[Peetwo]

M&M's Merry Xmas MP slush fund - 


 Reference from QOTM thread:

A call to outlaw the political trough!

I wasn't sure where to post this but just had to put it somewhere. Below is an email doing the rounds. It is worded perfectly and it also perfectly sums up what the general populous is sick and tired of;

"The Pension Assets Test to be implemented on 1 January 2017".
So here's fair warning to all politicians of any persuasion, this group of aged voters may be about to make the greatest impact on any Federal election in history, ignoring them may be the start of a changed political environment in this country.

Change the Entitlements I absolutely agree, if a pension isn't an entitlement, neither is theirs. They keep telling us that paying us an aged pension isn't sustainable.

Paying politicians all the perks they get is even less sustainable!

The politicians themselves, in Canberra, brought it up, that the Age of Entitlements is over: The author is asking each addressee to forward this email to a minimum of twenty people on their address list; in turn ask each of those to do likewise.

In three days, most people in Australia will have this message. This is one idea that really should be passed around because the rot has to stop somewhere.

Proposals to make politicians shoulder their share of the weight now that the Age of Entitlement is over:

1. Scrap political pensions. Politicians can purchase their own retirement plan, just as most other working Australians are expected to do.

2. Retired politicians (past, present & future) participate in Centrelink. A Politician collects a substantial salary while in office but should receive no salary when they're out of office. Terminated politicians under 70 can go get a job or apply for Centrelink unemployment benefits like ordinary Australians. Terminated politicians under 70 can negotiate with Centrelink like the rest of the Australian people.

3. Funds already allocated to the Politicians' retirement fund be returned immediately to Consolidated Revenue. This money is to be used to pay down debt they created which they expect us and our grandchildren to repay for them.

4. Politicians will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Politicians pay will rise by the lower of, either the CPI or 3%.

5. Politicians lose their privileged health care system and participate in the same health care system as ordinary Australian people. i.e. Politicians either pay for private cover from their own funds or accept ordinary Medicare.

6. Politicians must equally abide by all laws they impose on the Australian people.

7. All contracts with past and present Politicians men/women are void effective 31/12/16. The Australian people did not agree to provide perks to Politicians, that burden was thrust upon them. Politicians devised all these contracts to benefit themselves. Serving in Parliament is an honour not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so our politicians should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work.

If each person contacts a minimum of twenty people, then it will only take three or so days for most Australians to receive the message.

Don't you think it's time? THIS IS HOW YOU FIX Parliament and help bring fairness back into this country!

Gobbledock footnote;

And may I humbly add; as a member of this countries middle class (well, not much of a middle class left) who pay's for and supports all the bong smoking dole bludgers and single mum's with 6 kids under age 7 while also propping up big business and multi millionaires who pay less tax than a lowly second year bakery apprentice, can we also make political bottom dwelling parasites pay there share of the burden?

Thanks and kind regards

Gobbles

Speaking of trough funds etc., I note in the Oz today that M&M and his minions are playing the part of Santa and his elves in Parliament House... :

Great $45m politician giveaway for croquet lawns and iPads

• Sarah Martin
  
• The Australian
  
• 12:00AM December 30, 2016
  

[img=0x0]http://pixel.tcog.cp1.news.com.au/track/component/author/da2273317fa2a9ba3bc44771d68a2766/?esi=true&t_product=the-australian&t_template=s3/austemp-article_common/vertical/author/widget&td_bio=false[/img]
New croquet lawns, a Finnish sauna and dozens of lawnmowers, barbecues and iPads are among the thousands of projects to ­receive federal grants under a $45 million slush fund used by MPs for hand-picked community projects.

The Stronger Communities program, announced in last year’s federal budget as an infrastructure initiative, was a two-year scheme that gave every MP $150,000 a year to spend on “small capital projects” in their electorates.

Details of the program ­obtained by The Australian from the Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development show that the grant scheme has been used for blatant pork-barrelling, with about 400 grants spent on items less than $5000, and millions of dollars spent to shore up the support of ethnic and religious groups in the lead-up to this year’s federal election.

The grant program faces an uncertain future, with the ­Coalition understood to be divided over whether it will receive ongoing funding in next year’s budget, with some MPs concerned about the ethics of the program.

Because the government held 90 of the House of Representative’s 150 seats before the election, Coalition MPs had $13.5m a year to splash on community projects, compared with $8.25m for Labor-held seats. In one example, Scott Morrison used some of the $150,000 available in his Cook electorate each year to give the Catholic Church $20,000 towards repainting in St Finbar’s parish in Sans Souci, which included the priest’s house and the religious and Catholic ­parishioners community house. The grant awarded in October was paid to the trustees of the Roman Catholic Church for the Archdiocese of Sydney.

[img=526x366]http://cdn.thinglink.me/api/image/871003138872573954/1024/10/scaletowidth#tl-871003138872573954;1043138249'[/img]

The Xinjiang Chinese Association in Noble Park in Victoria, in Labor frontbencher Mark Dreyfus’s seat of Isaacs, received about $10,000 to buy 24 iPads and cooking utensils for use by its members. Presenting the grant in March, Mr Dreyfus said he was sure the “iPads and cooking utensils will be of great benefit to members of the association” and he had worked with a community advisory committee to identify “the best investment in our community”.

Another $5172 grant was given to the Chinese Xinjiang Senior Citizens Association in Endeavour Hills in Melbourne to buy 12 iPads and two computers to “assist senior citizens to obtain basic computer skills”.

The NSW, Victorian and Queensland branches of the Vietnamese Community in Australia each received grants, with $18,700 going to the Labor-held Queensland marginal seat of Oxley for a new community building that included an office, library, meeting room, training room, kitchen and carport.

While ethnic groups were well represented among grant recipients, sporting clubs, local councils, RSL and Rotary clubs were also favoured by MPs to receive the grants. More than 50 taxpayer grants bought new barbecues, about 20 paid for new lawnmowers for various community groups, and countless grants went to sporting clubs for equipment and facility upgrades, including to about a dozen croquet clubs.

In Wallsend, in the electorate of Newcastle held by Labor’s ­Sharon Claydon, taxpayers spent $7000 on mosaic artwork on planter pots, and paid to “fill the pots with flora”.
Ceiling fans were also a popular item among projects, with about $70,000 spent on fans, including $5000 to replace one at the Lions Club in Logan, south of Brisbane.

In Andrew Leigh’s Canberra seat of Fenner, $5000 was allocated for the Canberra Quaker Meeting House in Turner for it to install 16 solar panels.

While not known as a powerful voting bloc, the Finnish Society of Melbourne received $15,000 from Labor’s Tim Watts to build a community sauna in Altona, in the seat of Gellibrand.

Among Malcolm Turnbull’s hand-picked projects were $30,000 across two grants to the Jewish House in Bondi for security upgrades and for an electrical upgrade to its crisis care centre.

Grants in Bill Shorten’s electorate of Maribyrnong in Melbourne included $19,627 for a “rowing eight shell” for the Essendon Rowing Club and $10,000 for the Essendon Maribyrnong Park Ladies Cricket Club for new furniture, kitchen equipment and to “frame old photos”. He also gave the Vietnamese community $15,000 for a minibus.
Tony Abbott’s projects included a grant of $6750 for 200 new chairs for the Mosman Art Gallery in Sydney and about $5000 for St John Ambulance in Manly Vale to buy training mannequins.

The grant program is seen as a legacy program of Mr Abbott and his chief of staff Peta Credlin. Some believe it is unethical and inappropriate for MPs to have access to funds that they can spend at their own discretion.

Previous regional grants programs have come under attack for being partisan, including the Howard government’s Regional Partnership Program which ­became known as the “regional rorts” scheme, and which was criticised by a federal audit.

A spokesman for Regional Development Minister Fiona Nash said the Stronger Communities program was introduced after the 2013 election, and was “well under way” before she was appointed as minister in February.

“The SCP has invested in thousands of worthwhile projects applied for by small community groups and organisations which would often not have received funding another way,” the spokesman said.

The Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development said the grant program was “put through a stringent assessment process, including community consultation”.

According to the program’s guidelines, a federal MP had to ­establish a “community consultation committee” or identify an existing committee to help it identify projects that could be ­eligible for a grant.

The MP then invited the ­applicant to submit a grant application to the MP who then recommended it to the department for assessment.

Speaking of aviation & pollywaffle entitlements, also from NewsCorp 2 days ago:-

Empty VIP jets cost Australian taxpayers $600k
[img=0x0]http://pixel.tcog.cp1.news.com.au/track/component/article/638317ad6bace8fe183cbb3c3cb9143d?esi=true&t_template=s3/chronicle-tg_tlc_storyheader/index&t_product=HeraldSun&td_device=desktop[/img]ROB HARRIS, National politics reporter, Herald Sun
December 28, 2016 8:43pm
premium_iconSubscriber only
[img=0x0]http://pixel.tcog.cp1.news.com.au/track/component/article/638317ad6bace8fe183cbb3c3cb9143d?esi=true&t_template=s3/chronicle-tg_tlc_storymeta/index&t_product=HeraldSun&td_device=desktop[/img]

• Politician travel expenses list reveals thousands of dollars racked up on domestic flights
  
• Bob Katter biggest buyer of Aussie flags of all federal politicians
  TAXPAYERS picked up a bill of more than $600,000 for empty VIP jets to crisscross the nation in just one six-month period.

The Herald Sun can reveal RAAF jets chartered to pick up and drop off federal politicians flew without passengers on 107 occasions at a cost of $610,571 from July to December last year.

The publicly funded RAAF nine-seater Challenger Jet racked up the bulk of the bill when Perth-based ministers and MPs chose to fly from Perth to Canberra instead of taking commercial flights.

The “ghost flight’’ trips cost up to $18,000 just to fly to Perth without passengers. But wage costs for the RAAF crew push the total cost higher.

The latest figures include two passengerless flights made to pick up and drop off Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and her partner, David Panton, in October last year.
An empty plane flew from Canberra to Perth on September 20 at a cost of $17,996, to bring back Finance Minister Mathias Cormann, Employment Minister Michaelia Cash, Justice Minister Michael Keenan and Social Service Minister Porter to be sworn into Malcolm Turnbull’s first Cabinet.

media_cameraJulie Bishop and partner David Panton. Picture: Ray Strange
In November last year a jet again flew empty across the Nullarbor — costing $16,740 — to collect Senator Cormann and other MPs including Andrew Hastie, Senator Chris

Back, Steve Irons and Senator Linda Reynolds for a sitting week when commercial flights were available.

On flights, MPs and staffers are offered wine, craft beers, gourmet hot meals and heated hand towels by crew.

Former treasurer Joe Hockey — who infamously declared the age of entitlement as over — flew to Melbourne with advisers for a PricewaterhouseCoopers forum in July 2015, sending the plane back empty to Canberra at a cost of $2,930.

The RAAF operates five “special purpose aircraft” from the Fairbairn air base in Canberra. The taxpayer-funded jet service is usually only used when a commercial airline seat is not a viable option, but the Defence Minister can authorise travel.

COSTLY TRAVEL

October 17, 2015
Canberra to Perth ($18,414) to collect Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop and partner David Panton (below)

October 24, 2015
Perth to Canberra ($15,066) after dropping Ms Bishop home

July 9, 2015
Mackay to Canberra ($9626) after taking Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce, wife Natalie and media adviser to a portfolio announcement

July 14, 2015
Melbourne to Canberra ($2930) returning after flying Treasurer Joe Hockey and to a PwC forum on 15 July

August 23, 2015
Horn Island to Canberra ($15,903) returning to base after dropping then PM Tony Abbott for a week-long visit to the Torres Strait

September 20, 2015
Canberra to Perth ($17,996) to collect government frontbenchers to be sworn in the following day

September 25, 2015
Canberra to Longreach ($8789) after dropping then deputy PM Warren Truss so he could charter a flight to Karratha

November 6, 2015
Gold Coast to Canberra ($5859) dropping Steve Ciobo off in Canberra

P2 comment - I'd be the first to defend this Can'tberra pollywaffle charter aircraft repositioning/ghost flight extravaganza, if the 600K had of been spent on local bizjet charter businesses instead...  

MTF...P2