Hodgman, Goodwin To Attend $300,000 Shanghai Lunch

Tasmanian Premier Will Hodgman and Attorney General Vanessa Goodwin will attend a $300,000 taxpayer-funded 'Gala Lunch' in Shanghai on Thursday April 14 along with PM Turnbull. Hodgman's itinerary is here and Goodwin's is here.

Hodgman meets minor official

From Adam Gartrell Government contract documents reveal Austrade – and therefore taxpayers – will pay the five-star Grand Hyatt Hotel $284,962 to cater the lunch. That comes on top of a $265,000 bill for venue hire at the Shanghai Expo Centre, although the lunch is only one of a number of events being held there throughout the week.
And it's costing significantly more than the same event in 2014. The first AWIC gala lunch, attended by former prime minister Tony Abbott, cost about $230,000 for venue hire and catering, according to official documents.
The lunch will be attended by about 1800 people, costing approximately $160 a head.
More Aussies than Chinese WTF?
The crowd will consist of a 1000-strong Australian business delegation led by Trade Minister Steve Ciobo and about 800 Chinese businesspeople and government figures.
The menu will "showcase Australian products", an Austrade spokesman said.
Inside Tasmania's view. The picture above shows Hodgman meeting a minor official, the deputy mayor of Shanghai on a previous visit. Most if not all of Hodgman and Goodwins meetings are with minor officials. There are 7 lunches and banquets listed on Hodgman's 7 day China itinerary. While Tasmania struggles to keep the power on after draining it's hydro electricity dams and China struggles to hide the Panama Papers from revealing Communist Party corruption to 1.3 billion people. Does anyone need lawyers Hodgman and Goodwin wasting time at banquets in a totalitarian regime whose out of control population has already changed the Earth's climate?