Behold the age of entitlements
Federal politicians cost us half a billion dollars per year, according to the Department of Finance.
Figures released earlier this year in the Portfolio Budget Statements break down the lavishness bestowed on these strugglers.
Anticipated spending on chauffeur-driven cars “and associated transport services” over this financial year is close to $3 million. Under the Parliamentary Entitlements Act, $175 million will be appropriated for God knows what.
And these people have the audacity to lecture pensioners and the unemployed struggling below the poverty line that the “culture of entitlement” has to end.
As economist Jason Murphy wrote at Crikey: “It works out at $2.24 million per elected representative. When you consider their base pay is $195,000 (more for ministers/shadow ministers), it suggests around 80 percent of MPs’ costs are non-salary”.
The annual total, if saved over four years, would be roughly equivalent to the cost of building a brand new state of the art hospital. Yes – every four years a brand new hospital. (Perth’s new Fiona Stanley hospital, the largest government building project in the state’s history, cost about $2 billion.)
But the parasites in the Liberal Party push for GP co-payments, they say, to make the health system “sustainable”. If they were concerned about health, they would stop making the rest of us sick with their crap.
It’s not just the Liberals. Anthony Albanese, leader of the ALP left, on the Today program defended as “a fantastic thing” Christopher Pyne’s children flying business class from Adelaide to Canberra to watch the education minister on the opening day of parliament in 2013. Why did he defend it? Because he and the rest of them have done similar.
Who else gets such perks and luxuries? Tony the plumber comes over to fix your pipes and leaves you with a bill that includes lunch and entertainment expenses for his four sons? Unlikely.
How about a FIFO worker? Does he get his family over in business class and put up in five-star luxury so they can watch dad sweeping out the sheds? If only.
Can an office clerk take the fam on a fully paid $12,000 trip to Uluru – all because she managed to check an email and grab a bite with a consultant? Nice try.
The prime minister has announced that a committee will review the current parliamentary entitlements system. Sleep easy.
