RAAF jet is protecting Mathias Cormann from Covid-19, Morrison says

Labor has demanded that the government explain why it did not embrace a Zoom-based campaign for Mathias Cormann’s OECD candidacy, after Scott Morrison claimed the former finance minister would have contracted Covid-19 if he had used commercial flights.

It has also emerged Cormann is planning another leg of his travels after crisscrossing Europe in a Royal Australian Air Force plane, with further trips scheduled to two South American countries that are members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Related: Flights for Mathias Cormann’s European campaign for OECD job could cost taxpayers $4,300 an hour

Labor’s shadow finance minister, Katy Gallagher, called on the prime minister to reveal the cost of the campaign, after revelations Cormann was using an RAAF aircraft to travel around Europe – at a rate likely to be about $4,300 an hour – and has been given a support team of about eight staff.

Gallagher said the government should say “whether other options, such as a virtual campaign, were considered before agreeing to the exclusive use of one of Australia’s RAAF aircraft and any other related costs”.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has confirmed the establishment of “a small temporary campaign taskforce” to help with Cormann’s pitch to lead the OECD.

The taskforce – the details of which were first reported by news.com.au – consists of 8.5 full-time-equivalent staff. The department said the team included “a taskforce manager and campaign strategist, strategy and policy advisers, a visits manager, two graduates and a communications specialist”.

“The duties of the taskforce include coordinating advocacy by the prime minister and senior ministers, visit and travel coordination, as well as the preparation of briefs and communications materials to support the campaign,” a Dfat spokesperson said.

“This team will return to other duties at the conclusion of the campaign in around March 2021.”

Guardian Australia understands Cormann is not receiving a government salary during the campaign and is being accompanied by one Dfat officer while overseas.

Cormann has already held meetings in Turkey, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, Slovenia, Luxembourg, Belgium, Spain and Portugal, and has further visits planned to Austria, the Slovak Republic, Hungary and France.

Guardian Australia has been told Cormann also plans to travel to the South American countries of Chile and Colombia to press his case.

He will sit down for a job interview-style meeting with OECD ambassadors while in France, as he tries to defeat 10 other candidates for the role.

Guardian Australia has been told there is a view within government ranks that Cormann needs to hold in-person meetings to have more effective talks with key decision makers in each country and to give him a better chance of winning the job.

It is understood the government will not disclose the full cost of the effort until it has finished, amid claims any estimate will be inaccurate because the itinerary is evolving constantly.

Cormann is hoping to replace Ángel Gurría as secretary general when the Mexican steps down next year.

In his first public defence of the taxpayer-funded campaign, Morrison said Cormann’s travel was “funded by the government because we’re taking this bid very seriously”.

“The reason we need him to do that in the air force jet is because Covid is running rampant in Europe,” the prime minister said during an interview with the Sydney radio station 2GB on Wednesday.

“I mean, there really wasn’t the practical option to use commercial flights in the time we had available, because of Covid. I mean, if Mathias was flying around on commercial planes, he would have got Covid. The risk of that was extremely high.”

Morrison said the OECD role was very important because the Paris-based organisation would play a big part in the global economic recovery.

He said no Australianhad ever run to lead the OECD and “now we’re in the race for it”.

“Mathias would be an outstanding secretary general of the OECD, standing up for those liberal democratic market-based values which the OECD represents that are going to be so important for the economic recovery.”

Morrison noted that the Rudd government had incurred costs when it campaigned for a seat on the UN security council.

But his claim that there were no other practical options was met with incredulity among the Coalition’s political opponents, who pointed out people around the globe had switched to video conferencing during the pandemic.

Labor’s education spokeswoman, Tanya Plibersek, tweeted: “Zoom, Teams, FaceTime … all pretty much free.”

Natasha Stott Despoja, who last week won election to the UN committee on the elimination of discrimination against women, had to adapt her campaign strategy after the onset of the pandemic.

She told the Nine newspapers she had conducted her winning election campaign almost entirely by Zoom from her study in Adelaide, after an initial bout of meetings at the UN in New York in March.

Related: Greens push OECD to reject Mathias Cormann's leadership bid

The Dassault Falcon 7X, part of the RAAF fleet since early 2019, has a range of up to 11,000km. Defence says the Falcon usually has a crew of two pilots and one attendant, and can carry up to 14 passengers.

Special purpose flight records from the final six months of 2019 indicate flying the plane comes at a cost of $4,305 for every flying hour.

Cormann is also facing fresh scrutiny over his record on climate change as a long-serving senior minister in the Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison governments.

In an attempt to undercut Cormann’s outreach to European countries, the Australian Greens leader, Adam Bandt, has written to the ambassador of every nation that has a say in the OECD process to warn that appointing Cormann as secretary general would be “a blow to tackling climate change”.

Cormann has embraced the language of a “green recovery” from the pandemic and has defended the Coalition’s climate record.