"Paul, such lack of wit, your repartee is truly dull..."

Sorry, I missed this.

The sheer irony of Shadow Minister accusing someone else of a "lack of wit" is mind-bending!

I've been coming to this forum for around 5 years and I have yet to read one post from SM that contains even a skerrick of wit.....right-wingers seem to have been born without a wit gene - which in Shadow's case, renders him "witless" with only kiddie names as ammo.

Sad really....

otb,

Again with the attacks and insults.

Here are some of your own words - you hypocrite ...

You are (again) attacking the messenger. What I might think or
believe is not relevant. You are obviously committed
to one jaundiced and unreal view. However there are others including the ones that I have given in the past as examples as well as this
one:

http://www.afr.com/news/taxpayers-foot-bill-on-41-politicians-homes-in-canberra-201506`15-ghow7s

Give it a rest.

Good try, otb:

"Again, here is the evidence that Labor and their treacherous sidekicks, the Greens are directly to blame for the current sorry mess and guess what, NONE of them are resigning. So much for any interest in principle, ethics or accountability from the Left, the self-styled 'Progressives' aka the self-titled "Wolves in Sheep's Clothing"."

Here's some Coalition pollies doing their bit snouting for charity:

http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/jul/02/mps-claim-almost-10000-in-travel-expenses-for-pollie-pedal-fundraiser?CMP=share_btn_tw

"The prime minister and some other Coalition politicians participating in the 2014 pollie pedal charity bike ride claimed almost $10,000 in flight and travel expenses around the event.

While Tony Abbott wasn’t involved in the entire trip, he claimed $1,116 in travel allowances for two nights of accommodation towards the end of the ride in Mudgee and Leura.

The then social services minister Kevin Andrews and the member for the electorate of Parkes – where most of the Pollie Pedal took place – Mark Coulton claimed $4,603 between them for the duration of the ride.

Andrews also claimed flights to and from Sydney at the start and end of the ride, and Andrews’ wife also flew in to Sydney at taxpayer expense at the beginning and end of the ride."

"Other politicians joined the bike ride but did not make any claims for travel expenses, including Luke Hartsuyker, David Gillespie and Barnaby Joyce."

Oh and...

"PRIME Minister Tony Abbott says politicians should consider whether their travel claims would be acceptable in a business as well as meeting community expectations.

HIS comments come as News Corp reports that Treasurer Joe Hockey charged taxpayers $14,000 to fly his family to Perth on business class flights during school holidays."

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/latest-news/mps-jet-back-in-as-expenses-row-continues/story-fn3dxiwe-1227475971245

"Greens Leader Richard Di Natale said he was concerned the Labor and Liberal parties would work together to hose down reform of the entitlements system.

"Nothing brings them closer together than protecting their own perks," he told ABC's Insiders program on Sunday.

He said he had flown his family to visit him in Canberra on several occasions, although never business class."

Parrot,

I see you are unable to give a single example of any achievement under the previous labor government, and I guess that racking up record debts year after year is nothing to be proud of. And yes, Labor certainly has to carry a fair amount of blame if its sole objective in the senate is to block all saving measures.

I see you have also ignored Tony Perks first class Junkets overseas with his mistress at taxpayers' expense.

Had the Labor governments of Rudd or Gillard (+treacherous Greens sidekicks) ever done the right thing on receipt of the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) report into politicians' entitlements the federal Parliament would not have suffered the loss of credibility and trust that is now apparent.

They could have claimed to have done something positive for the taxpayer too.

What prevented the Rudd and Gillard governments from considering the ANAO report? What about the 'fact-checking' ABC that never confronted Labor and their Greens sidekicks with the ANAO report into the administration of Parliamentarians' Entitlements?

The ANAO report was tabled in the House of Representatives and Senate, 8 September 2009.

Bill Shorten and some of his senior colleagues, including some past and present who are alleged abuses of the entitlements, served in the Rudd and Gillard governments.

Now all pollies have to do is set a very high bar for comparison of their entitlements (to improve what they already abuse) and give that to the Remuneration Commission to legitimise the package and increases as the 'independent umpire'.

Hey, that strategy worked for pollies' pays, where Ms Gillard ended getting more $$ than US President Barack Obama and the UK PM.

Even before Kevin707 and Ms Julia Galah'd (Barack Obama got that right!) it was often remarked how odd it was that regardless of their (financial) starting point, Oz Labor PMs always retired as millionaires. Yes, the other side probably do too, but it is always Labor and the 'Progressives' who are claiming the high moral platform.

That assumed higher moral platform never included taking that report from the government's own auditor, the ANAO, into account though. Odd, again.

"You've got the foxes guarding the hen house and that's never a good way to make public policy" [Bill Allison]

-Certainly not where their entitlements are concerned.

SM,

"I see you are unable to give a single example of any achievement under the previous labor government..."

oh sorry...I forgot to include the 3 x AAA rating, the lack of a post GFC recession and one of the lowest debt percentages to GDP of the developed countries - an absolutely dreadful record!

http://www.abc.net.au/news/linkableblob/3727694/data/possum-graph-8-government-debt-as-gdp-data.jpg

Look at all those European countries who opted for austerity! - that's where we would have been under Joe Hockey and the Coalition.

Perhaps Labor blocked all this govt's sadistic cuts, because they were aimed at the poorest - nasty vindictive govts do that.

And Abbott's govt has bent over backwards to avoid targeting the snouting rich in society.

"Parrot" - there's that scintillating kiddie name wit once again - Stop it! - we're blinded by the brilliance!