Victoria’s top police officer has acknowledged it was inappropriate to use a police helicopter to travel to Tasmania to attend a conference this week.
Chief Commissioner Mike Bush travelled to Hobart on Monday using the Victoria Police Air Wing to attend an annual conference of police commissioners from Australia and New Zealand.
Pulse understands the helicopter landed at Cambridge airport at 4:31pm on Monday, at a time when severe winds prevented Tasmania’s own emergency helicopters from assisting nearby bushfire efforts at Nugent.
In a statement this morning, Bush said it was “the wrong decision” to use the police helicopter to attend the conference.
“We should have looked harder for a commercial flight,” Bush said.
“While there were no impacts on our operational capacity, community safety or financial costs to Victoria Police, as the flight fell within our contracted hours with the Air Wing provider, it creates a poor impression at a challenging time for our organisation.”
According to Victoria Police’s schedule of fees, helicopter use costs $10,217.70 for the first hour and $5,109.70 for each subsequent half hour.
A Victoria Police spokesperson earlier defended the decision, explaining that strong Tasmanian winds made using the police fleet’s fixed-wing aircraft impossible.
They said Bush had attended a counter-terror conference in Melbourne before the conference on Monday and had been unable to find a suitable commercial flight afterwards.
The force maintained the trip did not burden taxpayers with additional expenses as it fell within pre-paid monthly flying hours under their leasing arrangement.
The Victorian commissioner was not alone on the flight, travelling with his staff officer and New Zealand police commissioner Richard Chambers.
