Blast for new council trips to China, Japan

Hamish Heard
A Melbourne councillor has attacked Geelong colleagues for “excessive” waste on overseas trips and fancy cars.
Ratepayers will spend more than $15,000 in overseas travel expenses for councillors and other City officials in the next month as Mayor Peter McMullin awaits delivery of a new mayoral limousine.
Cr John Mitchell will join the mayor, a City Hall officer and Geelong Otway Tourism boss Roger Grant on a trip to Japan in two weeks. Cr McMullin will also travel to China with a City official next month.
City of Glen Eira councillor Helen Whiteside, who pays rates on two properties around Geelong, said council’s spending habits had left her “outraged”.
“I wouldn’t live like that if it was somebody else paying for it,” Cr Whiteside said.
“As a ratepayer, I question the importance of both trips and say that if they want to jet all over the world they can pay for it themselves.”
Cr Whiteside contrasted her city’s four per cent rate rise this year with Geelong’s hike of 6.9 per cent.
“At Glen Eira we’ve banned all ove-rseas trips for councillors and we’ve scrapped the mayoral car, which cost ratepayers $15,000 a year,” she said.
Cr Whiteside believed that councils should leave drumming up foreign investment to state and federal governments.
Cr McMullin considered his second trip to China in less than a year as essential.
He wanted “direct contact” with the “main players” in an Australia-China Business Council.
“The potential financial benefits are enormous,” Cr McMullin said.
He would travel to Japan to invite Chiba Lotte Marines baseball team fans to visit Geelong when the side returned for a second training camp next year.
“Once again, it is essential that direct contact is maintained with our partners in this very successful project,” Cr McMullin said.
A City spokesperson said the trip to China would cost about $5000 and Japan almost $10,000.