Some defenders of the public purse.
These Coalition politicians are more like “born to rule” types who’ve got their hands back in the till.
As for their cheerleaders – please could someone link me to where all the “let’s stop the waste” right-wingers are damning the frontbench Liberal/National politicians who’ve been caught out charging the taxpayers obscene amounts for their social jaunts? As for Barnaby Joyce’s “study” trip to Malaysia (and the ridiculously expensive flight back) with those laughable “insights” he may as well have pulled off Wikipedia – could there be a more blatant example of snouts in the trough? Where have the great defenders of taxpayers’ money gone? Where’s Catallaxy? Where’s the Daily Telegraph?
Imagine the front pages if this had been anyone in Parliament not from the Coalition.
PS: Yes, I’m calling hypocrite first.
UPDATE: LEAVE TONY ALONE!!11!!
Moved On 
The fleet review too might as well be thrown into the mix.
“Imagine the front pages if this had been anyone in Parliament not from the Coalition.”
I imagine Fairfax would tone it down a bit and News Ltd would ramp it up. The Guardian might provide a bit of balance but they aren’t in print. But hold on to your hats, this is likely to turn into open warfare with each side digging through the expense claims of the other. Thing is when they’re all caught with their snouts in the trough they’ll agree to a truce and normal citizens will still get pinged by the ATO for any discrepancies. One rule for them!
Fair play to the Australian, top of their web page:
“Abbott claimed for Ironman event”
Maybe they just wanted the LNP in power but don’t care who leads them?
I’ve always found it interesting that politicians consider there own re-election to be part of their job description and all activities relating to that end, should be funded by the public.
Obviously there is no problem with a sitting member incurring all kinds of expenses in the routine conduct of representing their constituents.
But Abbott’s defence of his iron-man jaunt was very interesting – “it’s a marginal seat” !!
Mark Dreyfus, goes skiing, claims he was in Canberra, that’s out and out fraud and he should be prosecuted accordingly. He, along with many other politicians makes me sick.
Slight difference: Dreyfus didn’t ask taxpayers to pay for his skiing trip. He just forgot to deduct those nights from when he was in Canberra.
OK, here’s another question regarding politicians and rorts. The Age is reporting that if Geoff Shaw gets his way and is judged by a magistrate then it might happen before next November’s election. Why on earth would it take so long?
” He just forgot to deduct those nights from when he was in Canberra.”
He’s supposed to be smart, he has staff assisting him, I don’t buy it.
I’d bet good money it was a member of his staff adding up his nights in Canberra who forgot that he’d gone skiing for those nights.
The point is that forgetting to deduct those nights is not the same as making a deliberate claim for, say, a $5500 flight home from a wedding. Or Tony making us pay for his “charity” events.
Which makes sense:
“he owned up to his ski trip on a weekend between two parliamentary sitting weeks, saying his staff had not known he had left Canberra for those nights.”
That’s a cock-up, not a deliberate ripoff.
“That’s a cock-up, not a deliberate ripoff.”
I would hope so, I would hope he didn’t make such cock-ups in his capacity of AG. FFS this is the guy who appears to be leading the charge against the expenses rorts, you’d think he’d get his own house in order before hand, as should have Brandis, Abbott et al (a bit difficult because the amounts are so large and so frequent in Abbott’s case). These people are supposed to be running a nation, If they are honest people then I question their competence.
I guess I’m just cynical when it comes to politicians.
And so we again see that the whole Slipper affair was merely just Abbott and co not wanting a vote lost from their side. It amazes me that people thought that Abbott had suddenly had some wonderful, heroic, save the damsel in distress, epiphany! Suddenly Abbott had to defend women from Slipper, despite Abbott being happy to slug tax payers for going to Slippers wedding and for attending charity events (funny, i always thought attending charitable events was to help the charity, not your own political end – obviously i was wrong and thus it is a tax payer expense. I’d rather see the $ from the flights donated to the charity myself)