So much for the end of wasteful government spending and fixing the debt problem.
Julie Bishop is an AFL fan. Until recently she was a board member of the West Coast Eagles club. Bishop has also recently been described as a thrifty and no fuss traveller who has eschewed first class travel for herself and her department to save taxpayer funds.
So given her concern for taxpayer funds there’d be no chance she would have arranged her official travel to coincide with West Coast Eagles away games or other major AFL games. Would there?
Despite being on the West Coast Eagles board, attending AFL games seems to have been official parliamentary duty for Julie Bishop.
- A quick check of her Parliamentary Entitlement Reports shows that Bishop just happened to travel - for work related purposes at taxpayer expense - on 13 occasions to places and at times when her beloved West Coast team were playing away games or finals between July 2009 and October 2012.
- And Bishop reported additional official travel with entitlement claims that coincided with a futher 13 finals and blockbuster AFL games.
- Bishop actually declared that she was given tickets to 3 grand finals but still claimed official travel and entitlements to attend each of these games.
But most damning and comical: there were 5 West Coast – Collingwood games played in Melbourne between 2010 and 2012. And Julie Bishop just happened to be in Melbourne – on work-related duties at the taxpayer expense - for all five games.
