Aussie politician goes wild for wombats (Reuters)

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia's top treasury official is taking five weeks leave to nurse endangered wombats, prompting the government to defend him on Friday against accusations he had abandoned his post during economic turmoil.

Treasury Secretary Ken Henry, a key economic advisor to the centre-left Labour government and a passionate animal conservationist, will miss a central bank meeting as he looks after 115 critically endangered northern hairy-nosed wombats in northern Queensland state, his office told Reuters.

"Wombatty: Economy not his main concern," said a headline in an Australian newspaper ahead of a Reserve Bank board meeting where Henry would usually help steer on July 1.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, whose government is battling inflation at 16-year highs, interest rates at 12-year highs and public fury over rising fuel prices, said Henry's private leave, which began on Thursday, was a personal matter.

"The economy has been under significant international pressure and challenge since the day the government was elected. Over that period of time, and since we formed a government, the secretary of the Treasury has not been on any leave," said Rudd.

Henry attracted national attention last year as he joined protests against a cull of hundreds of kangaroos by Australia's military at a communications base in the capital Canberra. He lives on a farm and often cares for injured wildlife.

Before leaving, Henry told the Daily Telegraph newspaper that the Australian economy was in "pretty good shape", being in its 16th year of expansion.

"This place doesn't stop when I am not here," he said.

Rudd faced prolonged questioning on the issue during a morning interview and said the Treasury department was managed as a team, and not steered solely by Henry, who has served successive conservative and Labour governments.

Henry's boss, Treasurer Wayne Swan, said his secretary was taking leave with government approval.

"It's appropriate he takes a break now and gets re-charged. It's very important given the scale of the reform plans that the government has ahead of it," Swan said.

Northern hairy-nosed wombats, small, muscular marsupials, now live only within an area of three square kilometres and are at high extinction risk. The International Union for Conservation of Nature said they are one of the world's rarest large mammals.

(Editing by David Fox)

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