The federal government will spend $250,000 to bring Indian journalists to Australia in a bid to clear up a diplomatic row over attacks on Indians.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade will pay for flights and five-star accommodation from its foreign media budget for 25 Indian reporters to tour Australia, The Herald Sun newspaper reports.
While in Melbourne, the journalists will stay at the Windsor or Sofitel hotels and tour the MCG, and they will see the Sydney and Melbourne concerts of famed Bollywood composer AR Rahman, the newspaper said.
A DFAT spokeswoman confirmed about $10,000 would be spent on each of the 25 reporters.
Federation of Indian Students spokesman Gautum Gupta said the visits were "just marketing junkets paid for by the taxpayer", tightly scheduled and designed to gloss over problems.
The diplomacy budget for Australia's high commission in New Delhi has been increased from $50,000 to $107,000 to combat months of negative publicity over attacks in Australia, particularly in Melbourne.
