Perth Voice Interactive

AUSTRALIA’S most jetsetting Australian lord mayor, Perth’s Lisa Scaffidi, is off again to China at a cost to ratepayers of $4,400.

The four-day tour of sister cities Nanjing and Chengdu is being organised by StudyPerth, a peak industry body for education institutes that aims to promote Perth as a good destination for foreign students.

Cr Jemma Green voted against sending Ms Scaffidi, saying she’d already called for the lord mayor to step aside pending an SAT investigation.

Cr Reece Harley was also a nay, saying StudyPerth already receives a substantial council grant and should pay for the mayor’s trip.He also wants the state government to contribute since the trips are supposed to benefit the whole metropolitan area, but Perth’s ratepayers are footing the whole bill.

Cr Lily Chen is originally from Nanjing and said sister city relationships are very important to the Chinese. Cr Chen said they have a deep respect for authority figures and the lord mayor going along would give the delegation gravitas and help open doors.

The spend was eventually approved and Ms Scaffidi defended her other trips  — 112 in seven years according to the department of local government report.

She said 14 trips were for personal travel and 18 were related to her position on the Australian Press Council.

But the remainder still overshadow Australia’s second-most flighty mayor: Melbourne’s Robert Doyle was elected the same time as Ms Scaffidi but has been on 34 trips in the same period.

Ms Scaffidi said: “I appreciate the numerical number is confronting to some people, and some people would like to think these “trips” are holidays. They are work-related trips.”

by DAVID BELL