosting a one and a half tracked conference at the end of the year at more expense to the Australian taxpayer for which there is no budget funding,” said Senator Trood.

The Prime Minister himself admitted in his recent address to the Shangri-la Dialogue that “it is clear that no-one wants more meetings. There is no appetite for additional institutions. It is difficult enough for leaders to make it to the range of meetings we already have.”