Globetrotting Greg Medcraft in Coalition's firing line Overseas for 51 days this year: Greg Medcraft. Top corporate regulator Greg Medcraft visited Paris, New York, London and St Petersburg during extensive taxpayer-funded travel that has caused him to miss crucial parliamentary hearings into the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. Mr Medcraft, who has drawn fire from Finance Minister Mathias Cormann and Defence Minister David Johnston, was in St Petersburg during a Senate hearing on June 5 that sparked an inquiry into the performance of the corporate regulator. ASIC is under scrutiny over its handling of a string of corporate collapses and financial scandals including the misconduct of at least seven financial planners employed by the Commonwealth Bank. A Fairfax Media investigation reveals Mr Medcraft spent at least 51 days overseas this year, not including travel to and from Australia. He travels business class, paid from ASIC's budget. In April, he was overseas for at least half the month, in Beijing, London, Dublin, Washington, New York and Delhi. June was also busy, with trips to St Petersburg, Montreal, Toronto, Basel, Paris and Madrid. In September, he travelled to Luxembourg, Paris and London. He also visited Brussels in February and Wellington in July. Much of Mr Medcraft's travel is related to his role as chairman of the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), a job he took on earlier this year with the blessing of then treasurer Wayne Swan. Jeffrey Knapp, a lecturer at the University of NSW Australian school of business, said the role was one other top-level regulators would not take on because it was a "distraction" from their main job. "It does not look good to have the head of a national regulator regularly out of the nation, not on the ground doing what needs to be done in their own country," he said. It is sort of like a prime minister taking a posting at the United Nations. National Party senator John Williams, a driving force behind the Senate inquiry into ASIC, said Mr Medcraft should spend more time getting his own organisation in order. "He shouldn't worry about the world's problems until he fixes Australia's first," Senator Williams said. ASIC spokesman Matthew Abbott said many of the regulatory problems facing Australia "need a global solution." "Having Greg as IOSCO chair means we have an Australian contesting and driving international financial services policy," he said. That is, we have an Australian looking out for Australia. Last year, Senator Cormann attacked Mr Medcraft as Mr Swan's "personal appointment" and accused him of trying to "hijack the policy agenda." His attack was echoed in June by Senator Johnston, who questioned whether the appointment of Mr Medcraft was in violation of the Labor government's "merit-based" public sector appointment process. Alex Malley, the chief executive of accounting body CPA Australia, which has 144,000 members, said international travel "must be unambiguously focused on supporting your core business." "Time and again we see that ASIC has taken its eye off the ball with a leadership distracted by role creep and an over-reliance on US and British policy thinking," he said. A spokeswoman for Treasurer Joe Hockey endorsed Mr Medcraft and his role at IOSCO.