The ridiculous “Choppergate 1” seen the pompous Bronwyn Bishop resign after blowing $5000 of taxpayer’s money on a quick helicopter flight to Geelong Victoria population 235,000. Now it’s the turn of the National’s Barnaby Joyce to stick his snout into the taxpayer’s trough and blow $4,000 on a quick helicopter flight to the sleepy little New South Wales village of Drake, population about 400. What was so pressing that Joyce had to blow $4,000 on a helicopter ride to nowhere, Joyce had to open the new villages phone tower! At least it was not opening a new water tank or some such rot, it was a phone tower, not much happens in Drake these days it would seem, except Barney blows in now and then to say G'day and vote for me. Despite new guide lines being put in place after Bishop’s little escapade, Joyce does the very same thing!
Bishop flight only cost about 2 cents per resident visited, Barney's flight cost us taxpayers 10 bucks for each person in the little village of Drake, all 400 of them.
Should Barnaby Joyce resign over this, I say yes. Bad for the goose, bad for the gander

However the Greens don't think there is anything wrong where one of their own spends a huge wad of taxpayers' dollars on an already pristine executive office in a niche, expensive 'burb, when there were plenty of far cheaper offices only hundreds of metres away.

"Queensland Greens Senator Larissa Waters spent $414,000 on fitout for Paddington office

GREENS Senator Larissa Waters spent a whopping $414,000 to fit out her trendy Paddington office – more than any of her Queensland political colleagues at the time.

The office, on the top floor of a pristine-condition, split-level building on Given Tce, includes a rooftop patio with timber outdoor furniture and artificial turf."
http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/queensland-greens-senator-larissa-waters-spent-414000-on-fitout-for-paddington-office/story-fnihsrf2-1226889449998

Got to be with the Trendies, the Hipsters who are the elite running the Greens.

It's been explained several times in the media. Nothing like Bishop. Joyce was on official business in his electorate. It would have taken him 9 hours driving to and from Drake. There is no airstrip there,so he took a helicopter. Do you really expect the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for agriculture to drive for 9 hours to inspect a bridge the locals want repaired, visit a school and open a telecommunications tower? The whole thing was a beat up given to the media by a left/Green artist and the media fell for it without checking, as usual. Good try, but it's a load of rubbish.

What's happening on the main spot? Yesterday's articles are still there.

The greens become more disgusting & irrelevant by the day.

otb,

"However the Greens don't think there is anything wrong where one of their own spends a huge wad of taxpayers' dollars on an already pristine executive office in a niche, expensive 'burb, when there were plenty of far cheaper offices only hundreds of metres away."

Lol!...is that still the only thing you've got?

How sad....

Notwithstanding that the Dept of Finance is responsible for outfitting and the spend, the Greens and Labor could never hope to match the Coalition for their ability to spend taxpayer's dollars willy-nilly.

Why not give The Onion Eater a helicopter trip. And when it's about a kilometre high throw him out the door. I'll chip in a few bucks to pay for the trip.

ttbn,

I missed the reports in the media, so I googled it and found http://www.thechronicle.com.au/news/barnaby-bishops-8000-flights-to-drake/2989765/

It turns out that's his second helicopter trip to Drake, even though Drake is just 44km from one of his Tenterfield electoral office.

"Do you really expect the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for agriculture to drive for 9 hours to inspect a bridge the locals want repaired, visit a school and open a telecommunications tower?"
Of course not. But Drake is a 2 hour drive from Ballina and less than 3 from Armidale (where he got the helicopter from) so I don't know where you got your 9 hour figure from. And it's not just a media beatup: the opinion that it's a waste of taxpayers' money is shared by many of his constituents.

[Having reread the report I see that 9 hours could be the time taken to drive to and from Tamworth. But then why would he spend so little time in the northern part of his electorate?]

It's looking like the only winner from this will be Tony Windsor. Barnaby will not resign, but he's increasingly likely to lose his seat.

________________________________________________________________________________

onthebeach (and Hasbeen),

This has got nothing to do with the Greens, and ranting on about a two year old report in the Murdoch Press about a Greens senator having the SECOND highest office setup expenses in an unspecified period is a shameful attempt to deflect blame!

If office fitout expenses are an issue of concern, don't vote for the Greens and don't vote for the Liberals (as Anne Ruston claimed a higher amount than Larissa Waters did). I suggest you vote for the X-Men, as Nick Xenophon is the one who's most serious about keeping expenses low.

Aidan,

The only problem with his second electorate office being 44kms away is that he was NOT at that office, he was at HOME. I don't know where his home is, but I am assuming that it is 9 hours return drive from Drake. The money for the helicopter came out of his electorate allowance, which would be commensurate with his large electorate. I'll say to you what I said to Paul: good try, but it's rubbish. I hold no torch for Barnaby; don't know the man, don't want to. But,he has done nothing wrong. Bisop's escapade with a helicopter was a gross mis-use of our money; Barnaby's ride was not. He is perfectly entitled to service his electorate using his electorate allowance to do so.

You can always rely on Paul for a fatuous beat up.

What about SHY's $1000 000 of trips and Junkets? What about Juliar's $144 000 private jet trip to an ALP fund raiser? Not a word. But Joyce's $4000 hiring of aircraft to visit his far flung electorate? Shock Horror.

But the greens are unlikely to understand this, as their inner city electorates can be traversed by walking in a day. No wonder these out of touch morons are so roundly rejected in the country.

ttbn,

I'm not suggesting impropriety; merely inefficiency. Because his electorate is so big, he has a northern office in Tenterfield. But rather than combine his few minutes in Drake with a visit there, he flies up from Tamworth by helicopter. And this is the second time he's done it!

What Browyn did was pathetic. What Hanson Young did in accompanying likely rapist to Greece more than likely on tax payer money defies belief.

So the Greens/Labor had a little win catching silly old Bronwyn's inflated idea of her value.

However I have to wonder how many taxpayer dollars were wasted in wages with Greens parliamentary assistants trolling through anything they could find to try to score another coo. Bet it was a hell of a lot more than the cost of Barnaby's chopper ride.

Totally disgusting bunch, who couldn't lie straight in bed.

Aidan,

I'm glad that we are not talking about impropriety, as was the case with Ms. Bishop, but I am surprised that you, a person who often expounds huge government borrowing and spending is concerned about efficiency in this case. I suppose he could have arranged his diary so that he only visited certain parts of his electorate only when he is within spitting distance of them, but we don't know why he did it the way he did; you are entitled to email or write to him.

I didn't know that he had heliciptored to Drake before, but I accept your word that he did. I wonder why we didn't hear about that instance. Perhaps Ms. Eco Green-Blabbermouth didn't live there at the time, and the other 130 villagers and the 270 in the surrounding district didn't mind, but were only too happy see there representative, no matter how he arrived. Unlike Barnaby, I don't think Ms. Green-Blabbermouth will wear well in a very small country community. There's even talk of gold mining being resurrected in Drake. That should have her peddling the old radio.