Future Fund spent $20,000 to send CEO’s executive assistant on business class trip to scope hotels in US

Government also reveals it spent nearly $100,000 sending minister Anika Wells and two others to US during UN general assembly

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The Future Fund spent $20,000 to send the CEO’s then-executive assistant on a scoping trip to assess hotels in the US and negotiate hotel rates, Senate estimates has been told.

It comes as the government is also under fire for charging taxpayers nearly $100,000 to send the communications minister, Anika Wells, her staff member and a department official to the US during the UN general assembly.