Should taxpayers foot the bill for politicians attending the AFL or NRL Grand Finals?

aussienews (53)in #news • 7 years ago

Should the taxpayer really be expected to foot the bill for politicians to attend the Grand Final?

Is it official business and should the taxpayer be footing the bill?

Commonly politicians submit to the 'pub test' to see whether something seems legitimate but it seems as if something is on the nose when it comes to Federal MPs entitlements.

“Each year, there are a few predictable weekends when our federal parliamentarians seem to find themselves in Melbourne for official duties.

Coincidentally, they are the same weekends as the AFL grand final, the Melbourne Cup and the finals of the Australian Open. Even the AFL has started cracking jokes about how common it is to see politicians in corporate boxes.

"I read with interest earlier this week that [Foreign Minister] Julie Bishop did not arrange her travel with the purpose of attending an AFL match," North Melbourne chairman Ben Buckley quipped to the AFL's grand final breakfast. "Coincidentally, at 5:30pm, there's an emergency meeting of the Federal Cabinet International Relations Committee in the Yarra Room at the MCG."

Ms Bishop gave the crowd the thumbs up as they howled with laughter.”

So does this pass the pub test? Decidedly not!

Attending the AFL Grand Final has NOTHING whatsoever to do with the Foreign Minister's portfolio, the so-called emergency meeting of the Federal International Relations Committee is a ruse.

Politicians are living the high life on the public purse and this rorting of the system must stop.

A review into Parliamentary entitlements, which was instigated by former prime minister Tony Abbott but has not been acted on, found that politicians were "undermining public confidence" and called for travel arrangements among other things to present value for money.

Use the interactive chart to look at MPs entitlements here .

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