Senator Bob Carr: The Minister for Defence has provided the following answer to the honourable senator’s question: The requirement for the Secretary and Chief of the Defence Force to travel is often necessary to meet Australia's international commitments and video teleconferencing is not an appropriate substitute. The Secretary and Chief of the Defence Force make use of videoconferencing, webcasting and other telephony services as part of their day to day management of the Department of Defence to communicate with and stay in contact with different components of Defence, our partners and allies. The travel programs of both the Secretary and Chief of the Defence Force have been structured for some time around utilisation of such technologies to the greatest extent possible and so there is no expectation that substantial further savings can be made in this regard.