:lol: I think there are people up to no good in all political parties but the claims against Tony Burke and Christopher Pyne (who is my local member and I despise) are not particularly concerning. Entitlements to take your family with you a couple of times a year when you're hardly home are not unreasonable in my opinion provided there is a budget for them and I understand there is. I saw another one where Scott Ludlam was criticised for taking a charter flight to rural WA, how else was he meant to get there?

Where it's wrong is:
1. Having tax payers fund travel to party fundraisers. The party should be paying for those.
2. Setting up "secret" meetings with people conveniently around the time a friend's wedding is on
3. Using limousines rather than the supplied commonwealth cars
4. Using a helicopter rather than using supplied commonwealth cars
5. First class flights when business class is an option (I understand these have been banned)
6. I'm sure there are others we can add to the list

Yep the boats have certainly "stopped" :roll:


So another broken promise?Technically yes but in practice no because people only care about making sure they don't settle here.

One that shits me is where they will fly to a fundraiser or something not related to a job and then throw in a token hospital or school visit to "justify" the flight expense.

Yep this one happens real often.

It is absolutely not ok ever for the tax payer to pay for the travel of family members. Ever. If Tony Burke wants to see his children more, then he should quit his job.

He can bring them along, even in Business class, but he should pay for them like the rest of us do.

As for Tony Burke, he is a spineless weasel like most of them. Ever since he had a go at Richard Dawkins a few years ago I knew he had no backbone. Wait about 3 or 4 years and there will be a big scandal about this guy that will get him scandalously dumped from parliament.

Hooray I got to see your post :lol:

And I disagree, I think flying them all business class is a bit much but we want members of parliament with family and ministers are away from home for large parts of the year. There are executive positions in business that have these sorts of "perks" (if you want to call them that) and I strongly believe as well as being "the model citizen", it should also be "the model employer".

I have no love for Tony Burke and I have even less for my local MP Pyne but it's not about that.

Pala posted this in the makeshift politics thread while this one went MIA

[youtube]mBWch9Z7gLw[/youtube]

I told you it was a labor led conspiracy. ;)

Court case here we come

Apology or not these peanuts are taking the piss flying their kids business class whether it's inside or outside the rules.

Name a business anywhere in the world where a normal executive could fly their kids somewhere business class.

Had the bizarre experience this morning seeing Christopher Pyne agreeing with Anthony Albanese and saying there was nothing wrong with it.

If you couldn't claim it legitimately in a corporate environment then you shouldn't be able to claim it in government.

And they wonder why fuckers are fired up.

You find that bizarre :lol: ? Have a listen to Pyne's accent mate, it will tell you all you need to know.

Pyne or Albo? Their voices are both farked. One's a whiny, poncy nonce and the other bloke sounds like he graduated with a masters from the Australian College of Strine and Nasally Conversation.

I do agree that business class is a bit rich, however I can see how it came to that. Politicians fly business class so especially young kids need to be able to stay with their parent.

Saying that I don't think politicians need business class for the 1-2 hour flights that most of them take however paying so they can use the lounge at the airports would certainly be ok. I also don't think the politician is getting much work done on a flight with their kids so economy should be adequate.

Doesn't excuse the fact that "fuckers" are being hysterical over everything. These people don't want any money spent on politicians at all...

Business class is fine for politicians. I don't expect any politician, particularly ministers, to fly economy.

And given the number of (total) flights politicians need to take they should be getting those flights cheaper than the rack rate.

The tax payer can pay for their economy seat. If they want an upgrade then they pay for it.

They already get paid well for what they do. They can afford it.

No-one ferries me around in luxury.

if I worked in a job that required me to be away from home for the majority of the year, having the ability to have my family come along with me once or twice a year is probably something that would make it more palatable. Whether they all needed to fly business class or not is another matter I guess./quote]

They know what they're getting into taking on the job. I worked away for 3 months. Should i demand that my company pay for the mrs to come out? No. I knew what i was getting into.

People are pissed because politicians 'expenses' are clearly taking the piss. More and more stories are coming out and have politicians across the board squirming.

I think that they need to be made to count every cent they spend on the tax payer. They run the country, budget emergencies should hit them first.

There are completely legitimate reasons to fly business class and it happens all the time in the corporate world. Especially the higher up you go. Heck even when I was at the bottom of the ladder in one org I worked at, any international travel that was short stay (less than a week) was a business class flight so that the worker could get adequate rest and adjust to jet lag faster.

I hear a lot that they get paid well for what they do but I don't think many realise how much work they actually do. Especially ministers.

I find it strange that some people claim politicans get paid good when they get paid less then some ceo's .

I get that but some of them aren't clearly taking the piss but shitting on politicians spending money is good sport for the tabloids as people eat it up. The snouts in the trough stereotype resonates strongly with people.

I agree that they need to be sensible with their expenses. I know when I travel, if I chose a limo rather than taxi I'd have to justify that expense with those that run the accounts and I'd get some very stern words and may even have to pay it myself. They should have very clear guidelines as to what they should be using to get around and things outside of those guidelines should have to go to a committee.

The dumb thing is, the solution will be to reduce budgets on travel expenses and increase politicians salaries as compensation. This is what happened when the very generous pension scheme was removed, Of course some of this travel spending stimulates some industries and as politicians decide to pocket rather than spend some of that increase, they're the ones that will suffer.

Yes yes blah blah blah. They work hard and the pay is not great. It's the huge disconnect they seem to have between what's fair and reasonable and what's taking the piss.

Joe Hockey had 14 or so trips to Cairns where his rental property is. Tony Burke flies his kids business class. Bronwyn flies instead of driving. Etc etc.

The best defence they can come up with is "it's within the rules".

And then they have the hide to say the country is busted arse broke.

Imagine the shit you'd get in if you tried to claim your kids through accounts on a business trip you were sent on. You'd be lucky not to get sacked.

They are not a part of the corporate world. Corporate business is a private industry run for profit. This is public money taken from people who work too bloody hard for their money.

Newstart is pretty much on the poverty line and these pollies take business class flights domestically. It's misuse of tax payer money.



They earn like $150k +.

I keep seeing people defend their expenses because they 'live away from home' etc etc. What a crock of shit. They knew what they signed up for. If you don't want to relocate to Canberra to do your job don't apply for it......

People are saying that it should be inline with what is accessible in industry. Still I don't get this line of argument, are you saying we don't need politicians or that they don't need to do the work they do?


Good for you. An engineer with 3 years experience earns 40k less than a back bencher. Sounds about right :roll:


Politicians are elected to represent constituents in their electorate or their state (if their senators), relocating to Canberra seems like a bad idea...
It's fine though, they don't need to move to Canberra, just drop these sorts of entitlements and watch capable politicians make the choice not enter politics due to the strain it has on their family life.

Pay them $250k - $300k a year (or more) for back benchers and sitting members, $450 - $500k for ministers, a $1 000 000 + for the PM and bring in a proper system to cut down all of the bullshit. (Pensions, super rorts, travel entitlements etc etc.)

2 things will immediately happen.

1) Better talent will be attracted into parliament and
2) The public will be better able to trust their elected representatives.

Personally I'd love to see no bastard elected to parliament until they've at least worked in a job for 10 years.

Pyne has been in Parliament since he was 25. Wyatt Roy was 20. (What a joke.) Half (or more) of the Labour party are union hacks that have never held down a job outside the union movement for more than 5 minutes. Bill Shorten is a prime example of that.

Unrepresentative garbage. How the hell any of these blokes can have a proper handle on what it's like to have a mortgage, run a business, project manage something, develop a block of land or organise a bloody chook raffle is beyond me.

At least Barnaby, for all of his faults, has a clue about the agricultural ministry. Mal Brough is another that comes to mind with a proper handle and perspective on things. They're few and far between though.

Top ten spenders not including salary:

Tony Abbott - $1,057,675
Julie Bishop - $865,887
Andrew Robb - $541,755
Scott Morrison - $465,064
Ian McFarlane - $442,760
Barnaby Joyce - $411,074
Bronwyn Bishop - $398,563
Bill Shorten - $390,287
Joe Hockey - $387,693
Bob Katter - $386,074

Fuck a duck.

the government is committed to a number percentage for the carbon reduction target process...

ZERO!

Zero IS a number

=d> =d> =d> =d> =d> good call.

Former speaker Bronwyn Bishop holds her hands as other MPs applaud the election of Tony Smith as her replacement on Monday. Photo: Alex Ellinghaus

Probably started clapping a second or 2 after this photo but funny nonetheless.

Once again private industry is run for profit. Maybe if we gave politicians KPI's then they can start throwing money away on luxuries. Once again, how can they justify non-essential upgrades when we have so many so close to the poverty line?

We need politicians but I don't see the need for Limo's, private drivers, business class domestic flights and what not.



What? You're above personal attacks champ if I understood your little jibe correctly.



It's part of the job. If they want to join the line at the trough it's going to be a family decision. Miners working a 4-1 roster don't get to fly their families out to the mine on their employer because 'work is tough on their family life'.

I really don't understand your reasoning on this one.