Misuse of entitlements

[donnashuggy]

Why do politicians only pay it back when they get caught?

[nevillesdaughter]

It's often for such piddling things too. If I remember correctly, at the time Reith gave the phone to his son "for use in an emergency" because he was concerned for the lad's welfare for some reason. If that's true, why not buy a $100 pre-paid with a $50 charge on it? - I'm sure Mr Reith could have afforded it!

He was on the box last night bleating about his treatment by the press etc at the time, and defending all those wedding guests by saying that as government representatives they get invited to all sorts of functions (like football games etc), and it was important for them to mix with people - as if being invited as a head of state  to attend the wedding of Prince William is the same as being invited to a mining magnates' (who freely admits to wanting to rule the world) private celebrations! Call me cynical, but I don't believe Gina was just sharing family joy with close friends!

Another line of defense is that the guidelines ar "difficult", or "unclear". For crying out loud! In that case - there is always someone to go to and talk it over with, ask someone for a ruling, or write a memo justifying your decision AT THE TIME - don't just wait until youe are asked to explain yourself X years later. Half of these buggers are lawyers, and they claim a guideline is too hard to understand...   Here's an idea - if you really believe that in the interest of the nation, it is something you should do - pay for it out of your own pocket and claim it back afterwards by making your case - produce a beneficial outcome, and maybe you'll be re-imbursed. Or is that a little too risky?

I'm not picking on any particular side of politics - my biggest worry ia that in this day and age, are they so dumb that they think it's not all going to come out at some point? A little like Warnie and the mobile phones, or the fools who keep getting caught with porn on their work computers. Have there not been enough examples to learn from? For educated people, some of them are very slow to learn. Or are they so removed from reality that they think they are immune, or "special". And these are the people in charge..... 

I'd better go now - I think I'll have a cup of tea, a Bex, and a good lie down.

Here endeth the rant (for the moment).

Marina.

I'm not insane and I have the psychiatric reports to prove it.

[monman12]

IS : "I don't think there is anything more myopic than thinking that this is OK.."  Who exactly thinks it is OK IS?
Snouts in the trough at many levels red/blue are unacceptable.

FORMER ALP attorney-general Mark Dreyfus claimed travel allowance for staying two nights in Canberra in August 2011, when he was in fact at Perisher Valley. He has paid the claim back.

But the admission has sparked a **bleep**-for-tat war, with claims Labor MPs charged taxpayers to attend Bob Hawke's 80th birthday celebrations in 2009.

Coalition frontbencher Greg Hunt claimed last night that Labor MPs had repaid wrongly claimed expenses on 60 occasions.

Labor frontbencher Tony Burke made 15 separate repayments totalling nearly $7000 in 2005 and 2006.

Meanwhile apart from kicking sand in The Sandpit,  is anyone interested in the Indonesian visit, the proposed 2014 China visit, the USA political impasse?

[izabsmiling]

IS : "I don't think there is anything more myopic than thinking that this is OK.."  Who exactly thinks it is OK IS?
Snouts in the trough at many levels red/blue are unacceptable.

The Prime Minister of this Country thinks it's within  reason  when he does it 

[izabsmiling]

Now that he is the prime minister some things may be more within reason than they were while he was the leader of the opposition.

Charging tax payers for what he and others have fraudulantly imo referred/refers to a charity and volunteer work while he was in opposition was the same as charging us for promotion of his own book....it's all about Promotion.

and shouting for justice at the hint of others doing the wrong thing when in fact he himself was though the public weren't in the know ....makes him even more of a worm.All this was part of him (the unelectable MP)  becoming PM 

and even more incredible is the fact that he wants Australian's to Trust him ?

He expects others to be held to account though shows that he considers himself above all of that ?

He promises a transparent Government ....while gagging his ministers (can't have anyone slipping with what they tell us..can he )  and attempting to do the same with people who work in Asylum seeker environments ?

How does he talk about those on benefits ? he has the hide to judge them as not handling the benefit payments while at the same time we paid him  

$350 000  and he couldn't pay his own way ...he thinks that we tax payers should ? 

Who pays and has paid the expenses of his ADULT daughters ...not us I hope .

[donnashuggy]

What I don't understand is why you would pay money back for something you truly believed you were entitled to, can someone explain that please? 

[lakeland27]

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@monman12 wrote:

IS : "I don't think there is anything more myopic than thinking that this is OK.."  Who exactly thinks it is OK IS?
Snouts in the trough at many levels red/blue are unacceptable.

FORMER ALP attorney-general Mark Dreyfus claimed travel allowance for staying two nights in Canberra in August 2011, when he was in fact at Perisher Valley. He has paid the claim back.

But the admission has sparked a **bleep**-for-tat war, with claims Labor MPs charged taxpayers to attend Bob Hawke's 80th birthday celebrations in 2009.

Coalition frontbencher Greg Hunt claimed last night that Labor MPs had repaid wrongly claimed expenses on 60 occasions.

Labor frontbencher Tony Burke made 15 separate repayments totalling nearly $7000 in 2005 and 2006.

Meanwhile apart from kicking sand in The Sandpit,  is anyone interested in the Indonesian visit, the proposed 2014 China visit, the USA political impasse?

---

so abbott needs to do a burke and pay All of it back. 40 odd thousand should just about cover it . everyone else is small potatoes by comparison.

the Indonesian visit.. 'we'll let you have that million hectares if you help us'' i'm sure the national voters are going to love that.

china. has abbott been studying Nixon as a role model ? these matters were proceeding well enough without his grandstanding.

the impasse ? clearly this demonstrates how we need to keep tea party 'Libertarians' out of our parliament.

[izabsmiling]

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@donnashuggy wrote:

What I don't understand is why you would pay money back for something you truly believed you were entitled to, can someone explain that please? 

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I would like to think that they realised that there are people who are actually needy of 'charity'...I doubt that's the reason though 

[izabsmiling]

Silverfaun, were Free Trade and Trans-Pacific Partnerships discussed  ?

if so....I don't consider that success for our country

[freddie*rooster]

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@donnashuggy wrote:

What I don't understand is why you would pay money back for something you truly believed you were entitled to, can someone explain that please? 

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In an attempt to take the heat off, in the hopes he looks innocent.

[donnashuggy]

Well that is INCREDIBLE, in my view it makes them look dumb and hypocritical,