Whitmer spent $219,622 on June 2025 Australia junket

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer spent $219,622 on her 11-day June 2025 trip to Australia, according to documents obtained through a records request.

The 11-day mission, billed as an effort to promote mobility and infrastructure innovation, included 14 people who traveled on the 9,473-mile trip, records obtained from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation said.

1. Chief of Staff JoAnne Huls

2. Deputy Director of Scheduling Raena Davis

3. Deputy Director of Advance Madison Ruffin

4. MEDC CEO Quentin Messer Jr.

5. Office of Future Mobility and Electrification Chief Mobility Officer Justine Johnson

6. MEDC Strategic Attraction Director and Cyber Advisor Sarah Tennant

7. MEDC Assistant Chief of Protocol Maci Gimore

8. Delta Air Lines Director of State and Local government affairs Sarah Gonzales

9. Michigan Department of Transportation Director Brad Wieferich

10. MDOT Manager of connected and automated vehicles and electrification Michele Mueller

11. Michigan Adjutant General Paul D. Rogers

12. University of Michigan College of Engineering Dean Karen Thole

13. Michigan State University College of Engineering Dean Ionnis Papapolymerou

The group stayed at the Glenmore Hotel, ate at the Grana Restaurant, the Langham Hotel, and rode the SkyRail. They ate at the Queen’s Terrace Café and visited the Stryker South Pacific Headquarters.

During that trip, Whitmer claimed to have created nearly 38,000 auto jobs since 2019, Michigan Capitol Confidential has reported.

“In Michigan, mobility and innovation are in our DNA,” Whitmer said. “We put the world on wheels, and now we’re leading the future too. Under this administration, Michigan has secured nearly 38,000 good-paying auto jobs and we are still home to more mobility R&D than any other state in the USA.”

Michigan is down 9,000 auto and part manufacturing jobs over her term, a 5.6% decrease, James Hohman, the director of Fiscal Policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, told CapCon.

“She is counting jobs from announcements, and the state has a terrible record of converting announcements into actual jobs,” Hohman wrote.

International missions are critical for the Make it in Michigan economic development strategy, Otie McKinley, the media and communications manager at the Michigan Economic Development Corporation told CapCon in an email.

“Building relationships with international companies keeps Michigan top of mind as an ideal place for companies to do business as they look to the United States for potential investment opportunities.”

Whitmer spent $175,000 on her trip to the United Arab Emirates in February, and $204,000 on a March trip to the UK.

[Editor’s note: this story has been updated with a comment from the MEDC]