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August 12, 2025
Tuesday 12 August 2025
Lily McCaffrey
The Australian
Future Fund chiefs including chairman Greg Combet spent about $180,000 on dozens of domestic and international flights and hotels in just one year – but the publicly owned investment giant is refusing to reveal the travel bill for the rest of its 300-plus staff and executives.
The Future Fund released the expenses for the former acting chairman, the current chairman, six directors and its chief executive officer in response to a Freedom of Information request from The Australian, but blocked the release of travel costs for its staff including the other eight members of its executive team in 2024-25.
The investment fund, which manages more than $300bn on behalf of the federal government, rejected The Australian’s request for details surrounding travel, entertainment and corporate credit card expenditure for its staff and a range of internal financial management documents, claiming it would divert resources from its core business.
“I intend to refuse the request as I consider that the work involved in processing the request would substantially and unreasonably divert the resources of the agency from its other operations,” the Future Fund said.
The Australian then agreed to drop the request for the internal financial management documents and focus the FOI request just on travel expenses, entertainment and credit card use.
But again, the Future Fund rejected the substantially narrowed request and only agreed to release the bills for the chairman, CEO and board members.
Documents released to The Australian show Mr Combet and Mary Reemst, while acting chair of the board, together racked up a total of $29,740 on flights and $18,074 in accommodation – including a stay by Mr Combet at the luxury five-star Refinery Hotel in Manhattan – last financial year.
“From 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2025, the chair and acting chair of the board took 12 domestic trips while the chair took one international trip encompassing London, New York, Boston, Chicago and Palo Alto,” the Future Fund said.
“During these trips the chair and acting chair stayed at accommodation including the Refinery Hotel, as well as hotels operated by the Bisa, Hyatt, InterContinental, Marriott and Sheraton groups.”
Meanwhile, CEO Raphael Arndt spent a total of $97,638 on flights and accommodation in FY24-25 and also enjoyed a stay at the Refinery Hotel.
“From 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2025, the CEO of the agency took 17 domestic trips and three international trips including one trip encompassing London, New York, Boston, Chicago and Palo Alto, one trip between Melbourne and New York, and one trip between Melbourne and Los Angeles,” the Future Fund said.
“During these trips the CEO stayed at accommodation including the Refinery Hotel, as well as hotels operated by the Bisa, Doma, Hyatt, InterContinental, Marriott, Hilton, Fullerton, Four Seasons and Sheraton groups.”
In the same time period, the other six members of the Board of Guardians spent a total of $35,363 on flights and accommodation for 31 domestic trips, staying at hotels operated by the Hyatt, InterContinental, Marriott, Hilton and Fullerton groups.
Opposition finance spokesman James Paterson said the Future Fund was not just the guardian of billions of taxpayer dollars but also the retirement savings of federal public servants, and that nothing but the highest standards of transparency were required.
“Hiding behind process to refuse to disclose executive travel expenses doesn’t meet even the most basic standards of accountability,” Senator Paterson told The Australian.
“There is no good reason to keep this information from Australians. If the Future Fund doesn’t cough up this information voluntarily, Finance Minister Katy Gallagher should direct them to do so immediately.”
Senator Gallagher’s office was contacted for comment.
The Future Fund said all travel expenses incurred by Mr Combet, Ms Reemst, other board members and Dr Arndt related to official duties, and that none of the individuals incurred any entertainment expenses in FY24-25.
“The board invests $307.6bn in domestic and global investment markets, including through external investment managers and with the support of service providers in Australia and around the world,” the Future Fund said.
“To support prudent risk management while seeking to maximise returns, the members of the board and agency staff undertake travel including to attend board meetings, meet with external investment managers, undertake due diligence, research, learning and benchmarking.
“The agency operates two offices (one in Sydney and one in Melbourne). As the agency does not have any international offices, regular travel by board and agency representatives to meet with investment managers based overseas is required.
“All travel expenditure is undertaken through Australian government travel arrangements and under Future Fund policies and travel costs are disclosed regularly through the Senate estimates process and questions on notice,” a Future Fund spokesperson said.
“Travel is an essential part of identifying investment opportunities, prudent risk management and due diligence as it supports our ability to meet our risk and return objectives.”