Kevin 747

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has been getting carried away with his foreign policy fantasies at the expense of Australia's future.

Mr Rudd never misses an opportunity to be photographed with the world's economic and political heavyweights. Notwithstanding the current global challenges, there is no justification for spending 59 days overseas within the first year of taking office. John Howard, in contrast, spent just 18 days overseas in his first year as Prime Minister.

Year Month         Day   Location                  Nights Source
2007 December     8 – 16 East Timor and Indonesia     8     1
2007 December    20 – 24 Kuwait, Iraq, United Arab    4     2
                         Emirates and Afghanistan
2008 February      15    East Timor                   0     2
2008 March        6 – 8  Papua New Guinea and         2     2
                         Solomon Islands
2008 March/April 27 – 13 USA, Belgium, Romania, UK   17     2
                         and China
2008 June         8 – 14 Japan and Indonesia          6     2
2008 July         8 – 14 Indonesia, Malaysia          6     3
                         and Japan
2008 August       8 – 12 China, Korea and             4     3
                         Singapore
2008 August      18 – 21 New Zealand and Niue         3     3
2008 September   22 – 27 United States of America     5     3
                         (New York)
2008 November    13 – 17 United States of America     4     3
                         (Washington)
                             Total Number of Nights  59

Sources:
1. Parliamentarians Travel Paid for by Dept. of Finance, Tabled June 2008, Page 375
2. Senate Estimates May 2008, Finance & Public Administration, Question F19
3. Sourced from general media – no official documentation available to date

While overseas, Mr Rudd has

• made a dubious commitment to disarm the world of nuclear weapons;
• announced plans of an EU-style Asian community without even giving our Asian neighbours the basic courtesy of advising them beforehand;
• handed Toyota a $35 million grant, not knowing how this large sum of taxpayers' money would be spent; and
• delivered a six-minute speech at a G8 meeting.