THERE is no plausible reason why Australian taxpayers should have to foot the $400,000 bill expected for the rescue by the icebreaker Aurora Australis of climate change scientists trapped in Antarctica. The expedition has become, as it was always likely to be, a complete and utter farce. Similarly, it is hard to fathom why taxpayers should be expected to cover the $35,000 cost of extricating Tasmanian Greenpeace activist Colin Russell from a Russian jail when he defied cautionary advice from the Australian government not to travel to Russia to join a Greenpeace demonstration. Mr Russell's determination to join a protest over Arctic oil drilling was always bound to provoke a heavy-handed response from the Russian government. Mr Russell and the climate change scientists in Antarctica are dependent on taxpayers meeting the cost of their foreign escapades. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop deserves support for the inquiry she has ordered into how best to recover the cost to government of helping Australians who get into trouble through their own careless or criminal actions. It is not an easy matter. Governments do, as Ms Bishop's consular review has been told, have a fundamental responsibility to protect their citizens who get into difficulties overseas. Nobody should dispute this. But a line has to be drawn between those who get into trouble through no fault of their own and those who wilfully embark on mischief-making stunts designed to flout the laws of other countries. It is unconscionable to expect taxpayers to bear the cost of providing consular assistance in such circumstances. It is imperative that a more equitable set of rules is established that will discriminate between innocent victims of circumstance and others who have only themselves to blame. There is no case that could be made, for example, in helping Australian jihadists who fight in Syria and end up in trouble.
Mr Russell has not assisted his cause by showing such ingratitude about the help he received. Ms Bishop intervened personally with senior Russian ministers, while Australian diplomatic and consular staff made countless representations. His carping is misplaced. It would be unjustified for Greenpeace, a wealthy, multinational organisation, to do anything other than meet the cost of the assistance he received from the government. Similarly, there is a clear case not only for Australian taxpayers not to have to stump up for the cost of the Antarctic rescue mission, but also for the Antarctic Division in Hobart to look to organisers of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition for compensation for losses from the diversion of the Aurora Australis. Shipowners from China and France, too, have been left with hefty bills, while a US Navy ship has now also been dispatched to help sort out the mess left by what was clearly an ill-conceived and badly timed expedition. The irony of climate change alarmists going to the Antarctic to prove the extent to which ice caps are melting and then getting stuck because there is so much ice around has earned ridicule. As comical as that is, however, it should not detract from the importance of ensuring that the costs of their folly are not charged to taxpayers. Ms Bishop is right to want to address this growing problem. It is out of control. Australians are tired of having to pay for the follies of those who have only themselves to blame for the trouble they get into.
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