Paul1405,

Again Fox and yourself show your irrational jealousy and bigotry.

Hockey is perfectly entitled to spend his allowance with whichever provider he wishes. The provider is irrelevant. It is all public, within the guidelines and perfectly legal of course.

Both of you are one-eyed, political partisans who a very different yardstick where your 'own' crew are concerned.

TV shows like "The Insiders" are tabloid entertainment, cynically and disrespectfully dumbing down their viewing audiences, playing games of shock, horror and the favourites of the peanut gallery, hysteria and shaming.

The present Oz media would make the (departed) story-making 60 Minutes hack Richard Carlton a dead (sorry Richard) cert, a lay-down Misere for the Pulitzer Prize.

Richard Carlton for the memory challenged, 'shock, horror' addicted leftists,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raBCfPVFzHU

Dear David F.,

I'm not sure that I would entirely agree with your take on
our Treasurer. To me he is a hypocrite.

Ben Eltham summed things up rather
well in the website I cited earlier on this discussion.

Some of what Eltham stated was:

"This is the politician who lectured Australians about
the "end of the age of entitlement," while drawing a
handsome parliamentary allowance that he has used to pay
off the mortgage for his Canberra home. This is the
politician who told us that increased petrol excises were
unlikely to worry "the poorest people," who, after all,
"either don't have cars or actually don't drive very far
in many cases."

Eltham points out that "ordinary Australians do not
begrudge wealthy individuals who have worked hard and
risked much to achieve success. But they can smell the
hypocrisy of privilege a mile off."

Eltham then gives the Treasurer's working history and
background and confirms that the Treasurer came from a comfortable
background and married well. "Working hard" has been confined
to the Treasurer's time spent in Parliament.

In any case, as Eltham tells us - "the issue of Parliamentary
allowances remains a sore point for many voters. Like all
parliamentarians Hockey receives a generous nightly allowance
meant to cover accommodation costs for MPs travelling to
Canberra during sitting weeks."

We're told that "Hockey collects the allowance even though he
stays in his own house in the Canberra suburb of Forrest."

The practice is acceptable under current Parliamentary
entitlement rules.

But as Eltham says - "it sticks in the craw of ordinary
taxpayers. In effect, the taxpayer is paying off the
Treasurer's mortgage."

Is it a rort? Of course it is.
How many Australians are lucky enough to get their boss to
pay for their mortgage?

Dear Paul,

South Australia's Independent Senator Nick Xenophon has begun
a debate about whether the perk should be abolished.
Eltham in my earlier link points out that -
"collectively Australia's parliamentarians belong to a class
of wealthy landlords."

cont'd ...

cont'd ...

Dear Paul,

As I cited earlier - "Can we be surprised that
our politicians seem quite happy with current
housing prices designed to drive up property
prices, or that they seem to care so little for
the problems of renters."

Eltham states that "Hockey's living arrangements also
reveal a major public policy issue that deserves far
more scrutiny: the conflict of interest Australian
politicians face when it comes to housing policy."

Fox,

You are a scream with your selective eyesight and cherry-picking, to quote at length and then broken-record, any talking head who might be construed as agreeing with your own political partisanship.

Eltham?! So who the *bleep* is Eltham that makes him an expert, let alone a credible authority superior to any other? Frivolous talk-shows, entertainment based on sensationalism. Political gassing.

I am reminded of the line from the comedy, 'The Erotic Adventures of Zorro', where a henchman guard finds Zorro's note pinned to a door and exclaims,
"Who the f*bleep* is Zorro?"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-qJTtQwuqk

Eltham?!

The Sixties Freedom of Speech Movement was all in vain.

The lemmings want to suspend their judgement and have others make up their mind for them. A daily dose of BS to top up the hysteria and the lemmings can feel alive, and JUSTIFIED. LOL

Dear David F.,

Kindly note the attempted denigration of me
by "On The Beach," that still continues despite
your earlier advice to us both and
despite my now non-response to his posts.

I do appreciate your advice to be
tolerant. However, one can only take tolerance so far.

Especially when otb's version of tolerance is
him saying crazy nonsense about me and all
I am expected to say is -
"That's nice."

But I shall endeavour to grin and bear it.
Hopeless as the situation is.
I feel that the man has serious psychological and
mental problems.