The Australian political scene is negative and toxic. I usually keep my political comments to myself as everyone has an opinion and some can be very forceful in proving their point.
But 2 issues have really pissed me off ( well possibly 3)
- Barnaby Joyce – personally I don’t really care if he cheated/did not cheat on his wife. The news cycle provided a number of other issues around this. They remain unanswered.
What was the cost for the by-election? How can an incumbent MP, be able to stand again, when the reason for the by-election is they were ineligible the first time around. This is like lying on your resume, getting caught out and keeping the job. That’s not how it works in the real world.
Accommodation free from a Mate? Sound really helpful is a stressful time, but he happens to be a property developer. Is this a conflict? we don’t know. We will probably never know. But it doesn’t look right. Plus the guy earns $400K plus a year and could not afford to rent a 1 bedder in Armidale? His “trade” before becoming a MP, Accountant. They know how to manage money or at least should.
The employment of said girlfriend, 3 jobs in MP’s offices. Is this above board? Was this the best use of taxpayers money, or was it a jobs for mates? We will never know.
Use of Expenses, did he really need to spend 50 days in Canberra when parliament was not sitting. And that charter flight at a cost to taxpayers of reportedly over $3k. This seems to be excessive to me. Did you know the freedom of Information process won’t answer these questions. We are to take a MP’s word on it was for “business” a FOI request can take up to 6 months to be complied with and it can be redacted, (Its a cool word http://www.dictionary.com/browse/redacted) so they can blank out anything incriminating. I wonder if any MP would charter a flight if they had to pay for it out of their income.
- Michaelia Cash and the Union Raid Tip off, something stinks here, but again we will never know. Staff have been moved, data apparently lost and she just rants. The public, (wake up MP’s we pay your wages) don’t like being treated as fools. “public interest immunity” is the verbal version of redacting. I don’t have to tell as it might embarrass me or the government. Stack the committee so the government wins any challenge. Who can forget the RANT. Here if you missed it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PofU79Z1qAs
- Don’t get me started on the Same Sex Debacle.
To all MP’s, we expect better behaviour from our elected officials. We expect that what is in the best interest of their constituents is how our MP’s should vote. Not part lines, not what the PM says. What do the people who elected you want? it would be very interesting to compare how the electorates votes on the SSM Vote and how the MP’s in those seats voted. I doubt that the data would be available to me the average Joe Public.