[Peetwo]

Oh boys, c'mon now, firstly don't forget that Politicians have the word 'honourable' in front of their title and name, so it can't be true. Secondly, envelopes filled with cash and free hand cranks at the local 'rub n tug' is so 1980's! Today's more savvy crooked Pollie prefers a directors role with a favoured company once he leaves office, or a plum consultant role worth a cool Million bucks for a few months work, or a house extension on their Potts Point mansion, jobs for families and friends, insider trading knowledge, or a directors role with a construction and development company that has inherited some airport land dirt cheap, or similar tasty trough morsels, that's the way it is done today! Not envelopes filled with cash you silly boys.

Today's crooked Pollie isn't a dribbling sloth or grubby buffoon like Russ Hinze or a stuttering retarded peanut farmer from Kingaroy, no today's crooked Pollie has silver hair, wears Armani suits and speaks articulately while holding an MBA or PHD.

Aagh yes, times have changed, but the greed and corruption remains. Same gift, just wrapped in a different parcel.

"Overflowing troughs for some"

Perfect example here Gobbles (check out the bits in bold)

Wendy Craik appointed Climate Change Authority chair

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Wendy Craik

Former National Farmers Federation head Wendy Craik has been named chair of the Climate Change Authority board, following the resignation of Bernie Fraser last month.
The federal government has appointed four others, including Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry CEO Kate Carnell, Howard government transport minister John Sharp and Frontier Economics energy expert Danny Price and BidEnergy chief executive Stuart Allinson.

Quorum has been restored to the board, which was lost after the departure of Fraser and the failure of the government to replace other members who had left over the previous 18 months.

Craik was commissioner of the Productivity Commission from 2009 to 2014, and is currently deputy chancellor for the University of South Australia, chair of the NSW Marine Estate Management Authority and a member of the advisory board for the Centre for Strategy and Governance.

Allinson will sit as acting chair until Craik assumes the role, expected in the next few weeks. Allinson and Price were involved in the creation of the government’s Direct Action policy.

The decision was made under the prime ministership of Tony Abbott and adopted by Malcolm Turnbull after a cabinet discussion, reports The Australian newspaper.

Relations between the CCA under Fraser and the Abbott government were uneasy. The government had promised to abolish the CCA until it reached a deal with the Palmer United Party in October last year to save the organisation by funding an 18-month inquiry into whether Australia should have an emissions trading scheme, despite the government remaining opposed to carbon pricing. This work is to continue.

The CCA is charged with undertaking reviews and making recommendations to government on emissions reduction targets and other climate change-related policy areas.

Perhaps the Sharpie appointment may come home to bite 'Malcolm in the middle'? Or maybe not when you consider that the former Howard Miniscule for Transport apparently plays on both sides of the political fence...

While we are on AK from the Oz and on a somewhat related topic - remember this?

Rex airline freebies ‘so MPs better informed’  

• by: ANTHONY KLAN
  
• From: The Australian
  
• February 25, 2015 12:00AM
  

Journalist
Sydney


REGIONAL airline Rex yesterday claimed to have given federal ALP and National Party politicians hundreds of free flights — worth more than $130,000 — in a bid to explain why it made $385,000 in disclosed political ­donations in 2012.  

Convening the listed airline’s half-year results yesterday, Rex deputy chairman John Sharp said that the donated flights were for ­“politicians to get out into regional Australia” in order to be “better ­informed”.

“We made these donations ­because we felt the elections were coming in 2013 and we felt it was very important that the federal leaders get out to the bush and ­explain themselves to the bush,” Mr Sharp said.

Separately, Mr Sharp is the ­federal treasurer of the National Party and was a federal transport minister under John Howard before resigning in 1997 after a travel rorts affair, which saw fellow ­ministers David Jull and Peter ­McGauran also forced to resign.

Political donations made by Rex have raised questions after it emerged the relatively small listed company declared $385,700 in political donations in 2012, making it one of the nation’s biggest ­donors that year.

The declared donations inclu­ded gifts of $250,000 to the federal ALP, $95,700 to the federal National Party and $40,000 to the federal Liberal Party.

(The only other political donations the company had ever made was $3486 to the ALP in the year to June 2004.)

Rex reported an after-tax profit of $14.01m for the 2012-13 financial year, and paid no dividends to shareholders. At the time Rex was making those 2012 donations — between July and November — the company was subject to an ­investigation by the ATSB into the 2009 crash of an aircraft operated under its Pel-Air brand off Norfolk Island.

That investigation attracted controversy after it emerged, in August 2012, that the ATSB report had failed to mention 57 breaches or “serious deficiencies” at Pel-Air, which had been identified in a ­separate report by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority.

That revelation sparked a parli­amentary inquiry that reported in December, leading the federal government to call on the ATSB to launch a new probe into the ­accident.

Mr Sharp and Rex chief executive Lim Kim Hai both strenuously denied the donations had been made with the view to seek influence in any way.

“We had no dealings other than proper dealings,” Mr Sharp said.

Mr Sharp said the second draft of the ATSB report into the Norfolk Island crash had been submitted in the first half of 2012, before Rex had made the donations.

When asked why Rex had made the donations, Mr Lim said: “It’s a big country, Australia, and there are a lot of Labor politicians.

“Many didn’t understand the issues that were happening in the industry.”

However, the ultimate recipients of the flights remained unclear, with ALP national secretary George Wright yesterday telling The Australian the flights had been used by party campaigners.

“It’s a contribution to the federal office of the ALP and used for campaigning,” Mr Wright said.

“It is not a contribution to MPs.”

Under parliamentary disclosure rules, MPs must disclose any travel or hospitality received where the value exceeds $300.

Rex has repeatedly declined to comment when asked by The Australian why the donations were made.

Independent senator Nick Xenophon — who was part of a Senate inquiry into the Pel-Air crash — has previously described the Rex donations as “incredibly baffling”.

Mr Sharp said yesterday that the donations had been in-kind to the political parties in the form of free flights.

Mr Li said the ALP had used about $40,000 of the $250,000 in free flights offered, which was “about 100” flights.

Mr Sharp said he believed that the federal National Party had redeemed the full $95,700 worth of flights offered, while the federal Liberal Party had not used any of the $40,000 worth of flights it was offered.

Mr Li said Rex flights typically were about 55 per cent full, which meant the cost to shareholders of the donations was minimal.

Rex shares closed down 10 per cent yesterday at 98c.

Do you know more? klana@theaustralian.com.au

Ahh what a murky mess Bronny's Choppergate scandal may have lifted the lid on.
Take a look at this story on Minister Truss from the Daily Telegraph yesterday... :

Warren Truss private charter will cost taxpayers thousands  

• by: EXCLUSIVE Geoff Chambers and Daniel Meers
  
• From: The Daily Telegraph
  
• August 03, 2015 12:00AM
  

Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss boards a private charter plane at Port Macquarie airport/ Picture: Nathan Edwards Source: News Corp Australia

TAXPAYERS will be slugged thousands of dollars for a private charter flight Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss took after a sod-turning ceremony last week as NSW MPs at the same event boarded a commercial flight.  

The Daily Telegraph can reveal Mr Truss took the private plane from Port Macquarie to Sydney while other politicians flew with Qantas.

Mr Truss, accompanied by an adviser, boarded a Beechcraft Super King Air 200 last Thursday afternoon at the peak of the charter flight scandal that triggered Bronwyn Bishop’s resignation.

The MP had been one of Mrs Bishop’s strongest supporters, describing some critics’ views as “exaggerated”.

“There are some who would take the view that if a member took a bus he was wasting money and should be walking,” he said last week.

Mr Truss was driven to a special charter plane entrance at Port Macquarie airport by local federal MP David Gillespie. Shortly after he left on the charter plane, Baird government ministers Duncan Gay and Niall Blair were seen boarding a Qantas flight.

BRONWYN BISHOP RESIGNS AS SPEAKER

The Daily Telegraph understands there were no delays on Qantas flights leaving Port Macquarie on Thursday.

Mr Truss had travelled to the state’s mid-north coast — a 385km trip — despite responsibilities as Transport Minister overseeing the MH370 search.

A spokesman for Mr Truss said the Nationals leader “had a series of commitments in the Port Macquarie area”.

“The Hastings River Bridge event was a joint announcement with the NSW government and so its timing needed to be co-ordinated with Mr Gay who also had other engagements on the day,” he said.



Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss boards a private charter plane at Port Macquarie airport / Picture: Nathan Edwards Source: News Corp Australia

“The Deputy PM had an evening commitment at the Boao Forum for Asia in Sydney. This would have been extremely tight for his Boao commitment and the high risk that the Hastings River media conference would go overtime given the high level of interest on that day surrounding both the bridge event and debris found on Reunion Island.

“Accordingly, the DPM’s office booked a charter for the ­return flight.”

The Wide Bay MP has been attacked by Queensland media for using a $21,000 charter flight from Canberra and ­Brisbane to give a post-budget speech at the Conservative Breakfast Club last May.

Sydney-based charter operators can charge up to $3500 per flight hour to hire the propeller planes.

Like the Speaker’s office, Mr Truss is entitled to use charter travel under current parliamentary provisions.

MTF...P2