Former NSW premier Bob Carr, now a $500,000-a-year role as a consultant to the fat cats at Macquarie Bank looked smug and complacent this week as he lectured his former colleagues on an Upper House committee about the worth of the Cross City Tunnel, from his $500,000 a year role as a consultant to the fat cats at Macquarie Bank.

There was a superior tone as he described his occupation as ‘journalist” when asked by the Committee.

I bet having read the front page of The SMH this morning there’s a journalist or two he wished he could throttle after this story: “Bob Carr’s $100,000 farewell tour“. Pork farmer might have been more appropriate an occupation for the former Premier.

He’s got his snout in the Millionaire’s Factory trough and gave the taxpayer purse a right ravishing in the weeks before his surprise departure earlier this year:

BOB CARR’S farewell piece of political spin – a trip to Dubai and London to announce the site of Sydney’s desalination plant – cost taxpayers at least $100,000, $10,000 of which was spent on chauffeurs in London.

Flights alone for the former premier, his wife, Helena, and their entourage cost more than $67,000, according to documents obtained by the Herald under freedom of information laws. And the London hotel bill for the couple was $8906.

Mr Carr ended his 12-day tour, which earned him the name of Dubai Bob, just a week before he quit as premier.

This calls into question the rubbish Carr said when he claimed he and his wife had decided that he would quit politics on a beautiful Sunday in Sydney.

Coming on the day that the Fairfax redundancies will be known, it’s another reminder to the board and management (not to mention former CEO in Fred Hilmer) that newspapers are more than content and good journalists more than content providers.