A senior tourism Australia employee and two of their China-based colleagues were fired last year for blowing $137,441 of taxpayer money on personal holiday trips, Crikey can reveal.
The federal agency became aware of the incident on October 20 last year and made the trio pay back the money, but managed to keep the incident out of the headlines until now.
“Each had undertaken personal travel booked and paid through tourism Australia’s travel agent,” a spokesperson said when contacted by Crikey.
“The individuals involved have paid tourism Australia back the full amount and they are no longer with the organisation.”
Inside the agency, and in the tourism industry more broadly, news of the incident travelled quickly after the firings were announced at an all-staff meeting in December, sources said.
“It was shocking. It felt like a slap in the face to a lot of people,”…
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