{"id":31490,"date":"2026-06-15T05:17:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T05:17:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/31490\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T05:17:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T05:17:13","slug":"melbourne-lord-mayor-nick-reeces-27k-local-travel-bill-revealed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/31490\/","title":{"rendered":"Melbourne Lord Mayor Nick Reece\u2019s $27k local travel bill revealed"},"content":{"rendered":"

During 2025, Mr Reece billed ratepayers $27,600.49 for \u201clocal travel\u201d which includes chauffeur-driven limousines, taxis, Ubers, and parking fees within Victoria. <\/p>\n

The Herald Sun asked Mr Reece if this represented good value for ratepayers and whether he still regularly used a limo service like his predecessor Sally Capp \u2013 who spent more than $33,000 in a year being chauffeured around Melbourne in luxury cars \u2013 but he refused to answer.<\/p>\n

Instead, an anonymous City of Melbourne spokesperson defended Mr Reece\u2019s local travel bill. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe expenses reflect the significant demands on the Lord Mayor to attend a wide range of engagements, including events held outside business hours and on weekends, where he represents and advocates for the city,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

However, Mr Reece\u2019s love for travelling overseas<\/a> and locally has raised eyebrows at Town Hall. <\/p>\n

A senior Town Hall source said they had seen Mr Reece regularly using ratepayer-funded limos. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe chauffer service still definitely gets a solid amount of cash from Town Hall whisking the Lord Mayor between appointments,\u201d the source said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf Nick Reece isn\u2019t travelling internationally in business class, he\u2019s getting a chauffeur-driven limo around Melbourne. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a pretty terrible look given we are in a cost-of-living crisis and people are struggling to pay their rates.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Herald Sun recently revealed that Mr Reece had visited the same number of countries overseas than all the other capital city lord mayors in Australia combined<\/a>. <\/p>\n

This financial year, he has visited China, Japan, Brazil and India. On Saturday, he left for his trip to Singapore and the UK \u2013 where he will attend the London Climate Action Week from June 22 to 24.<\/p>\n

Council Watch president Dean Hurlston said Mr Reece should do more to reduce the cost of his local and overseas travel as ratepayers were already doing it tough. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s becoming really difficult for ordinary Victorians to swallow these costs. There always seems to be some \u2018excuse\u2019 that it was necessary,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cPeople can\u2019t afford their rates and council cries poor \u2013 we know where the money is going, private cars.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s time councillors and politicians stopped milking the teat of public funds.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Herald Sun also recently revealed that City of Melbourne councillors and staff had spent almost $300,000 in overseas and interstate travel within 18 months.<\/p>\n

The Town Hall source said senior staff and several councillors did not properly value ratepayer funds.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a culture of entitlement that shows up very prominently when you look at how much travel Town Hall staff and councillors engage in,\u201d the source said. <\/p>\n

In the 2026-27 City of Melbourne budget, Mr Reece broke his promise to keep parking fees at the same level for this four-year council term<\/a> and increased them by 30 cents per hour. <\/p>\n

City of Melbourne ratepayers were also slugged an average rate rise of 5.75 per cent in the 2026-27 budget, as Mr Reece delivered effectively a double rates rise for next financial year after a one-year temporary discount in the 2025-26 budget.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"During 2025, Mr Reece billed ratepayers $27,600.49 for \u201clocal travel\u201d which includes chauffeur-driven limousines, taxis, Ubers, and parking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31491,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[124,297,23,133,29026,3708,19769,29025,29024,29016,2285,8625,950,29022,2288,29034,11131,29020,2416,29031,29033,29028,29032,15984,29030,260,908,120,29023,29035,29019,29018,2417,29029,7016,5792,291,29017,29021,29027,68],"class_list":["post-31490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-melbourne","tag-america","tag-asia","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-average-rate-rise","tag-brazil","tag-capital-city","tag-chauffer-service","tag-chauffeur-driven-car-trips","tag-chauffeured-limo","tag-china","tag-cost-of-living-crisis","tag-david-caird","tag-dean-hurlston","tag-eastern-asia","tag-four-year-council-term","tag-india","tag-interstate-travel","tag-japan","tag-limo-service","tag-limo-travel","tag-limousine-travel","tag-london-climate-action-week","tag-luxury-cars","tag-mayor-racks","tag-melbourne","tag-nick-reece","tag-oceania","tag-one-year-temporary-discount","tag-parking-fees","tag-sally-capp","tag-senior-staff","tag-singapore","tag-slugs-ratepayers","tag-south-america","tag-south-eastern-asia","tag-southern-asia","tag-time-councillors","tag-travel-bill","tag-value-ratepayer-funds","tag-victoria"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31490\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}