Well said Steele!

Oh come on rehctub get real. I have done a reasonable amount of overseas travel, admittedly only a very small amount of it first class but enough to know how much of a difference it would make to a person's disposition and alertness when faced with some of the horrendous itineraries these people undertake serving as the leader of our country. Perhaps there may be a case to be made that Rudd's wife be asked to contribute to upgrade from Business to First class to be with her husband but to me it isn't an issue.

Here is a DFAT document of some of Rudd's earlier trips released under freedom of information. You will see his flights were a mixture of both First Class and Business but his Chief of Staff always flew business and stayed in lesser hotel rooms.
http://dfat.gov.au/foi/downloads/dfat-foi-11-13451-released-documents.pdf

I would much prefer the person representing my country be on top of his or her game as much as possible. It is deemed good business practice for the CEOs of large corporations (with far less responsibility than Rudd had) to be as fresh and alert as possible when negotiating overseas, why in the hell shouldn't we expect the same for Australia. Sure there might be some quibbling about the incidentals and you might find me in furious agreement when we look at the expenses of our former prime ministers of whom Howard would appear to lead the pack, but on the whole I do not begrudge first class travel for serving prime ministers one little bit.

However what really gets up my nose is situations like when Gina Rinehart flew Bishop, Joyce and Gambaro to a wedding in India all three claimed overseas study entitlements for the trip home. What the hell? Why on earth did we as taxpayers have to fork out to fly these three, who were then in opposition, home from a multi-million dollar rich list bash? That is where you should be rattling the cage, not over prime ministerial travel.

$500,000 over a few weeks is not what he should be ashamed of because it is done and will not cost any more.

The real shame will be a large burden for Australian taxpayers for many generations, that is calling out the taxi service for more than 50,000 economic invaders.

Also at fault now is the current opposition with there tactics to hamper the present Government from dealing with the invaders.

I have an immediate idea that could claw back quite a few millions. Means test the politicians for a start! Let's take a few luminaries who really don't deserve the largesse we give them.

The wastage in this area alone is horrendous and is a massive burden on the taxpayer. The latest revelation that both Rudd and Gillard get a $200,000 salary for the rest of their natural lives plus enormous travel allowances, office accommodation and staffing costs is an insult given that neither was poor to start with and both now have 'jobs'. They are young enough to work. Younger than me! If I have to keep working until I am 70 plus, why don't they?

A study in 2010 by the Daily Telegraph revealed that Mr Rudd, at 52, a young ex-prime minister, will receive well in excess of $20 million worth of allowances if he lives to 85. This is despite the fact he had served just 2 1/2 years as P.M. at that point. This of course has altered even more dramatically with his additional tenure.
Just so I am being even handed here - according to the 2010 figures Keating was in fact the most frugal as he keeps staffing costs low by engaging people on a part-time and ad hoc basis.

Each former PM is entitled to at least two staff, including a senior private secretary, and the annual wages bill of each is nearly $300,000. Mr Keating saves about $70,000 a year by using staff as he needs them instead of full time appointees.

However, new figures have come to light revealing that in the seven months after leaving office, Mr Howard spent $109,892 on limousine services, evenly split between the government Comcar service and private hire cars. Mr Howard's office rental was the highest at $13,853 a month, closely followed by former PM Malcolm Fraser, whose 101 Collins St office in Melbourne costs taxpayers $12,122 a month.

Why is it then that we continue to provide multiple millions to give these buggers swanky offices to run their now quite irrelevant lives from?

Nice try but if you think it's so relevant to excuse the present by looking to the past, Howard still wins with his $800+K European farewell tour, including a $10K late hotel check-out fee for his stay in Italy.
He racked up $20million in overseas travel during his 11 years. http://www.smh.com.au/national/howards-11-years-of-globetrotting-cost-20m-20090226-8j9m.html

I remember him staying on in the UK for a couple of extra days so he could watch some cricket (at our expense).

Then there are Abbott's $900K pa domestic personal expenses while in Opposition - higher than then-PM Gillard's - not including those personal expense claims for "volunteering" and book promotions.

I guess you can't find any way of praising the current PM so you think attacking former ones will make him look good.

Whitlam, Fraser, Hawke, Keatinge, Howard, Rudd & Gillard are all kept by silly us. That's 5:1 between the parties. What a joke. At least Howard did something for the country even though he's not really deserving of so many of our Dollars.
Then there are the backbone of Labor, the bureaucrats who cost us a thousand times more than the ex PM's.
I don't think Australians will ever wake up to the rorts they support as long as they're ok themselves. Never mind the decent folk who are struggling to stave off the maggots. Thank you Unions.