Australia’s inaugural First Nations ambassador is being paid up to $326,000 a year in addition to an eye-watering $358,000 international travel budget.
First Nations envoy’s $730k travel bill for taxpayers
Justin Mohamed was appointed inaugural First Nations ambassador in 2023 and was tasked with ‘implementing a First Nations approach to foreign policy’. His office’s travel bill exceeds $730.000 dollars.
Justin Mohamed, an imported Mohammedan in a suit, hired by leftist Moonbats to speak for Abo tribes. Tribes he never met and probably never will and to squander the wealth of a nation created by infidels:
Mindblowing sums Australia’s First Nations ambassador to the world has splurged on limos, airport transfers from his sprawling estate and business class flights around the world
- Justin Mohamed is Australia’s First Nations People Ambassador
- The role did not exist anywhere in the world before March 2023
- Labor then gave him a $358,000 travel budget
Australia’s inaugural First Nations People’s Ambassador spent about $145,000 on business class flights and splurged hundreds each time on private transfers to and from his sprawling estate – and taxpayers covered it all.
Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong and former Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney appointed Justin Mohamed to the newly-created ambassador role in March 2023.
His job was originally to ‘engage regional partners on the Voice, Treaty, Truth process’, but that part of the position was rendered irrelevant when Australia voted No to the Voice referendum in October.
Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong and former Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney appointed Justin Mohamed, a Gooreng Gooreng man from Bundaberg in Queensland, to the world-first ambassador role in March 2023.
The Albanese government said the non-elected position would ‘ensure, for the first time, Australia will have dedicated Indigenous representation in our international engagement’.
Mr Mohamed spent about $145,000 on business class flights and splurged hundreds of dollars each time on private transfers to and from his sprawling estate – and taxpayers covered it all.
His job was originally to ‘engage regional partners on the Voice, Treaty, Truth process’, but that part of the position was rendered irrelevant when Australia voted No to the Voice referendum in October.
Instead, the Albanese government gave Mr Mohamed a $358,000 travel budget to fly business class all over the world with a colleague or two in order to represent First Nations views at bilateral forums and conferences
Justin Mohamed, Australia’s First Nations People Ambassador, is pictured with his wife Janine
Almost 180 pages of expense documents, released by Senator Wong’s office under Freedom of Information and obtained by Daily Mail Australia, reveal that Mr Mohamed went on nine overseas trips in the 2023-24 fiscal year.
He travelled to New York, Hawaii, San Francisco, Geneva, Dubai, Paris, along with major cities in Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea – all of which cost a combined $283,000. A two-week trip to Kansas City and Washington DC cost $75,022 alone.
The few domestic trips were usually return business class flights from his sprawling five-bedroom mansion in Gisborne, on the outskirts of Melbourne , to Canberra. The documents did not detail any excursions to remote Indigenous communities.
Opposition Indigenous Australians spokeswoman Jacinta Nampijinpa Price told Daily Mail Australia there was a stark contrast between Mr Mohamed’s travel budget and the experiences of everyday Indigenous people.
Mr Mohamed expensed three limousine trips to Australian taxpayers (two receipts pictured)
‘There is a seismic gap between the kinds of money being spent on travel by the First Nations Ambassador and the lives of our most marginalised Australians,’ she said.
‘If these taxpayer funded trips are truly warranted, then Anthony Albanese needs to be clear about the outcomes being achieved and how the lives of our marginalised are being improved.
‘As a result of questioning the government in the course of Estimates earlier this year, I continue to have doubts as to the practical benefit made by the Ambassador to the lives of Indigenous Australians.
She said the Coalition would abolish Mr Mohamed’s position if elected to government in 2025.
‘We must prioritise investment in improving the lives of Indigenous Australians here at home before spending these significant amounts of money on a position that Indigenous Australians don’t even have the ability to make representations to.’
According to the documents, Mr Mohamed normally travelled with at least one colleague whose expenses were accounted for in the overall budget.
The paperwork included the reasons behind each trip, which spanned from ‘representing First Nations perspectives in climate change‘ to ‘joining ministerial dialogues on Indigenous trade’.
Expenses were all approved by Department of Foreign Affairs (DFAT) staff, including $30,000 for hotels at all nine international destinations, $13,000 for food and cab fares, and $102,000 for business class flights.
Mr Mohamed would often send ground transport receipts after each trip, which included multiple $200 return fare bills for a private transfer from his Gisborne home to Melbourne Airport.
Daily Mail Australia contacted Mr Mohamed for comment, but he referred all questions to DFAT.
A spokesperson for Senator Wong said the ambassador and his team were ‘delivering results for all Australians, including our First Nations communities’ – but did not explain those any further, despite being asked to do so.