PM's packing? The butler did it

Kevin Rudd. Photo / Reuters

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was accused yesterday of employing a taxpayer-funded butler during overseas trips.

Opposition politicians claimed that a "travel assistant" listed as a member of Rudd's staff was a Jeeves-type figure who shined his shoes and put out his clothes each morning.

Harking back to Rudd's promise to help working families in Australia, Senator Michael Ronaldson asked a parliamentary committee: "How many working families have a butler?"

Senator Ronaldson claimed: "We've got this man who is travelling overseas with a butler or a valet or a footman or man-servant."

But Rudd's staff insisted that the travel assistant merely helped him with invitations, gifts and travel arrangements.

- INDEPENDENT