Senate Environment and Communications Legislation Committee, , 1:59:59 to 2:03:32
Senators question a $682,000 limited tender contract for accommodation and meeting rooms at a Sydney hotel for COP31 preparatory events.
Topics: COP31, Government spending
Speakers: Sally Box, Hon Sarah Henderson, Unknown Speaker, Ms. Sally Box
there was personal information that could have been redacted. Why weren't those documents provided?
>> I'd have to I actually don't recall the details of that FOI request, Senator, in the level of detail u that you're asking them now. So I'd have to take that question on notice.
Thank you. Uh can you confirm the total cost of accommodation for Miss Higgins? So I've
I've provided information for three trips, Senator. Um there are two other trips that uh Sally Higgins has undertaken and I can provide you with the flights and accommodation costs of those two trips and I can quickly add it up if you would like me to. Um but I just have the individual trip details
>> All right. If you could, I'll go I just want to go quickly to another question. So, while we're going to that, you might want to add that up for me. That would be great. Uh, can I I want to ask about contract notice CN4278291. Uh, this was a $682,000 contract for accommodation and meeting room services. Uh, who who would be the appropriate person to ask about that contract? The contract notice. We're trying to I'm trying to understand the purpose of the contract. The contract notice states that the contract was a limited tender with extreme urgency or events unforeseen.
>> Can you please can you please repeat the contract number?
>> Sure. CN 427 8291.
so I can take that senator. So that is for um a range of events that were held in Sydney in September. So there were the purpose of that contract was to secure a suitable venue for a range of um activities uh related to our responsibilities as COP 31 president of negotiations. So that included for example a standing committee finance forum. um it included a mitigation work program, glo global dialogue and investment focused event. It included a workshop on the just transition mechanism. So these are either mandated events under the UNF that we were hosting in Australia or uh they were they were workshops to support uh the facilitation of conversations between delegations on negotiations related issues.
>> So this is nearly a 34 of a million dollars for accommodation and meeting room services. How many meetings are we talking about?
>> So I mentioned three and there are at least a couple of others as well. So we decided to try to host all of these meetings in a common location. Um so there were multiple events holding multi hosting multiple delegates from from around the world
>> in the one meeting location
>> in the in the through the one provider.
>> What do you mean one provider? So it was
through the
>> what was the location? Was it a hotel or facility?
>> It was a hotel in Sydney and the provider was the trustee for the Darling Harour Hotel Trust. The name of the hotel has escaped me right now, but I
>> So this is one hotel where meetings were held in one hotel and there's a contract for $682,000.
So it was m multiple events and each event was multi-day and we were hosting uh multiple international delegates.
>> How much was in accommodation cost out out of that amount?