Which politicians get 800k? Pretty sure most are only on 150k and the pm is on about 400k

800k were the expenses from Ms Bishop to my understanding.

Ms Bishop's Expenses

How the hell does someone spend $800k on travel in 1 year?

800k were the expenses from Ms Bishop to my understanding.

Ms Bishop's Expenses

How the hell does someone spend $800k on travel in 1 year?

ANALYSIS: Labor is going after Speaker Bronwyn Bishop with the same savagery and relentlessness Tony Abbott showed when he was Opposition Leader.

Say what you like about the Shorten Opposition, they are quick learners. And the Abbott model of no-mercy politics they now are putting on display is proof of that.

The Prime Minister has a tough time ahead as he attempts to protect the woman who has watched his political back in their adjoining electorates and supported his conservative political brand without question.

Mr Abbott values pals, particularly this one. The PM Friday night reportedly dismissed the claims against Mrs Bishop as “village gossip”, a sign more of desperation than
nonchalance.

It is not gossip. It is a documented case of the Speaker spending more than $5000 of taxpayer money to fly in a helicopter a short distance to a Liberal Party function.

This would be a perfect moment for a broad debate on allowances and funding available to members of Parliament. There are issues of transparency and accountability now on the table which need debate.

However, the politics of the Bishop whirlybirds adventure will dominate and the policy discussion will be pushed to the background.

Tony Abbott values pals like the Speaker.
Tony Abbott values pals like the Speaker. Source: News Corp Australia

Neither major party wants to cramp their access to allowances and the temptation for Labor to go hard against an Abbott friend and Labor foe will prevail.

Certainly the scope is there.

Mrs Bishop is not a minister. She represents her seat of Mackellar, and in the House of Representatives the authority of the Speaker’s office and the chair she occupies. She does not have a duty to fly around the country.

She has done much to redefine the Speaker’s role in her own image, as became apparent after early claims Mrs Bishop used her official dining room for party political purposes.

More recently she appeared on Q&A, before the Prime Minister pulled the shutters down on the ABC TV program. And on that episode she commented on legislation set to be debated in the House of Representatives — the proposals to strip the citizenship from those linked to terrorism.
Further, she made clear her disapproval of fellow panellist Gillian Triggs, the human rights commissioner the Government would love to remove.

In words which in hindsight are jammed with irony, Mrs Bishop said of Ms Triggs’s job: “There is a time, and I think Gillian recognises it, that as a statutory officer you have to decide whether you’re a statutory officer, fulfilling that role with security of tenure, or whether you wish to say, ‘I want to be part of the political debate’ and stand for office and run to become part of that political process.”

This extraordinary, public negation of the Speaker’s independence passed almost unnoticed, but former Labor Speaker Anna Burke raised it in a question to Mrs Bishop in Parliament.

Ms Burke had been invited onto the program when she was Speaker but had declined after taking advice an appearance could see her discussing legislation before the House and compromising the non-partisan nature of her position.
If Mrs Bishop was given the same advice, she declined to accept it.

Further fuelling Labor’s attacks is the Speaker’s record of turfing out Opposition MPs for breaching Standing Orders. Often in bulk: Last November she ordered out 18 Labor MPs in one Question Time.

The statistics seem to show Government MPs are obedient, placid and largely silent. Only a handful have been ejected. Labor MPs have been kicked out by the Speaker 400 times in the life of this Parliament, a record.
So Labor is taking some pleasure in her embarrassment and the tortuous attempts to deny wrongdoing, even as she agreed to pay back the $5000.

Bronwyn Bishop will be treated as ruthlessly by Labor as she has treated Labor MPs on 400 occasions.
Tony Abbott, who hunted former Speaker and Abbott buddy Peter Slipper with no qualms, has shown how this is done. And this means the Prime Minister will be dragged to the centre of this affair as he tries to save his neighbour.

FAIRFAX has been ordered to pay 15 per cent of Joe Hockey’s legal costs as a result of the federal treasurer’s successful defamation suit.

The Federal Court today made orders that the publisher pay no more than “15 per cent”, with the bill to be capped at that amount.

The result means Mr Hockey is likely to pay more in legal costs than he received in damages.

He was awarded $200,000 after a ruling that a headline poster reporting “Treasurer for Sale” and a tweet by the Age Newspaper were defamatory.

Mr Hockey’s counsel Bruce McClintock SC said during last week’s hearing that Fairfax should pay legal costs “on an indemnity basis” as it had been “unreasonable” not to offer a settlement before a Federal Court hearing.

The claims made by Mr Hockey over the contents of the articles were dismissed. Fairfax’s barrister Sandy Dawson submitted the publisher “came pretty close” to succeeding entirely in their defence against Mr Hockey.

Sydney Morning Herald Editor In Chief Darren Goodsir.
Sydney Morning Herald Editor In Chief Darren Goodsir. Source: News Corp Australia
The court heard the Tweets published by the Victorian paper have been removed and they “will
not be published on their own again.”

The stories reported on Mr Hockey’s involvement with a North Sydney fundraising group.

Justice Richard White found Darren Goodsir, the Sydney Morning Herald’s editor in chief, was “motivated by malice” due to an earlier report the paper had published that had to be corrected.

“I find that the respondents have not made out their claims of qualified privilege and even if they did, the defences would then be defeated in the case of the poster ... by the malice actuating,”

Justice White said in his decision, handed down last month Mr McClintock said the “malice” meant the publication “forced the proceedings to be brought.”

But Mr Dawson described the suit as, overall, an “unmitigated disaster” for Mr Hockey and that the judge’s decision on legal costs should reflect the result.

Mr Hockey has also failed in an attempt to obtain a permanent injunction which would prohibit Fairfax publishing the imputation that he is corrupt.

Mr Dawson said last week such an order would place “an incredible restriction ... on the freedom of the press” which could “hypothetically” impede reporting of matters that are “of public interest.”

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten believes Labor should turn back asylum seeker boats, admitting his party made mistakes on immigration policy when in government. -

See more at: http://www.skynews.com.au/news/top-stories/2015/07/22/labor-to-support-asylum-boat-turnbacks.html#sthash.TXxnBG0s.dpuf

What is the point of having a two-party (effectively) system, when both dominant forces in politics continue to lie in bed together? Why aren't people protesting this shit, instead of propaganda driven "Reclaim Australia" rallies. The problem comes from within, not those coming into the country, wake up and smell the coffee ffs.

What is the point of having a two-party (effectively) system, when both dominant forces in politics continue to lie in bed together? Why aren't people protesting this shit, instead of propaganda driven "Reclaim Australia" rallies. The problem comes from within, not those coming into the country, wake up and smell the coffee ffs.

Bill Shorten isnt here for politics here is here to win. He is hell bent on pandering to as many people as he can instead of having a back bone and pushing some hard policies.

For fucks sake, he dosnt even have to fight that hard. LNP is doing everything it can to trip over and make Shorten the Steven Bradbury of polotics

And yet he will be the person who loses to Tony Scabbott lol.

-PB

Yep, ALP can fuck off next election.

Shorten can EAD.

-PB

Fuck me. Labour you are not liberal lite. Be a damn difference and try and not to get the same damn people that the libs are courting.

Who - the majority?

What majority? The idiots who say dey taking me kobs and belive that immigants taking welfare. Thise people are ignorant as fuck. Both parties are trying to appease the bottom of the barrel people. They shouldnt.

The third option is to actually have the guts to go out and educate the public as to why it's a shit policy, campaign strongly and advertise to raise awareness and address the baseless fears that have been instilled by coalition scaremongering. Fix the thought problem, don't pander to it.

Who - the majority?

The third option is to actually have the guts to go out and educate the public as to why it's a shit policy, campaign strongly and advertise to raise awareness and address the baseless fears that have been instilled by coalition scaremongering. Fix the thought problem, don't pander to it.

The third option is to actually have the guts to go out and educate the public as to why it's a shit policy, campaign strongly and advertise to raise awareness and address the baseless fears that have been instilled by coalition scaremongering. Fix the thought problem, don't pander to it.