otb,

"It is also a fact that only Tony Abbott has taken the initiative to do anything about reviewing the politicians' entitlements.."

Well double Lol!...I wonder what dragged him to that conclusion?

Maybe something to do with the withering humiliation that his chosen Speaker was lambasted up and down the country for abusing her expenses entitlements. Something that Abbot and his chosen one attempted to brush off.

A quick chat between Abbott and Credlin in the end - and Voila!...let's paint Tones as the reformer of entitlements.

No-one falls for that - except dyed-in-the-wool Coalition apologists.

Well, we have a new Speaker in the House of Reps.
Victorian - Tony Smith, MP. We can only hope that with
him we will now get a better Parliament.

As advised before but the facts are not convenient to some, it is an indisputable fact form the Parliamentary Hansard (both Representative and Senate) that the Labor governments of Rudd and Gillard (+treacherous Greens sidekicks) protected a system that had not only been advised to the Parliament and the Senate by the independent ANAO and the administering department as being an open gate to rorting, but there were topical instances of rorting being discussed in the Parliament and media.

However nothing was done, which leaves the inescapable conclusion that the wide open door was convenient to Labor and their treacherous sidekicks, the Greens. However Greens Leader Bob Brown and the Greens polishing the Senate seats were always up for endless motions on gay issues. Coincidentally Bob Brown and other Greens directly benefited out of that, and they preserved that other interest, the wide open door to politicians' entitlements.

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.

It is also an indisputable fact that only Tony Abbott has taken the initiative to do anything about reviewing the politicians' entitlements.

Labor could have and so could have the Greens, but neither did. Why not?

However both Labor and the Greens have unlimited time for their gay marriage obsession. That is before 'Struggle Streets' too. That shows where Labor and the Greens place their priority.

Lol!, otb.

What you fail to take into account is that if you keep on posting the same old boring and "lengthy" tripe over and over again - that fellow posters will decide "it's the same old tripe over and over again" - and they will skip to more interesting posts.

But carry on.....

Parrot,

Watching Aus Agenda yesterday, Chris Bowen was defending Tony Perk saying that although Burke's expenditure did not meet community expectations, it fell within the requirement set for the ministerial entitlements, whereas BB's didn't. Paul Kelly replied, and said that that there had not yet been ruling to that effect, and as the rules were very lax, what would Bowen do if the dept of finance declared that BB's use of the helicopter was within guidelines, which CB pretended he didn't hear. The reality is that while BB's helicopter is clearly not within community expectations, there has been no official statement that what she did was outside the guidelines. The dept of finance might yet come back with a positive ruling for BB, and then there will be severe pressure on Tony Perk to resign.

If you want to look at the legal side of the "apology" then simply all they apologised for was claiming that TB misused funds (ie. spent outside guidelines) they did not apologise for anything else. That TP used taxpayer's money to bring his mistress with him overseas first class while everyone else was in business class is not in dispute. That it stinks to high heaven does not make it outside the very wide guidelines any more than it does BB's expenses.

If there is no negative finding against BB, then I reckon that Tony Perk is a dead man walking.

SM,

" The dept of finance might yet come back with a positive ruling for BB..."

What a laugh from the sage Shadow Minister.

Travel solely to fundraisers explicitly stands outside expenses entitlements as the rules stand at present.

The dept of Finance knows that.

Tony knows it too.

That's the reason he admitted to cabinet colleagues that he staged a visit to a cancer hospital the morning after he attended a Lib fundraiser so as his claim for travel expenses to the event would be within entitlements.

"Parrot"..."Perk" - there's that shining wit again - I'm gonna buy me some sunglasses for this thread....the glare of brilliance is just too much!