Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie grills Airservices Australia CEO Jason Harfield over $1889 dinner at Canberra restaurant.
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00:00 Did the $1,889 dinner include alcohol?
00:08 It would have, yes.
00:10 Yes? Okay.
00:12 Is that standard practice?
00:15 With a meal like that, there would be alcohol being part of the...
00:19 As part of the policy of Air Services Australia?
00:21 It is part of the policy in reasonableness with the meal.
00:24 On notice, can you table the menu and the drinks?
00:29 Yes, Madam.
00:31 So they're all managers?
00:33 Yes, they're all part of the executive management.
00:35 Okay.
00:36 And so would that constitute a gift to staff, given the...
00:41 This isn't something you do after every management meeting, is it?
00:46 If I've got all the managers team in town for a particular meeting,
00:51 then normally we would have a dinner at some stage.
00:53 And would you shout everybody, or do they all have their own carts?
00:57 No, no, no. The most senior person in the room at the time
01:00 is the one that puts on their credit card.
01:02 Well, when we say shout, it's the taxpayer's shout, isn't it?
01:05 Well, it's the organisation's money, which is the people's money.
01:10 That's right.
01:12 So what would be...
01:19 So for this dinner, that I think it roughly adds up to $171 per person,
01:26 what would be the average wage of people at this dinner?
01:31 And I...
01:33 Because not all of them are in the...
01:36 No, because of the changeover in the reporting...
01:39 So we would be talking...
01:41 A couple of people on over half a mil.
01:44 So we're talking about, let's just say, on average, $400,000.
01:47 $400,000.
01:53 On average, 11 people earning over $400,000 a year
01:59 having a free dinner, thanks to the taxpayer.
02:03 Thank you.