Fed: Conservative columnist wrote speeches for Downer: report

AAP General News (Australia)
02-22-2007
Fed: Conservative columnist wrote speeches for Downer: report

MELBOURNE, Feb 22 AAP - A conservative News Limited columnist was paid more than $11,000
of taxpayers' money to write speeches for Foreign Minister Alexander Downer.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) outsourced several ministerial speeches,
including a July 2005 address to the Hillsong Church in Sydney, to a recruitment firm
that engaged columnist Christopher Pearson to write them, Fairfax newspapers reported
today.

Mr Pearson was paid $11,364 by the government for the speeches.

Other speeches written for Mr …