Perhaps it's because Australians don't expect very much from their politicians that recent allegations about some politicians misspending the allowances they receive on top of their very good salaries have quietly slipped out of the media, as most criticisms of politicians usually do.

Until today, the 15th. February. Oscar Godsell for SkyNews (which is a bit more dogged than the ‘lamestream’ media) tells a tale about about Senator Hanson-Young, who is accused of spending $50,000 of taxpayer money on trips for her husband, and Senator Don Farrell, who is supposed to be the Minister for such things, but doesn't seem to know much about the rules.

Senator Hanson-Young has declined Senator Farrell's “suggestion” that she repay the $50,000, but says that she will stop using the “enlightenment”.

If paying for her husband's travel “around the country” is an entitlement, why would she stop doing it?

Senator Farrell wouldn't know: he said that he wasn't “across the rules about travel”, according to Godsell.

Remember, Farrell is supposed to be responsible for the Parliamentary Expenses Authority, but he said that it was up to each individual MP to comply with rules (the rules he admits he isn't “across”). Something some politicians are apparently having trouble doing.

Although Senator Farrell says he is not across the rules that he should be conversant with, he coyly makes the amazing statement that, “ …. Senator Hanson-Young has made a determination about how she will apply the rules”.

Wouldn't it be great if the rest of us could determine how we complied with rules and regulations!

This is an example of the them and us situation where politicians, irrespective of party, are all togetherness when it comes to what they can do, and what the plebs are allowed to do.

Of course, Senator Farrell is himself under “investigation” after allegations that he spent over $100,000 on flights for his wife and ADULT children ( Don is nearing 72 years of age) in 2022. All because he isn't ‘across the rules’ I suppose.

PAULINE HANSON was required to repay over $165,000 to the Australian Electoral Commission in 2021 after a review found election expense claims from the 2020 election were unsubstantiated. She also repaid airfares for a private trip to Norfolk Island after claiming them on taxpayer funds. It was reported that it took four months and multiple reminders for Hanson to repay costs associated with her Norfolk Island trip. Also Hanson charged taxpayers $3,735.07 for a trip that included private political fundraising events in Perth, which she is yet to repay.

THE LOVELY PAULINE IS A HABITUAL SHYSTER MILKING THE TAXPAYER!

Nitwit 1405,

I don't care. If you want to start thread about Pauline Hanson, go for it.

ttbn,

I was giving YOU a perfect example of a politician with a huge sense of entitlement PAULINE HANSON; "Politicians: Hard On Us, Soft On Themselves" I'll agree HANSON is not the only one, Senator HANSON-YOUNG may be another example. I recall that old tart BRONNY BISHOP from the Liberal Party was flying around in taxpayer funded helicopters, so it ain't new.

JOSEPH COOK, I believe was the first federal politician to make a trip overseas on Australia's behalf, about 1902 to San Francisco, trying to boost Australian trade with America. Seems poor old Joe had to meet much of the cost out of his own pocket, cabling Australia that his lodgings in a boarding house in San Francisco were most unsatisfactory as the government hadn't cabled the money for his return passage, Joe bought his own ticket back home. Oh! how things have changed,

What you are doing is playing your usual childish tit for tat game. I criticise your heroes, you criticise people whom you - very wrongly - presume I like or follow.

Reeling off a list of other crooks you think I like does not, and will not, excuse the behaviour of the two egregious characters I have commented on.

Their alleged jiggerypokery was reported YESTERDAY, not years ago. Despite your authoritarian nagging, I have no obligation or intention to comment on every politician who has ever been accused of doing the wrong thing, every time I feel like saying something about a particular bad actor in our awful political class.

The people you refer to in the mistaken belief that I should not say anything about your beloved Marxists, were bad guys too. But, the Hanson incident, one example you threw in, was 5 years ago. Catch up! We are in the Albanese era now, with plenty of skulduggery going on. Your sudden concern for historical events makes you one of the ‘old farts’ you drone on about.

Finally, I don't like any politicians, and I don't like you. Piss off.

They're going to keep doing it.