They tell me Simon Crean claimed expenses to fly to Bob Hawkes 80th birthday.
Now I wonder why the lefties ain't talking about that?
Just another reminder how the Coalition MPs were rorting the system eh.
Has anyone checked to see if Slipper billed his wedding to tax payers? Maybe that's why Coalition MPs think weddings are official business since their all soooooo important.
Hey Gina, when's the next wedding??
They tell me Simon Crean claimed expenses to fly to Bob Hawkes 80th birthday.
Now I wonder why the lefties ain't talking about that?
It's not a party issue, it's the general sense of entitlement they have, which probably explains why we have so much middle class welfare as they don't actually see it as welfare but as a basic right for a handout.
It's more the double standards that gets me. The witch hunt of Slipper and Thompson and then the I've paid the money back so it's OK.
I think we're sick of all politicians taking advantage of us.
It's not a party issue, it's the general sense of entitlement they have, which probably explains why we have so much middle class welfare as they don't actually see it as welfare but as a basic right for a handout.
This was never a partisan issue from the start despite partisan frothing such as this,
In focusing specifically on the government, Fairfax too was very biased in it's initial coverage.
I'm not impressed with the facts that many politicians have been taking advantage of the truckholes in the various entitlements they can claim. Couple of thoughts however.
3) The mainstream politicians would feel like poor cousins against business contemporaries. Essentially business is now paying many multiples of the salaries offered to pollies.
4) Given the relatively poor wages earned by the mainstream politicians the temptation to crib/dissemble on their expenses to keep up with their business cousins would be very big. With almost no reason not to crib many have dug deep. After all you would have to be "a Green loser or batty idealist" not to help yourself wouldn't you ?
Regardless of who broke the story, Fairfax was biased by the way it concentrated on Coalition politicians. That doesn't bother me by the way. As we all know, News is biased the other way.It was News that broke the story. What about the Libs who attacked Slipper (an ex Lib) and then do it themselves?? I think we know the word for that.
Not to at all defend any inappropriate claiming by politicians, but if you imagine people employed across business don't access massive tax free entitlements, often on the most flimsy of bases, you're dreaming.$200k is a decent wage . My point of comparison however was against the comparable businessmen who politicians mix with in most cases would be on far better packages.
I also suggest that many Coalition members would have come from higher paid work situations and thus feel entitled to much more than they are given.
$200k is a decent wage . My point of comparison however was against the comparable businessmen who politicians mix with in most cases would be on far better packages.
I also suggest that many Coalition members would have come from higher paid work situations and thus feel entitled to much more than they are given.
I don't have a problem paying a good wage to effective and honest politicians. And frankly I think the stress and challenges of Cabinet positions and PM are not recompensed by the salaries. But the practice of simply allowing politicians to claim whatever they want with little effective monitoring is not good practice.
And it looks really cheap and opportunistic.
Our politicans are some of the highest paid in the world, especially when you look at how many they people are in their electorates.
The Australian PM earns more than the US President, though Singapore's PM takes the cake with around a $3M wage plus benefits, oh and they don't have issues with hiring his wife to run their version of the Future Fund (Temasek)
As for CEO pay and performance, time and again studies show there is no statistical correlation between pay and performance.
Australian politicians earn over 2.5 times the average wage, nearly 4 times to median wage, and are in the top ~3% of income earners in the country. By any measure they are more than well compensated for their work.
You know this pollie expenses discussion has been hammered now for over a week by the media and all the political parties.
The one thing Abbott has not learned yet is how to divert attention.
The Labor Party were masters at it.
I thought Joe's Hockey Ponzinomics talk show appearance in NYC was a great diversionary tactic. Red flag meet property specufestors.
But it received little attention really.
If it had been Swan it would have blasted by the media for days after.
If his views on housing are an insight into his level of economic aptitude then we're stuffed.
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