Officials involved with the search for flight MH370, which disappeared mid-flight on 8 March 2014 with 239 souls on board, will meet in Canberra on Tuesday to discuss the way forward.
On the agenda is also the issue of how the search would be funded going forward after it was revealed that Malaysia has spent a paltry $9.3 million while Australia foot a bill of $89.9 million.
Angus Houston, former defence force chief and the official in charge of the joint search campaign, said on Tuesday, “The government has allocated $89.9m. I think about $25m of that is to go the defence force for the visual search they conducted.”
Australia’s treasurer Joe Hockey confirmed that Australia would continue to contribute to the search mission.
“It is understood that the plane went down in waters that are our responsibility, and there is a cost to having responsibility and we don’t shirk that,” he told reporters on Tuesday morning.
“We accept responsibility and will pay for it. We’re not a country that begs others for money to do our job,” added Hockey.
