An exercise in the Prime Minister’s foreign policy vanity is likely to cost the Australian taxpayers in excess of $1 million dollars, most of which will need to be absorbed by the already dangerously under-funded Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Senator Russell Trood, the Chair of the Senate References Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade said.

 

At a Senate Estimates hearing in Canberra today, it was revealed that the Australian taxpayers will pay for over 100 state and academic representatives to attend the three-day Asia Pacific Community conference to be held in Sydney in early December.

 

The guests will travel “by water” to a yet-undisclosed venue, and stay in “very, very nice” hotels, according to the representatives of the Department at the hearing. The Government will also pay for most of them to travel to Australia.

 

The conference will explore the Prime Minister’s grand proposal to create an Asia Pacific Community, which he imagines to bring together countries as disparate as United States, Japan and China. However, it is not clear whether any heads of state other than Mr. Rudd will be in attendance.

 

Senator Trood said that the ambitious proposal is a waste of taxpayers’ money and DFAT’s paltry resources.

 

“The idea of an Asia-Pacific community has received no support around the region, and is dead in the water as far as most of our neighbours and friends are concerned,” Senator Trood said.

 

“Not withstanding the fact that there is no indication as to how this proposal would relate to the already existing elements of the regional architecture, President Obama’s representative to the region has also all but dismissed the idea of the US joining APC.

 

“Only an idealistic multilateralist with the arrogance of Mr. Rudd would seriously imagine that Australia is capable of winning over regional support for such a grandiose plan.

 

 “It was rather presumptuous of Mr. Rudd to announce the APC without any consultation with our regional friends. But it is foolish and irresponsible to spend the taxpayers’ money on a hopeless venture he does not have the good grace to walk away from.”

 

Senator Trood has also stressed that Australia’s diplomatic resources are already stretched, and should not be wasted on another pointless exercise.

 

“In Opposition, Mr. Rudd waxed lyrical on the need to ensure that increased resources were provided to DFAT.

 

“However, the Department remains seriously under-resourced and the Government is compounding the problem by its very ambitious policy agenda and its penny-pinching failure to provide any significant increases in funding.”