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Tourism Australia fired three staff in October, including a senior employee, over their use of taxpayer funds on private travel.

Revealed last month by Crikey, the dismissals, which had been kept out of the headlines for six months, saw a senior employee of the Federal Government agency and two of their China-based colleagues fired for spending $137,441 of taxpayer money on personal holiday trips.

The Federal agency became aware of the incident on 20th October last year and made the trio pay back the money.

When contacted by Crikey, a Tourism Australia spokesperson advised “each had undertaken personal travel booked and paid through Tourism Australia’s travel agent.

“The individuals involved have paid Tourism Australia back the full amount and they are no longer with the organisation.”

Crikey’s sources indicated that inside Tourism Australia 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.

A current and a former Tourism Australia employee told Crikey one of the people who was fired was a senior staff member who worked out of offices in Australia. The other two sacked employees were more junior and based in China.

Tourism Australia refused to confirm or deny that the senior employee was one of the people let go, citing Privacy Act obligations, but acknowledged it has a new staff member acting in that role and said it plans to recruit for the same role “in due course”. The person acting in the role lists January 2024 as their start date on their LinkedIn page, and they were recruited externally.

Tourism Australia Managing Director, Philippa Harrison (pictured) reportedly told an all-staff meeting on 7th December about a “breach of policies” and announced the senior staffer’s departure.

The Tourism Australia spokesperson said “all TA staff were reminded of their obligations under TA policies” at the meeting.

Crikey indicated that regular auditing of Tourism Australia activities may have revealed the spending.

The Tourism Australia spokesperson advised that after the breach was discovered in October last year, the agency did a sweep of its records, stating that it “moved swiftly to conduct a comprehensive review of travel records, dating back several years, and found no further policy breaches.”

The Federal agency, which is responsible for promoting Australia as a tourist destination, employs 186 staff and has offices in Sydney, China, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, the UK and the USA.

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