thanks for demonstrating my point Candice.

Candida,

As you said "its easy to be generous with other people's money."

That should be Labors slogan, having blown through over $200bn of it in 6 years, and left in place spending programs that will take a year or two to reverse.

Thanks for the puerile link to Independant Australia, whose "team" consists entirely of left whinger activists who have probably never lifted a finger to help anyone else, but sit hunched up in front of their computers trying to put together something clever.

Their argument is that as Abbott makes enough money he should never need to claim for community involvement. Noticeably they avoid discussing the legitimacy of claiming travel costs to visit and interact with the voters as the travel allowance was primarily intended.

I guess these vacuous keyboard junkies feel that the pollies should also spend their days at their desks and telecommute with the voters, then they would all look like Dudd the doughboy.

Here's another one, SM:

http://www.independentaustralia.net/2013/politics/tony-abbotts-costly-indigenous-community-volunteering/

(interesting that the poster on OLO who gets his jollies from calling other posters kiddie names is now caling IA puerile:)

"BY NOW, we’ve all heard it.

As soon as criticism of the LNP’s policies on Indigenous Affairs (or lack thereof) are raised, the default position of LNP members, journalists and the apologists of it in action is rolled out.

Tony Abbott volunteers in Indigenous communities, so we are told.

He goes for a week a year and these statements of “fact” are usually then followed by a barrage of holier than thou tripe about how much Mr Abbott could teach the rest of us…

So sure of this position - so much has it become the accepted reality - that statements from the LNP and journalists come to us on this subject with gay abandon."

"We know this, do we? This just goes completely unchallenged and is gospel truth, is it?

Well, here is what I know:

In August 2012, Tony Abbott did indeed go to Cape York — but it wasn’t for a week or two as Mr Pyne suggests.

It was for 2 days.

It was a working bee of sorts and some of Australia’s business leaders were taken along to volunteer as well. Photos of Abbott with tools in hand were taken and the myth of Abbott the saviour of the Black man had a wonderful photo op.

No problem so far — until you examine the Expenditure on Entitlements paid by the Department of Finance and Deregulation to Mr Abbott for this “Volunteering” trip. On page 12, we find an amount of $9,636.36 taxpayer dollars, spent to fund the hire of a private charter flight for the 2 days."

"On another one of his trips to an Indigenous Community in 2010.....

......cost to the tax payer: $32,545.00. Because nothing says I volunteer to help those in need like a $30k ride in a jet. Oh … and that week or two Pyne talks about? That trip that cost we, the taxpayer, $32,545.00 in flights alone was for just one night!"

P,

Another fabricated beat up from a left whinge mouth piece.

If you read the article, Pynne did not suggest that the trip to Cape York was 2 weeks, and the charter flight was also used to ferry potential donors.

So the Independant Australian is lying again and not even particularly well.

SM,

How boring...

Every time someone counters your partisan penchant for canonising members of the Coalition, you accuse them of "lying".

You spend half your posts here telling your opponent they are lying - and the other half composing kiddie names to paste on them.

Because you haven't got an argument.

It's obvious that Tony Abbott's main contribution to society is promoting Tony Abbott and his party.

And he's fond of using taxpayer's money to do it.

SM,

"If you read the article, Pynne did not suggest that the trip to Cape York was 2 weeks...."

The point was that Pyne was endeavouring to paint Abbott's "volunteering" visits as weeks-long affairs.

"“We know that Tony Abbott works in Indigenous communities at least a week or two a year, and he has said that if he is elected Prime Minister that he will continue to do that and that he will take senior bureaucrats with him. He has done that in Cape York…”"

They're not - they are photo ops and promotional opportunities of much briefer duration.